News
Meaning through Service
We send warm wishes to our families who begin celebrating Diwali today. May your hearts and homes be filled with light and laughter. We will pause BUA classes on Wednesday to mark Veterans Day. To all of you receiving this message who have served our country or who have family members in the armed forces, thank you. I have been inspired by my conversations with BUA graduates who have served our country in this way – several of whom have spoken powerfully at all-school meetings over the years. In those talks, many of them describe the sense of purpose that comes from service. They talk about what we know from decades of research: meaning in our lives comes from our relationships to one another and from contributing to something bigger than ourselves. Our mission calls on students “to engage meaningfully in our community and beyond.” That engagement takes many forms, but we... More
Odyssey 2026
BUA is proud to share the fall 2026 edition of Odyssey: The Magazine of Boston University Academy. In this issue you will find: From Blank Slate to Living Laboratory: Building a Biology Curriculum from the Ground Up Putting the Counselor in College Counseling Peers in Every Meaningful Sense: BUA Students Shine in BU Classes Celebrating 30 Years of Jim Davis Young Alumni Spotlights Alumni Class Notes…and more! Look for a hard copy in your mailbox, or read the digital version here. Have feedback to share about the magazine? Drop us a line and let us know your thoughts.
What (and Why) I’m Reading
I’m several chapters into a new book by MIT professor Eric So titled The Collision: What AI Does to Us. I picked it up in part to learn more about a phenomenon I am increasingly thinking about: AI-induced cognitive atrophy. There is mounting evidence that offloading cognitive tasks to AI can make us less able to independently perform those tasks; the less we exercise mental muscles, the more likely we are to weaken or lose them. While troubling for adults, this is particularly problematic for young people who are still building their ability to think critically, synthesize information, see connections, develop judgment, write cogently, and even assess the output of an AI system. I also came across a recent article in The Wall Street Journal provocatively titled “The Brutal Harvard Class that Suddenly Everyone Wants to Take.” It profiles Harvard’s Humanities 10 course – an application-only class taught by a rotating... More
Mara Dryden-Peterson ’28 Named to MFA Teen Arts Council
Mara Dryden-Peterson '28 was named to the Museum of Fine Arts 2026-2027 Teen Arts Council. The Teen Arts Council (TAC) is the MFA’s "paid leadership development program offering Boston high school students the opportunity to engage with art, build workplace skills, learn about museum careers, and plan museum events for teens. As ambassadors of the Museum, Teen Arts Council members work to amplify teen perspectives throughout the MFA, design experiences for teens at the Museum, and promote MFA programs to youth audiences." As part of her work with the MFA Teens program, Mara serves on the STEAM Team, learning from museum employees about their jobs in STEAM fields. She also helps plan Teen MFA events and events for the larger Museum. This is her second year participating in the MFA Teens Program. Learn more about the program here.
A Special Challenge
I have been visiting classes recently, as I do throughout the year. I typically pop in for 15-minute class visits and then follow up with the teacher for a conversation. Those conversations let me offer kudos, think with the teacher about an area where they would like to grow, and hear more about what they are doing with their students. During one of these meetings, a math teacher told me this story. At the end of a recent class, he offered his students a special challenge: to work up a proof of the concept they had talked through in Calculus that day. He told me with pride that a student came back shortly thereafter with a proof she had done at home. Rather than reviewing it with her one-on-one, he created time during the next class for her to present her proof to her classmates, which she did beautifully. At... More
Creative Teaching of Foundational Skills
I visited two English classes early this week. The teacher in the ninth-grade class asked students to prepare for and stage a trial of Odysseus to determine whether he should be held responsible for the disaster with the cyclops Polyphemus. During opening statements, rebuttals, and cross examinations, students cited facts and textual evidence (from Book 9 and beyond) to make their cases. The tenth-grade teacher had asked her students to draw one of the pilgrims from the General Prologue to the The Canterbury Tales for homework. Students presented their depictions of their chosen characters and accompanying accessories to their classmates, supporting their choices with references to specific lines in the text. Both exercises were quite fun; there was good energy and more than a little laughter in the rooms. But they were also lessons – if unconventional ones – in close textual analysis. Students were asked, in the words of our... More
Lyahnnette Morales ’27 Represents MA in Miss America’s Teen Competition
Lyahnnette Morales '27 competed in the Miss America Teen competition in West Palm Beach, FL in September. Lyahnnette advanced to the national stage after being crowned Miss Massachusetts' Teen in June 2026 through Miss America Opportunity, the nation’s leading tuition-only scholarship organization for young women. She previously earned the title of Miss Boston's Teen 2026. More than a pageant, Miss America's Teen is an opportunity to showcase community service initiatives and earn lucrative educational scholarships. Lyahnnette reflects on her experience: "From August 29 through September 7, I had the honor of representing Massachusetts in West Palm Beach, Florida. On the very first day of my senior year at Boston University Academy, I was walking the Miss America’s Teen stage representing Massachusetts, a moment that reflected years of education, service, performance, leadership, and preparation. As a national and international performer, I understand the discipline required to prepare at a high level, perform under pressure, More
Without Being Asked
Thank you to all the families who joined us for Parents Day earlier this week. What joy to have so many parents attending classes with their children and getting an up-close look at life at BUA. I heard from quite a few parents about how taken they were by the care and passion of the teachers and the engagement of the students around the table. I also heard from more than one who said they wished that they could turn back the clock and attend themselves! The following morning, I was helping a colleague collect the extra chairs we had distributed to all the classrooms to accommodate our visitors. It was early – around 7:45 before most students had arrived for the day. As we made our way along the first-floor corridor, a new ninth grader who was doing homework at a table outside the athletics office noticed what we were... More
Putting Phones in their Place
At our opening meetings in August, BUA’s faculty and staff voted to adopt a smartphone policy designed to support our students and preserve the community we cherish. In broad strokes, 9th and 10th-graders are now asked to deposit smartphones in a cabinet by the front desk when they arrive at school in the morning. 11th and 12th graders are welcome to keep their smartphones with them in the BUA building, but to limit their use to the student common areas and to school-related purposes. We have now completed three weeks with the new system. And the impact has been dramatic. Class conversations are spilling into the hallways after the bell, with no text messages or social media posts competing for attention. Lunch tables buzz with conversation. Board games have proliferated in the Student Commons. These early results affirm what I heard from my listening sessions with students before the change: smartphones... More
Zachary Soong ’30 Earns Spot in Top 300 Junior Innovators
Zachary Soong '30 earned a spot in the Top 300 Junior Innovators in the Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge 2026. His project addressed the issue of sustainability in noise reduction. Zachary reflects: "I noticed that current solutions such as polyurethane acoustic foam are dangerous and environmentally unfriendly. I tested various natural materials, such as bamboo, moss, and a cornstarch-based foam. Through my experiment, I demonstrated that there are effective sustainable alternatives for soundproofing, which may apply to urban settings and classrooms."