News
BUA Students Curate Art Exhibition as part of Boston Lunar New Year Gala
On February 15, Boston City Hall hosted its 4th-annual Boston Lunar New Year Spring Gala. BUA juniors Dora Mou '27 and Cici Ye '27 were invited to curate an art exhibition within the gala, and put together a show entitled "Identity in Transformation" featuring artworks from 40 young artists, including several from BUA -- Dora Mou '27, Cici Ye '27, and Maya Chen '28 -- as well as from schools in Reading, Weston, and Brookline. The show was on display within and outside of Boston City Hall and showcased the diversity of Asian American arts and culture. Congratulations to Dora and Cici on this impressive undertaking!
BUA Ethics Bowl Team Wins MA Annual High School Bowl
This week, the BUA Ethics Bowl Team competed at -- and won! -- the Annual High School Ethics Bowl at Tufts University. This year's team is comprised of Hana Kaneko ' 27, Geneva Kelleher '27, Leone Levi D'Ancona '27, Leo Barabasi '27, Margaret Brown '28, and Tessa Rice '28, and is coached by Dr. Jim Davis. The team not only won this year's bowl but went undefeated through five rounds of competition against schools including BB&N, Philips Academy, the Winsor School, and Deerfield Academy -- a testament to all their hard work and preparation. Among the questions discussed were “should courts permit AI-generated victim statements” and “does offering sentence reductions in exchange for organs count as coercion in a prison context”? The team now goes to the regional competition. If they win this round, it's off to nationals in Chapel Hill. Kudos to all on an impressive competition!
Lyahnnette Morales ’27 Crowned Miss Boston’s Teen 2026
Last weekend, Lyahnnette Morales '27 was crowned Miss Boston’s Teen 2026, earning the opportunity to represent the city of Boston at Miss Massachusetts’ Teen on June 18 at the Hanover Theatre in Worcester, MA, and advance toward the national Miss America’s Teen stage through the Miss America Opportunity, the nation’s leading tuition-only scholarship organization for young women. She received top honors across every competition category, including Interview, On-Stage Question, Fitness, and Evening Gown, and earned additional awards and recognition as Boston’s Choice, Overall Talent Winner, and Miss Boston’s Teen Titleholder. A World Silver Medalist with the USA Tap Team, Lyahnnette has represented the United States on international stages and built a distinguished performance career rooted in excellence, discipline, and artistry. She also appeared as a featured dancer in the major motion picture Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody, highlighting her versatility as a performer. Lyahnnette plans to use her platform as Miss... More
Courtside Pride
We had an exciting afternoon yesterday. The boys and girls basketball teams both won their championship games, which we hosted in our gym. They were tight games against great opponents. The kids on the court battled hard, and both BUA teams came back from deficits to win. The sidelines were packed with students, faculty staff, and parents – all cheering up a storm. My voice is still a little hoarse! Some students were even nice enough to teach me a new cheer along the way: “Our team is red hot . . . .” The experience on the sidelines made me so grateful to be at BUA and captured some of the things that make this place special. Students turned out to support their friends, perhaps partially motivated by the Raising Cane’s chicken fingers and fries, but also clearly there out of love for their friends in the game. The cheering... More
Mentors
I’m writing from a conference of heads of school from leading independent schools around the country. Among the roughly 100 attendees are a half-dozen heads – some active, some retired – whom I am lucky to call mentors. Two are former supervisors, and the rest are people I’ve met along the way. They all, at some point, took an interest in my growth and are now always a phone call away when I need advice – and am smart enough to reach out. I feel enormously lucky to have them in my corner. Last week, I had a call with a former student I taught years ago. She graduated from college recently, is in her second year in a new job in New York City, and wanted to talk about what’s next for her education and career. I hope that I was helpful in some small way. And I was... More
Connecting Disciplines
I visited several classes this week. Even on these cold, gray January days in the aftermath of a snowstorm, the energy and engagement were high. One special moment stood out. A geometry teacher asked a group of his students who happened to be taking ancient Greek to work through and present on Euclid’s proof of the Pythagorean theorem – handing them an English translation alongside the original text. The “Greeklings” lit up – excited to find Greek words they recognized and piece things together. I later talked to a U.S. history teacher, who told me that her class had analyzed Walt Whitman’s poem Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field One Night during their study of the Civil War. She recounted how her students made immediate connections to other Whitman poems from Leaves of Grass they had read in English and were excited to talk about what they had learned. More
The Arts in Bloom
In the depth of winter, we are experiencing a blossoming of the arts. The hallway walls are a riot of color – filled with student drawings, paintings, photographs, and digital graphic design work from the first semester. The technical excellence of the pieces is as impressive as the broad range of styles and perspectives, and I love that the building serves as a rotating gallery. We hope that many of you will join us at the visual art show and reception next Friday afternoon. Today is also opening night of the fall play, Radium Girls – a poignant historical piece about female watch-dial painters poisoned by radium-based paints in the 1920s. I’ve always admired our actors’ willingness and desire to take on thematically important scripts and look forward to seeing them on stage this weekend. Next Friday is our Winter Concert in BU’s beautiful Tsai Performance Center. It is a... More
Ready for College
One of the things that is especially fun about the first weeks back from winter break is that our college-aged alums come back to visit, since their semesters have often yet to start. They pop in on their teachers and friends – catching up on their college fall semesters and on what’s been happening at BUA. We hosted a lunch for that cohort last week, which several dozen BUA graduates attended. I had a chance to ask them about how things are going. What I heard was heartening. We know from recent survey results of young alums that they feel ready for college. 95% of recent graduates agreed that having attended BUA, they were better prepared for college than they would have otherwise been. 100% reported that BUA prepared them well as writers. 91% agreed that their experience at BUA helped them navigate college life with confidence and independence. The... More
Knowing Every Student
As we do every year, the faculty started the semester a day before the students. All teachers and advisors sit together for a full day. The topic? Our students. Over the course of the day, we talk through each student – reviewing academic performance, engagement outside the classroom, and social connections. It’s a chance to share observations, talk about support students might need in the coming semester, and celebrate growth and successes. I’m consistently impressed by how well these teachers know the kids and by the number of voices speaking up about each student. Certainly we hear stories and reflections from each student’s advisor and classroom teachers. We also, though, hear from adults in the community with less direct daily contact but who have managed to form a connection. Too often in schools, it is only the students who are struggling in some way who get attention from the adults. I’m... More
Reva Machanavajhula ’28 Selected for MA Junior Golf Team
Reva Machanavajhula '28 was selected for the Massachusetts state junior golf team, one of only eight girls in the state to achieve this honor. According to a press release from Mass Golf, the MA junior golf team is a "pillar of the US National Development Program (USNDP), established in 2023 to create a unified pathway designed to nurture the potential of the best players throughout the country." Reva's golf accolades include: Junior-Mite Division winner in Massachusetts Girls’ Junior Amateur Championship (2020, 2022, 2023) 2nd in 2024 and 2025 NEPGA Girls Bay State Cup Qualified for match play in 2024 and 2025 Massachusetts Girls’ Junior Amateur Championship & 2023 Massachusetts Women's Amateur Championship Represented Mass Golf in Junior Inter-City Team Matches (2024) Represented Team New England in Remy Cup (NE vs Conn) in 2024 and 2025 Reflecting on her impressive golf career, Reva shares: "Golf for me is a game of decision-making, focus, and constant... More