News
Real Audiences
Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of attending BUA’s annual Concerto Competition. Seven students performed solo pieces with piano accompaniment. Works ranged from Vivaldi, Popper, Glazunov, Mendelssohn, Bruch, Fauré, and Mozart. Our student soloists played the recorder, cello, piano, violin, and flute in front of several dozen friends, faculty, and family members. The performances were stunning; the students’ virtuosity evidenced years of practice, and I love that they chose – entirely voluntarily – to share their talents with this audience. The winner of the competition will perform the piece again, this time accompanied by the full BUA orchestra at our Spring Concert on May 3.
There is real power in having students share their work with an audience. Knowing that somebody else will see, hear, appreciate, and learn from your work makes school assignments more than intellectually enriching exercises; they become purposeful in a different way. Our music and theater programs are built around chances for performance, but they are not alone. The hallways around BUA are graced by student visual art. Our creative writers submit their work not just to BUA’s literary magazine, but increasingly to outside journals. History teachers are working with students to submit analytical writing to journals and to offer poster sessions of their research this spring. Our 9th graders in biology have a poster session coming up too, and more than a handful of our older students have had co-authored scientific papers published in their names. Perhaps the best known example is the senior thesis. Every year, in addition to their written work or artistic creations, our seniors present to an audience of peers and family members; they have to think about how to translate sometimes complex topics into language a lay audience can understand and engage with – a critical skill. Thinking about an audience for your work and communicating to that group adds a valuable layer to our students’ learning, and I’m grateful for our teachers’ work to help students find those outlets.
Gratitude for our Faculty and Staff
With Thanksgiving a few days away, I want to pause to give thanks for the remarkable teachers and staff here at BUA. Every day I am struck by their contagious passion for their subjects; their pedagogical skill and creativity; their work ethic and desire to improve; and, most of all, how well they know these students and how deeply they care for them. These professionals have chosen this path – many having foregone more lucrative careers and ones that carry more status in a society that undervalues educators – because working with young people is a calling. There is tremendous fulfillment, joy, and purpose in helping guide and empower young people at this critical stage in their development. Our faculty and staff are the heart of the school, and I am deeply grateful for them.
My hope this holiday season is that you find a moment to say thank you to a teacher or mentor who made a difference in your life or in your family’s life. One of the mysteries of this profession is that teachers are often not aware of the impact they have. The reward is in the work itself. But it means the world to a teacher to hear that something they did – an encouraging remark in class, a comment in the margin of a paper, a poem they shared, their excitement over a geometry proof, or simply the act of listening with an open heart – mattered.
Wishing you and your families a happy Thanksgiving.
Veterans Day, Service, and Purpose
BUA classes will not meet tomorrow as we pause to mark Veterans Day as a community. Next week, we will also welcome back alumna Jenny Chen (BUA ‘00), who served for nine years as a physician in the United States Navy in postings around the world. Students will hear about Jenny’s path through BUA, where, like so many, she “found her people” and thrived under the mentorship of loving, inspiring teachers. Jenny will talk about her decision after medical school to serve her country, the fulfillment she found in that service, and how it has prepared her for her role now in emergency medicine as a civilian.
I find it helpful for students to hear from graduates like Jenny – people who sat in the same seats – who have found purpose in service to others. For some, that sense of purpose comes through taking care of family or friends; for others though community engagement, philanthropy, or careers. For all, that service is a source of deep fulfillment, motivation, and joy. That’s why our strategic vision commits BUA to helping students find “purpose through research and action that matter.” We know how important it will be to them to feel a sense of purpose later in life. And we can think of no better way to prepare them for that than for all students to get a taste of what it’s like to live purposefully while they are here with us.
Sports as Counterculture
On Wednesday, both cross country teams performed well in the finals, capping off a great season filled with personal bests and camaraderie. The boys soccer team won its championship game last night in a hard-fought match against a very good side from Newman School. The girls soccer team plays for the championship this afternoon at the British International School of Boston; our team is hoping for a three-peat, and fan buses are ready to get the community there to support them.
The athletic success this fall is a great testament to the kids’ hard work and a lot of fun for the whole community. But what I’m proudest of is the way our sports program is countercultural. We don’t measure the success of our program in wins and trophies. We look at the number of students who are participating. We are proud that many athletes are trying a sport for the first time right alongside others who have been playing at the club level for years – and are embraced. We celebrate what they learn about teamwork and the friendships they form. We love the fact that they are getting exercise, which will hopefully become a lifelong habit. We are thrilled with the number of students who participate in multiple seasons, pushing back against the drive toward specialization. We admire the grace our students show when an opposing player commits a hard foul or says something mean spirited – how they respond to a bad call or a heartbreaking loss. Plus, they have fun!
What’s happening more broadly in American society around youth athletics is deeply troubling. Seeing sports as a path to elite college admissions, parents too often feel the pressure to push very young kids to train, compete, and specialize. We have professionalized youth sports in a way that is producing repetitive-stress injuries and anxiety rather than healthy habits and joy. The incentives that colleges create in this area make it hard for families to opt out of a toxic environment. At BUA we have opted out and resisted the pressure I see other schools succumbing to. And I am deeply proud of that.
BUA Juniors Submit Testimony to Massachusetts Legislature on Student Representation
On Thursday, October 12, Yiannis Asikis '25 and Zeke Kramer '25 traveled to the Massachusetts State House to submit testimony in support of H.474/S.287, an act relative to student representative voting rights. If passed, this bill would empower student representatives as voting members on every town or district school committee in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Yiannis and Zeke are members of the Massachusetts Association of Student Representatives, an organization dedicated to empowering student voices on school committees across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
In their testimony, Yiannis and Zeke stated: “as high school students, we are deeply committed to empowering civic engagement in education, and we believe that every student deserves the right to actively participate in shaping their own educational experience. By granting student representatives the power to vote on school committees, we are not merely supporting token representation; we are recognizing our right to influence the decisions that impact our academic journey. Education is a two-way street, and we, the students, are not passive recipients but active contributors. Our insights, experiences, and aspirations are invaluable assets that can significantly enrich the educational policies and initiatives of our institutions.”
You can read the full text of Yiannis and Zeke's testimony before the Massachusetts legislature here. Kudos, Yiannis and Zeke on this powerful act of civic engagement!
Our Exceptional Tour Guides
We are in the heart of admission season, and I want to give a shout-out to our incredible student tour guides. On most days, I greet prospective students and families on tours in the hallway outside my office and get to listen as they walk around the second floor. I hear our tour guides talking about our curriculum, class discussions, homework expectations, BU classes, and the college process. I hear them inviting and answering questions with clarity, candor, and humor. The experience with these tour guides is often a major reason for a family’s decision to join BUA – moved by the tour guides’ maturity, independence, thoughtfulness, wit, and mental agility, and eager to be part of a school filled with students like them. This is one way our students perpetuate the kind, curious culture we try so hard to foster.
Parents play a role as well. I often hear from prospective families that they learned about BUA from friends whose children are currently part of the school. That word of mouth goes a long way, and we are grateful.
BUA Robotics Team Represented at MA STEM Week Kickoff Event
On Monday, October 16, Boston University Academy's robotics team, the Lobstah Bots, represented BUA at the MA STEM Week Kickoff event hosted by Boston University at the Center for Computing & Data Sciences. The event featured remarks by Massachusetts Lt. Governor Kim Driscoll; Massachusetts Secretary of Education Dr. Patrick Tutwiler; and Boston University Provost ad interim Dr. Kenneth Lutchen.
At the kickoff event, the BUA robotics team demonstrated one of their robots as part of the STEM exhibits on display, and also met with New England FIRST robotics director Michael Fantom and a reporter from WBZ radio. Says Lobstah Bots team captain George Baltus '24, "We were really happy for the opportunity to attend the event and continue to find more new ways to contribute to our Boston community!"
A collaboration of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Education and the STEM Advisory Council, STEM Week is an annual statewide effort to boost the interest, awareness, and ability of all learners to make the most of STEM opportunities.
Happy Kids
On October 5, we welcomed nearly 150 BUA parents and guardians to our first-ever State of the School event. It was a beautiful moment of connection – families from over 50 cities and towns enjoying the company of the teachers who are folk heroes around their dinner tables and other parents whose children they hear so much about. We are excited to make this an annual tradition. Please enjoy these pictures from the event.
I told a story about my recent phone conversation with a parent of a BUA graduate. She was telling me about her daughter’s experience in college – adjusting to a new environment and navigating her newfound independence. I was telling her about our three-year-old’s first few weeks at school – getting used to the routine, getting to know his teachers, making friends. In the end, we both landed in the same place: what we want – the only thing we want – is for our kids to be happy.
As I shared at the State of the School, the thing I am proudest of about BUA is that our kids – most of them, most of the time – are happy. They are happy because they are at a place where they can be their kind and curious selves. While I was greeting students yesterday morning, I asked them to tell me about some school-related thing they were feeling happy about. Students told me about creating a musical composition inspired by Beowulf; a conversation with a BU professor about his senior thesis about the built environment in Medford; the fall girls’ crew program; exploring pre-colonial Africa in 10th-grade history; interrogating the concept of truth while reading Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography; studying water fleas under a microscope in 9th-grade biology; starting rehearsals for Our Town; strong student interest in Chemistry Club; the all-school breakfast sponsored by the Latin American Student Association; how much fun Greek class is; getting to talk about – rather than just do – math in class. I also heard a lot about their friends who, not long ago, were strangers, but now will be lifelong companions. I am deeply grateful to everybody in the community – parents, teachers, staff, and students – for helping make this a community where these kids can thrive – and smile.
BUA Seniors Earn National Merit Honors
Thirty-seven percent of the Boston University Academy Class of 2024 received recognition in the 69th annual National Merit Scholarship Program competition. The competition honors the nation’s scholastic champions and recognizes exceptional academic promise in high school seniors nationwide.
Twenty current BUA seniors were named National Merit Commended Scholars. Out of these 20 Commended Scholars, six BUA seniors were named National Merit Semifinalists, placing them among the top 1% of all US high school seniors who entered the competition.
Over 1.3 million juniors in about 21,000 high schools entered the 2024 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2022 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT). The nationwide pool of Semifinalists includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state.
Semifinalists will have the opportunity to compete for one of 2,500 National Merit $25,000 Scholarships. National Merit Scholar finalists will be announced in February of 2024.
One member of the BUA Class of 2025 received College Board National Recognition Program honors by scoring in the top 2.5% of PSAT/NMSQT test takers who identify as African American, Hispanic American, Latinx, or Indigenous.
Congratulations to all of BUA’s honorees on this well-deserved recognition!
Holding Doors
I noticed one of our students holding the door for her classmates on several occasions during our opening days. She did it without fanfare or hesitation. Everybody who passed through the door said thank you. And then one of them held the next door for the group further down the hallway. I like to imagine that this door-holding behavior was contagious and lasted all day!
Whenever I see a small moment of kindness – holding a door, picking up a piece of trash, showing a visitor where to go – I make sure to take the student aside and thank them for doing the right thing. Small moments like that inspire others in the community. They spread joy. And, most importantly, those habits build character – which, in the end, is what we care most about.