Engaging Meaningfully Beyond BUA
We are just hours away from spring break! I wish our faculty, staff, students, and families some well deserved rest, fun, and connection.
28 of our students will spend a portion of their breaks traveling with their teachers and classmates. One group is headed for a cultural and historical exploration of southern Spain, with a healthy dose of geometry weaved in as they investigate architecture. Another will dive into the art and music of New Orleans. In June, a third group will take advantage of the warmer weather for a trip to Iceland engaged in geology and climate science while enjoying some outdoor adventure. These are not sightseeing trips. We have designed a series of traveling classrooms where young people can do in-depth, place-based work under the guidance of faculty experts.
Yesterday afternoon, on a cold gray day, about a dozen BUA students piled into a van and headed off to a local Brookline elementary school. They are serving as after-school tutors and mentors to the young students there once a week through the spring, just like a similar BUA cohort did in a Boston school for several months this fall. They help with homework, play games, share stories, and connect.
Our mission calls on students to challenge themselves to “engage meaningfully in our community and beyond.” Those words need to live a life beyond the website. I am proud that, as a school, we have done more than state the expectation. We intentionally created the after-school service program and reimagined the global travel program in the past few years as channels for students to experience what meaningful engagement outside of school feels like – with an idea, with a place, with people. These are by no means the only avenues available through the school, and I’m mindful that students and families also find deeply meaningful ways to engage in their communities. But I firmly believe that there is a great deal for our students to learn – about their world, about themselves, and about a life well lived – outside these walls. And it is a school’s obligation to give them those opportunities. I’m grateful to the faculty and staff who make these experiences happen, to the generous donors who have helped make the global trips financially accessible to all families, and to our students who are so eager to step outside with us!