News
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
Research Highlight: Armaan Mehta ’26 Presents at Materials Research Society Conference
Earlier this month, BUA senior Armaan Mehta '26 presented a poster at the Materials Research Society's fall meeting and exhibit at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston. Armaan's poster, entitled "Stress Evolution During Low Energy Ar+ Bombardment of Si," focused on stress evolution during low energy Argon bombardment of Silicon. Armaan explains: "Stress evolution is seen as a possible cause of nano-ripples, a feature seen when a Silicon sample is bombarded with Argon. To determine whether stress is the cause of the nano-ripples, we used a real time MOSS system (multi-beam optical stress sensor) and then used an Atomic Force Microscope to inspect the sample. So far, our research suggests that the nano-ripples are independent of stress as the ripples are anisotropic (only in the x direction) whereas the stress is isotropic (in both x and y directions)." Armaan "became interested in this project because the nanopatterns that are formed are... More
Alumna Sophia Tang ’25 in the International Journal of High School Research
Alumna Sophia Tang '25 published a peer-reviewed article titled “Specific Genetic Factors in PTSD and Comorbidities” in the October 2025 issue of the International Journal of High School Research. Sophia's research identifies several genes and genetic pathways linked to PTSD and related disorders and suggests the possibility of customized pharmacological treatments based on these findings.
Exams in Several Flavors
Today is the last day of BUA classes. It has been a very good semester, and students’ attention has understandably turned to preparation for next week’s exams. We believe that exams play an important role. They provide students the chance to practice synthesizing months of material and to demonstrate long-term retention of key ideas. Exams are also helpful data points for teachers on how students are learning and how teachers might adjust for the coming semester and future years. Exams may conjure a singular image of students in long rows for multi-hour, high-stakes tests. The reality is more diverse. Our teachers have created a number of different ways for students to show what they know. There is certainly a place for sit-down, written exams; classics and most of our math classes will offer those. English and history teachers have adopted in-person, one-on-one interviews to supplement the periodic essays and other assessments. More
Student Voice
In place of our usual all-school meeting this week, leaders from our Student Council organized community-wide town hall meetings. StuCo representatives led sessions of about 25 students each to hear about their experiences and solicit ideas for how we can further strengthen the BUA community; we’ll review those ideas together later this winter and report back at a school meeting. Another round of town halls is in the works for the spring, and I hope this becomes a new school tradition. This year, we are also running several small ad hoc working groups, where teachers, staff, and students collaborate on important school policy questions – one focused on our daily schedule and another on our learning-management system. Those groups make recommendations to the full faculty and staff and have a real impact on the life of the school. Schools are better when students – the experts in what the school experience... More
What I’m Grateful For
With Thanksgiving days away, we turn our attention to gratitude. Brimming donation boxes from the 9th-grade food drive adorn the lobby. Tuesday’s all-school meeting will feature short talks by a handful of juniors and seniors who will tell the community about something they are grateful for. It is good for the soul to pause, reflect, and share the blessings we enjoy. I’d like to take a moment here to express my personal gratitude to this community. I often share (brag, really) with colleagues at other schools that our parent community is like no other. Like their children, our parents value learning, challenge, and growth for their own sake, even in a society that tends to focus too narrowly on college lists and grade outcomes. They trust the school and our extraordinary teachers in a way that has become all too rare. Our students, too, are one of a kind. I have... More
Odyssey: Fall 2025
BUA is proud to share the fall 2025 edition of Odyssey: The Magazine of Boston University Academy. In this issue you will find: Expanding the Frame: A History Curriculum for Today by Dr. Jim Davis A Problem-Based Math Curriculum, Built from the Ground Up by Mr. Srdjan Divac and Mr. Zane Ranney Building Belonging through Celebration by Dr. Monica Alvarez A Room of Their Own: Opening of the New Student Commons Young Alumni Spotlights BUA Impact Report Alumni Class Notes ...and more! Look for a hard copy arriving in your mailbox shortly, or read the digital version here!
Being of Service
We paused as a community on Tuesday to mark Veterans Day. There are a number of alumni of this school who have devoted their careers to serving our country in branches across the military. Several have returned to BUA over the years to speak to our students and share their journeys. We are grateful for their service and the example they set. Service takes many forms, but all forms center around a fundamental truth: service to others – our families, friends, community, a stranger, a cause – is where we find purpose in our lives. Decades of psychological research confirms a central thesis of Viktor Frankl’s seminal work, Man’s Search for Meaning, based on his experience as a prisoner in Nazi concentration camps during WWII: humans yearn for and are motivated by the feeling of contributing to something bigger than ourselves and being of service to others. That sense of purpose... More