News
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
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