News
BUA English Teacher Ariana Kelly Wins Jack Hazard Fellowship
BUA English teacher Ariana Kelly was named a winner of the 2023 Jack Hazard Fellowship, sponsored by the New Literary Project. The Jack Hazard Fellowship is awarded annually to fourteen creative writers who teach high school -- an innovative, groundbreaking initiative that awards $5,000 to support the artistic endeavors of high school teachers from around the country. Read more about this year's Jack Hazard Fellows here. Jack Hazard Fellows are fiction, creative nonfiction, and memoir writers who teach full-time in an accredited high school in the United States, and "represent NewLit’s full-throated commitment to support writers across generations, communities, and divides. The financial award intends to enable these creative writers who teach to concentrate freely on their writing for a summer." BUA's Elisha Meyer sat down with Ariana Kelly to learn more about her writing projects and process: Elisha Meyer: Congratulations on being the recipient of a 2023 Jack Hazard fellowship! Tell us about your ongoing... More
Trying Something New
I popped by a volleyball practice in the gym earlier this week. Picture two nets set up across the gym, with two dozen players on the courts and about a dozen more on the sidelines waiting to rotate in. There were spirited celebrations for points won, along with quick support for a teammate’s mistake. Intensity mixed with joy under the careful oversight of Mr. Seth – math teacher by day, volleyball coach by afternoon! Here’s what’s most interesting to me: the majority of the players had never played volleyball in any organized way before coming to BUA. I love that these students feel the freedom and comfort to try something brand new. They are willing to take a chance, show vulnerability, admit that they have room to grow, and risk making mistakes in front of their peers. That is an extraordinary thing at any age, but particularly in adolescence. It reminds... More
Students Finding Purpose through Action
What does it take to convince Town Hall to start a bike-to-school day? On Tuesday, one of our seniors gave a talk at our all-school meeting about his year-long quest to make change in his town. Motivated by his passion for combating climate change and inspired by models from other countries, he began reaching out to local nonprofits, members of town government, and local school officials. Some doors opened. Many stayed closed. He kept at it, building allies, following leads, and refining his pitch. He experienced the sometimes frustratingly byzantine nature of local politics and the excitement of discovering allies in that system. He is now on the precipice of seeing his dream of a bike-to-school day in his town come to life and perhaps inaugurating a tradition. Last year, our faculty and staff read William Damon’s The Path to Purpose. Damon, in a deeply evidence-based way, argues that fulfillment and happiness... More
The Importance of Student-Led Discussions in a Post-Truth Age
It has been a fun week, despite the messy weather. On Tuesday afternoon, the students eeked out a narrow victory against the faculty and staff in a spirited basketball extravaganza, complete with a halftime show! Tonight many students will stay on campus for the semiformal dance. And with spring break around the corner, spirits are high. I visited two history classes earlier this week and, in both, observed students speaking much more than their teachers. Juniors in American history were discussing our country’s overseas entanglements and imperialism in the late 19th and early 20th century. Ninth graders were discussing the Etruscans, Greeks, and Phoenicians and contrasting the historical record of those civilizations with the contemporary Roman accounts. Active, student-led discussions have long been a hallmark of what we do, particularly in the humanities. Teachers, as the experts in the room, frame up interesting questions and periodically enter the conversation to offer... More
Joyful Learning and Shakespearean Knock Knock Jokes
In a funny scene in Act II of The Tragedy of Macbeth, a drunken porter responds to a repeated “knock, knock, knock” at the door to the castle imagining that he is greeting sinners at the gates of hell. I visited a ninth-grade English class earlier this week where students were acting out that scene for their classmates. With a wonderfully convincing and slurred Scottish accent, a student played the porter’s role to the amusement of the whole room; he was the only one not laughing! What struck me most was that the students were laughing along with the jokes in the way Shakespeare intended – delighting in the imagery, linguistic tricks, and performance. How lucky are we to be at a school where we all – teachers and students – find so much joy in learning? I imagine that for some of us reading Shakespeare in high school felt like... More
Three BUA Seniors Selected as Top 300 Scholars in 2023 Regeneron Science Talent Search
Three seniors at Boston University Academy -- Alex Jin '23, Alvin Lu '23, and Joseph Wang '23 -- were selected as top 300 scholars in the 2023 Regeneron Science Talent Search, the nation’s oldest and most prestigious science and math competition for high school seniors. BUA is one of the few high schools to have three scholars named in the top 300 list. The top 300 scholars were chosen “based on their outstanding research, leadership skills, community involvement, commitment to academics, creativity in asking scientific questions and exceptional promise as STEM leaders demonstrated through the submission of their original, independent research projects, essays and recommendations,” according to a press release issued by the Society for Science, the sponsor organization of the Regeneron Science Talent Search. Each student’s winning project forms the basis of their senior thesis, an independent research project that is the culmination of a student’s academic career at BUA. Alex, More
BUA Athletes Win All-Scholastics Honors
Boston University Academy student athletes earned All-Scholastics honors in the MBIL league for cross country and soccer in the fall 2022 season. Congratulations to the athletes on these well-deserved accolades. Go Terriers! Boys' Soccer MBIL All-Stars: Dominic Iafrate '23, Isaac Rajagopal '23, Ajay Raman '23, Nick Reason '23 Girls' Cross-Country MBIL All-Stars: Sally Jamrog '23, Coco Mueller '26, Giselle Wu '23 Boys' Cross Country MBIL All-Star: Nicholas Kennedy '26 You can find a complete list of 2022-2023 All-Scholastic athletes in the Boston Globe's All-Scholastics section.
BUA Junior Wins World Cup in Épée Fencing
BUA junior Luka Loncar, '24, won the World Cup in épée fencing in the 16-and-under men's division at the Cadet European Cup in Grenoble, France earlier this month. Over 200 fencers from 12 different countries competed in his division, and Luka's is the first win by an American fencer in six years. Luka fences with the Olympia Fencing Club in Cambridge, MA. Congratulations, Luka, on this impressive accomplishment!
“Boston in the Diasporic Imagination” Senior Seminar Visits Murals in Roxbury
Dr. Carlos Martinez's “Boston in the Diasporic Imagination” Senior Seminar took a field trip to see murals in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston. These murals were mentioned in Zadie Smith’s novel On Beauty, which the class is currently reading. The "Boston in the Diasporic Imagination" class relishes in some of Boston’s rich immigrant history as they delve into academically acclaimed, recent literature by and about people who have all found themselves in this great city. Originally a term referring to the exile of various Jewish populations, Diaspora can refer to people who have been forced to leave their home countries because of oppression, but it can now also refer to emigrants who have chosen to leave their countries for a variety of reasons. These people have sacrificed everything they’ve known and loved in the hopes of bettering their fates and that of their families and ancestors. Dr. Martinez shares: "In these texts... More
HOS Blog: Parent-School Partnership and the Three-Legged Stool
“Can I come back and go to school here?” I heard this question a few times on Tuesday from those who joined us for Parents and Guardians Day. For several hours that morning, adults in our community walked through their children’s class schedules, sitting in on actual math, science, language, history, arts, and English classes right alongside our students. Some of the adults even participated – in some cases to the embarrassment of their teenage onlookers! The feedback was heartwarming. “I can’t believe how active and engaged these kids are. That’s not what high school was like for me.“ “The teachers are so creative; each classroom felt different.” “I feel so lucky that my son is surrounded by other kids who are as curious and bright as he is. He’s learning so much from them and is making friends for life.” “You’d think these kids are in college based on the sophistication... More