News
Alums Want to Help
On the evening of September 29, in what promises to be a wonderful tradition, seven graduates who identify as people of color joined two dozen current students of color for dinner and conversation, with the aim of sharing their experiences, building connection, and moving our community forward in terms of belonging. Several dozen alums began their months-long volunteer work as admission interviewers this week. Over the course of the admission cycle, they will collectively meet with more than 100 prospective BUA students and families. Twenty-four graduates from 1997 to 2016 will come together this weekend for the first Alumni Council meeting of the year to plan alumni events and offer feedback on the school’s emerging strategic vision. Plans are in place for several alumni career panels and all-school meetings where graduates will share their stories with current students and offer models of lives well lived. The list goes on. Many are in early stages of their careers, working hard to... More
HOS Blog: Who is “Diverse”?
Who feels included when we use the word “diversity”? Whom are we talking about? Dr. Derrick Gay posed these questions to our students during our all-school meeting this week. Dr. Gay is one of the leading strategists and thinkers around diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) work in independent schools around the world, and his work extends deeply into the corporate and non-profit sectors as well, from Barilla to Sesame Street. In response to his question, students offered that when we typically think and talk about “diversity” or a “diverse person,” we are referring to people of color, members of the LGBTQ community, people from a lower socioeconomic status, religious minority groups, or other often-marginalized populations. That framing appropriately recognizes the ongoing challenges of individual bias and systemic impediments to equity in our society. But it also – students shared – sometimes has the effect of pushing away or discouraging engagement from people... More
Student Council President Lizzie Seward Delivers Opening of Term Remarks
On Tuesday, September 6, 2022, BUA Student Council President Lizzie Seward '23 delivered welcome remarks at our opening all-school meeting. Good morning everyone! I hope you are all as excited as I am to be here at 8:30 in the morning! As the sun sets on our summer, I would like to welcome everyone back to BUA, and to welcome the new students into our community. Mr. Kolovos asked me last week to speak here today, and he told me to offer my very sage advice as we enter a new school year. I don’t know how helpful I can be with that, but I will tell you all a few things I’ve learned since I started high school here. First and foremost, I know it is incredibly tempting, but I want you all to know that candy from the GSU convenience store does not count as a lunch, and should not... More
On Kindness: Head of School Chris Kolovos Delivers Opening All-School Meeting Address
On Tuesday, September 6, 2022, Boston University Academy Head of School Chris Kolovos welcomed students, faculty, and staff back to school with the following opening remarks on the theme of kindness, a touchstone of the BUA school community. On Kindness Good morning. It is a real pleasure to see you all today. This is a year we have all been looking forward to for quite some time. It is a year that promises a level of normalcy that we have not experienced in quite a while – and that you all deserve. In just a few days, we will lean back into our traditions, with a group of us heading off to Camp Burgess for the first time since before the pandemic. It is also a special year for another reason. This marks the 30th anniversary of this school's existence. It is a chance for us to think back on the legacy we... More
HOS Blog: Community around a Campfire
I’m writing to you from Camp Burgess, where our 9th and 10th graders have enjoyed several days of ropes courses, rock climbing, kayaking, swimming, cards, board games, and bonding. This year promises a return to normalcy we have not experienced since the start of the pandemic, including the revival of traditions like this one. It is heartwarming to see the smiles on our students’ faces, to hear them laugh, and to watch the spark of lifelong friendships. On our first night here, students gathered in an outdoor amphitheater for a bonfire and s’mores. Mr. Stone called for an impromptu talent show, inviting students – individually or in groups – to volunteer to come down to the stage/fire pit areas and share a talent before getting their s’mores. What started as a crowd control measure to make sure we didn’t have dozens of teenagers roasting marshmallows at the same time turned into something really special. Students sang everything from Don Maclean’s... More
Curricular Innovation in English, History
As a result of the vision and hard work of the faculty this spring and summer, and inspired by conversations with students over the years, BUA students will engage in a revised history and English curriculum this year. BUA’s humanities program has been, since the school’s founding, one of its great strengths. Our mission highlights the promise that, at BUA, students will “read deeply” and “think critically.” Those ideas permeate the English and history classrooms. History students dive into primary sources, eschewing schools’ traditional reliance on textbooks and challenging students to engage with language and ideas that push their intellectual ability. In English, students likewise read challenging, rigorous texts that one would expect to see on a college syllabus. In both departments, students test their ideas with one another in conversation around a seminar table, often staying after the bell or carrying those discussions into the hallway. Our graduates often tell us that... More
Dr. Monica Alvarez Steps Into Director of Equity and Inclusion Role
We are excited to announce that, starting this fall, BUA English teacher Dr. Monica Alvarez will step into the newly-created Director of Equity and Inclusion role at our school. Dr. Alvarez came to BUA following fourteen years at Trinity School in New York City, where she taught English and helped lead that school’s DEI efforts as Equity & Inclusion Coordinator. Since arriving at BUA in the fall of 2021, Dr. Alvarez has been an inspiring teacher for 9th and 10th graders, a trusted advisor, club leader, and co-chair of the student-faculty Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee. She will continue to teach ninth and tenth-grade English alongside this important leadership role. Dr. Alvarez offered the following reflection about her new responsibilities: “Two of my favorite things at BUA are the deep mutual appreciation and genuine care that shape so many of the interactions among its members. This year, I am looking forward to discovering... More
BUA Announces Curricular Innovation in English, History
In an August 5 letter to current students and families, Head of School Chris Kolovos announced exciting news about curricular innovation in the school's English and history programs. Read the full text of his communication below. Updated Booklist In June, we shared both the summer reading list and the term-time booklist for classics, math, and science. The reason for not including the booklist for English and history at that time was because our teachers in those areas have been deeply engaged, for several months, in a project to revise the curriculum, focused largely on the 9th and 10th grades, but also including changes in the junior and senior years. With that work completed, the updated booklist for the 2022-2023 academic year is available at this link. English & History Curricular Innovation As a result of the vision and hard work of our faculty this spring and summer, and inspired by conversations with our students... More
A New Sun Rises Over BUA as Mural by Sitarah Lakhani ’22 is Completed
This summer, a blazing, orange ombre sun rose over BUA—the BUA back lot, that is. Over the past six weeks, a vibrant, celebratory, and inclusive mural was painted on the 4,000-square-foot exterior wall of Sargent Gym, adjacent to the Bridge Lot and visible from the BU Bridge, Storrow Drive, the Massachusetts Turnpike, and from many points along Commonwealth Ave. The mural is the brainchild and passion project of recent Boston University Academy graduate Sitarah Lakhani '22, who conceived of this project as a sophomore at BUA. After years of persistence and hard work, her vision has finally come to fruition. Many hands made light work of the installation, as current students, alumni, and teachers pitched in to help paint: scaling scaffolding, braving the aerial scissor lift, and bearing the searing July heat to add their brushstrokes to this massive undertaking. Born and raised in Cambridge, MA, Sitarah has had a love for... More
Summer Research Highlight: Genomic and Computational Approaches to Gene Regulation with Dr. John Quackenbush P’24
Each cell in our body contains a set of instructions, encoded in a molecule called DNA, that helps determine both our traits—including things like height, weight, hair color—and our individual risk of developing diseases such as diabetes or cancer. DNA is a long-chain polymer, and these instructions are encoded in the DNA “sequence” (the series of polymer subunits) and grouped in “genes,” each of which carries the instructions for creating one of the proteins that make up our cells. The sequencing of the human genome at the start of the twenty-first century gave us a catalog of human genes and provided us with tools to explore how differences in our DNA make us unique. More than twenty years later, we are still exploring how genes, and the genetic instructions that control them, ultimately determine these traits. BUA parent Dr. John Quackenbush P'24, Professor of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics and Chair of the... More