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“On Making Kindness Visible”: Head of School Chris Kolovos Delivers Opening-of-Term Address

On Tuesday, September 1, 2026, Boston University Academy Head of School Chris Kolovos welcomed students, faculty, and staff back to school with opening remarks entitled “On Making Kindness Visible." Read the full text of his ASM talk below, and watch a recording of his opening remarks here.

Good morning. On behalf of the faculty and staff, welcome to the 34th year of Boston University Academy. 

First, a few words of welcome. To the 61 ninth graders sitting to my left, we are so glad you are with us. Throughout the August mini courses and orientation week, you have already started building a reputation among the adults here as an exceptionally mature and thoughtful group. Keep it up! To our returning 10s and 11s and to the new students in those grades, welcome. We have every confidence in your ability to embrace the challenges and leadership opportunities that await you. And to the Class of 2027 – the small but mighty group of 49 seniors sitting in the back –  we are so glad to have you leading the student body. Your engagement during the senior retreat – particularly the passion with which you thought about ways to strengthen this community – was inspiring to me and, quite directly, inspired my topic for today.

In a few moments I will introduce our Student Council president, Isha Venkatesh, to offer a welcome on behalf of the student body. First, though, as I do at the start of each school year, I’d like to offer some thoughts. A quick story to get us started. 

Making Kindness Visible

Early this summer, my wife and I made the colossal mistake of adopting a puppy. You would have thought that with a six-year-old son, twin three-year-old daughters, and a 12-year old dog, we might have thought twice about bringing a four-month old rescue puppy home – not a small breed, mind you, but a Great Pyrenees mix with an independent streak. In a moment of delusional optimism, we named her Athena. In retrospect, Scylla would have been more appropriate. Since she joined us, she has doubled in size, shed my blood three times, and bitten through more of my joggers and t-shirts than I can count.

We bought Athena a new bed recently – her third because she ate the last two. We put the bed down, and our three-year-old daughter, Penny, immediately ran over to the other side of the room. Mind you, Penny weighs about as much as the dog and has a healthy respect for Athena’s sharp little puppy teeth. But she was not running away in fear. Penny returned a few moments later with a huge smile on her face and Athena’s favorite blanket clutched in her arms, laying it out neatly on Athena’s new bed. Athena rewarded her by flopping her puppy body right on the blanket – and chewing the corner. Penny had noticed, empathized, and acted.

My talk today centers around the small, ordinary, kind acts that manifest our care for one another, or in Penny’s case, her furry new family member. I’d like to talk with you about the everyday actions that make kindness visible.

I take great pride in the kindness of our community and believe deeply that this school is filled with kind adolescents and adults. Over pizza one day in my office a few years back, one student looked at me seriously and asked, “You say BUA kids are kind and curious. You know that not everybody is kind all the time, don’t you?” Of course I do. And I still maintain that this is a community where kindness and generosity of spirit are overrepresented. That is no accident. We select for kindness in admissions. Students choose this place because they want to be with peers who value kindness like they do. You have genuinely warm hearts, and that is what we care most about.

Practicing Kindness

Fostering a kind community, though, takes more than filling it with kind people. It is not enough to have kind hearts and generous intentions. Kindness takes practice.

The seniors know that. During their recent retreat, the Class of 2027 engaged in a brainstorming session in response to the following prompt: “What are the behaviors we’d like to see more of to foster the community we want?” They developed a list of specific actions. In their view, if more people more consistently did these things, our community would be better for it. 

Here are some of their top behaviors – ones that came up multiple times:

• Smiling, saying hello, and calling somebody by name
• Saying thank you after class and elsewhere
• Holding doors for folks coming after you
• Showing up, participating, and being present in community moments
• Pitching in and helping out without being asked
• Cleaning up after yourself and others in shared spaces  
• Pulling somebody into a conversation if they seem alone
• Speaking up when somebody is out of line

Notice what these things have in common. They are all small acts, not grand gestures. They are within everybody’s reach. And they all require getting out of your own head, empathetically paying attention to the people around you, and – crucially – acting. Like Penny did. Those actions are what make kindness visible.

Their list reminded me of some standout moments from last year. I remember at Camp Burgess, a group of students was playing cards at a picnic table. One of them noticed a classmate sitting alone on the periphery. With no fanfare or hesitation, he walked over to that classmate and asked him to join the game, which he did. No drama, just inclusion.

I remember being in the gym to help set up for an event. A group of students was playing basketball on the far end of the gym. I was carrying some tables around with a few other teachers. One of the students shooting around ran over to see if we needed some help, which we did. He hustled back to the court, grabbed a few friends, and brought them back to lend a hand.

I wholeheartedly agree with the seniors. These moments are us at our best. And if more of us acted this way more regularly, we would be better for it.

While I don’t want to linger on it this morning, the seniors did go through the exercise in reverse. They identified behaviors they wished to see less of. Some of the more popular? Swearing. Being unaware of the space you are taking up in the hallway. Talking way too loud about stuff you shouldn’t be. And – the most popular answer – being distracted by your phone when you could be present with others. Notice that these behaviors all involve just the opposite of the previous list: a lack of awareness and consideration for those around you. These are not unkind people, but they are not practicing kindness.

Practice Makes Habit, Habit Builds Character

You might ask, why? If the people in this community are, at their core, kind, why does it matter that we practice with these small, everyday habits? Why should we put in the work to make the invisible visible? To borrow a term more popular in your generation than mine, is it just performative? Is it just for show?

No. Engaging in these small acts – even if they seem insignificant – is powerful in the aggregate both for the individual and the community. 

For one, it feels good. I stood holding the door for folks at the GSU one day over the summer. Four people passed through, including somebody who was coming from halfway down the block. Each of them smiled and said thank you. By the time the fourth person walked through, I actually felt better – not that I was performing some kind of saintly duty, just that I was putting some positive energy into the world and having some small, positive impact. 

Second, it is contagious. I’ll go back to Penny. This morning, I asked her why she put the blanket on Athena’s bed. She flashed a big smile, put up her hands, and said, “because I saw mommy do it.” For her, it was as simple as that: that’s what we do in our family – we think about each other and help when we can. She had picked that up without us saying a word.

Finally, and most importantly, the small acts that make kindness visible – over time – don’t just reflect inner kindness; they build it. C.S. Lewis famously wrote that “all mortals tend to turn into the thing they are pretending to be.” Aristotle, in the Nicomachean Ethics, talks about virtue as something you build through repetition. You all were not born kind. You learned to be kind – like Penny – from your parents, friends, schools, and faith communities. You practiced being kind. And now, you have a chance to do that again, here, in a community where kindness is our most sacred value. 

My charge for you this year is to find all the small ways to make kindness visible. I’ll try to do that too.

*****

Thank you for listening. I wish all of you a wonderful school year.

NYT Puzzle Editor Will Shortz to Deliver Commencement Keynote Address

Boston University Academy is thrilled to share that legendary New York Times Puzzle Editor and renowned enigmatologist Will Shortz will deliver the commencement keynote address at BUA's 32nd graduation exercise on Monday, May 18, 2026.

In true BUA fashion, this year's speaker was revealed one across and one down at a time, in a bespoke commencement crossword by BUA junior Harry Wieand '27, a leader of BUA's Puzzle Club.

Think you can crack it? Try your hand at the commencement crossword here!