News

Veterans Day, Service, and Purpose

BUA classes will not meet tomorrow as we pause to mark Veterans Day as a community. Next week, we will also welcome back alumna Jenny Chen (BUA ‘00), who served for nine years as a physician in the United States Navy in postings around the world. Students will hear about Jenny’s path through BUA, where, like so many, she “found her people” and thrived under the mentorship of loving, inspiring teachers. Jenny will talk about her decision after medical school to serve her country, the fulfillment she found in that service, and how it has prepared her for her role now in emergency medicine as a civilian.

I find it helpful for students to hear from graduates like Jenny – people who sat in the same seats – who have found purpose in service to others. For some, that sense of purpose comes through taking care of family or friends; for others though community engagement, philanthropy, or careers. For all, that service is a source of deep fulfillment, motivation, and joy. That’s why our strategic vision commits BUA to helping students find “purpose through research and action that matter.” We know how important it will be to them to feel a sense of purpose later in life. And we can think of no better way to prepare them for that than for all students to get a taste of what it’s like to live purposefully while they are here with us.

Sports as Counterculture

On Wednesday, both cross country teams performed well in the finals, capping off a great season filled with personal bests and camaraderie. The boys soccer team won its championship game last night in a hard-fought match against a very good side from Newman School. The girls soccer team plays for the championship this afternoon at the British International School of Boston; our team is hoping for a three-peat, and fan buses are ready to get the community there to support them.

The athletic success this fall is a great testament to the kids’ hard work and a lot of fun for the whole community. But what I’m proudest of is the way our sports program is countercultural. We don’t measure the success of our program in wins and trophies. We look at the number of students who are participating. We are proud that many athletes are trying a sport for the first time right alongside others who have been playing at the club level for years – and are embraced. We celebrate what they learn about teamwork and the friendships they form. We love the fact that they are getting exercise, which will hopefully become a lifelong habit. We are thrilled with the number of students who participate in multiple seasons, pushing back against the drive toward specialization. We admire the grace our students show when an opposing player commits a hard foul or says something mean spirited – how they respond to a bad call or a heartbreaking loss. Plus, they have fun!

What’s happening more broadly in American society around youth athletics is deeply troubling. Seeing sports as a path to elite college admissions, parents too often feel the pressure to push very young kids to train, compete, and specialize. We have professionalized youth sports in a way that is producing repetitive-stress injuries and anxiety rather than healthy habits and joy. The incentives that colleges create in this area make it hard for families to opt out of a toxic environment. At BUA we have opted out and resisted the pressure I see other schools succumbing to. And I am deeply proud of that.

Our Exceptional Tour Guides

We are in the heart of admission season, and I want to give a shout-out to our incredible student tour guides. On most days, I greet prospective students and families on tours in the hallway outside my office and get to listen as they walk around the second floor. I hear our tour guides talking about our curriculum, class discussions, homework expectations, BU classes, and the college process. I hear them inviting and answering questions with clarity, candor, and humor. The experience with these tour guides is often a major reason for a family’s decision to join BUA – moved by the tour guides’ maturity, independence, thoughtfulness, wit, and mental agility, and eager to be part of a school filled with students like them. This is one way our students perpetuate the kind, curious culture we try so hard to foster.

Parents play a role as well. I often hear from prospective families that they learned about BUA from friends whose children are currently part of the school. That word of mouth goes a long way, and we are grateful.

Happy Kids

On October 5, we welcomed nearly 150 BUA parents and guardians to our first-ever State of the School event. It was a beautiful moment of connection – families from over 50 cities and towns enjoying the company of the teachers who are folk heroes around their dinner tables and other parents whose children they hear so much about.  We are excited to make this an annual tradition. Please enjoy these pictures from the event.

I told a story about my recent phone conversation with a parent of a BUA graduate. She was telling me about her daughter’s experience in college – adjusting to a new environment and navigating her newfound independence. I was telling her about our three-year-old’s first few weeks at school – getting used to the routine, getting to know his teachers, making friends. In the end, we both landed in the same place: what we want – the only thing we want – is for our kids to be happy. 

As I shared at the State of the School, the thing I am proudest of about BUA is that our kids – most of them, most of the time – are happy. They are happy because they are at a place where they can be their kind and curious selves. While I was greeting students yesterday morning, I asked them to tell me about some school-related thing they were feeling happy about. Students told me about creating a musical composition inspired by Beowulf; a conversation with a BU professor about his senior thesis about the built environment in Medford; the fall girls’ crew program; exploring pre-colonial Africa in 10th-grade history; interrogating the concept of truth while reading Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography; studying water fleas under a microscope in 9th-grade biology; starting rehearsals for Our Town; strong student interest in Chemistry Club; the all-school breakfast sponsored by the Latin American Student Association; how much fun Greek class is; getting to talk about – rather than just do – math in class. I also heard a lot about their friends who, not long ago, were strangers, but now will be lifelong companions. I am deeply grateful to everybody in the community – parents, teachers, staff, and students – for helping make this a community where these kids can thrive – and smile.

Holding Doors

I noticed one of our students holding the door for her classmates on several occasions during our opening days. She did it without fanfare or hesitation. Everybody who passed through the door said thank you. And then one of them held the next door for the group further down the hallway. I like to imagine that this door-holding behavior was contagious and lasted all day!

Whenever I see a small moment of kindness – holding a door, picking up a piece of trash, showing a visitor where to go – I make sure to take the student aside and thank them for doing the right thing. Small moments like that inspire others in the community. They spread joy. And, most importantly, those habits build character – which, in the end, is what we care most about.

Exploring Adventurously

I walked out of the BUA building one morning last week with three of our seniors, each of whom was on the way to a different BU class. One was headed to a history course: Magic, Science, and Religion. She was finding it fascinating and contrasted her reaction to that of many of her BU classmates, who admitted to taking it to fulfill a core requirement. Another student was on his way to an American literature course, which he described as a great opportunity to build on the novels he had read last year in his BUA English course. The third was bounding off to Cosmology; she shared that the course made things tough on her schedule, since it backed into soccer practice, but the material was too interesting to pass up!

Our mission describes BUA as a place where students can “explore adventurously the wider world of learning at Boston University.” It is such a joy to watch our students do that. Young kids start out so curious, but schools sometimes have the effect of squashing that passion for learning along the way. I am so glad that there is a school like this – filled with kids whose flame burns bright and with a culture that celebrates that kind of joyful inquiry. Now, off to class!

Letting Students Lead

Last year, we formed a committee – led by students and including several members of the faculty – to generate ideas for how to improve the senior experience, with a particular focus on encouraging senior connections with younger students and with life in the BUA building. The group made three recommendations, all of which have been implemented: hosting a senior retreat, which took place on Thompson Island in late August for some early bonding before a busy fall; bringing much-needed new furniture into the Junior-Senior Common Room; and designating the Quiet Study Room, formerly open to all students, as a place for juniors and seniors to work between BU classes rather than going to the BU library and other spaces up and down Comm. Ave. It’s all working! Despite a rainy day, the energy at the retreat was positive and fun, and it has continued into September. We are seeing many more seniors in the BUA building all throughout the day – whether they are piled on the new couches in the JSR or studying Differential Equations in the QSR. We are all better for having our seniors happy, connected, and close by.

One of the challenges with the Quiet Study Room in the past has been keeping it quiet; students understandably wanted to talk and joke, which was sometimes loud and disruptive to others trying to study or to students in the English classroom next door. We adults had frankly failed to solve the problem. So, we turned to the students – and they have (so far) fixed it! They announced a witty rebrand of the QSR to the CIA (Considerate Independent-study Area), borrowing wording from quiet spaces in the Mugar Library that students are already familiar with. They designed and placed reminder placards on the tables in the room about the noise expectations in that space. They even posted a public service announcement on the Student Council Instagram. They are owning the change, and it’s working.

When we listen to students and empower them to build the kind of community they want to be in, we all move forward together. They have a lived experience we adults simply don’t have. They understand things we don’t. They can tell us what they need. They know how to inspire their classmates. They understand how to change the culture. And they learn that they are capable and powerful agents for positive change – an insight they will carry with them beyond these walls. I could not be more proud of our seniors, more grateful for the tone they are setting for all of us this year, and more optimistic about the months ahead.