Keeping You Up to Date

People of Color Conference Attendees Visit BB&N

BB&N had the honor of being a host school for the annual People of Color Conference that was held in Boston in late November. On November 28, the School welcomed 25 educators and students from independent schools throughout the country. The visit was highlighted by a discussion of the achievement study among African American and Latino students that BB&N is conducting by virtue of a grant from the Edward E. Ford Foundation. “I’m fortunate to be here in a community that does value diversity and does value education,” said US history teacher Ross Clark, who chairs the study committee.

In addition, BB&N held breakout sessions for its visitors on topics including parent involvement, faculty orientation, and Brothers Seeking Academic Excellence. The conference, sponsored by the National Association of Independent Schools, is designed for people of color as it relates to their roles in independent schools. Its programming supports people of color as they pursue strategies for success and leadership, and as schools work to build and sustain inclusive school communities. Along with serving as a host school, BB&N also hosted a reception at the Museum of African American History in Boston on Saturday, December 1, as a special wrap-up to the conference. Top

Lower School Welcomes Grandfriends to Campus

The Lower School campus was transformed into a giant show and tell exposition last month as hundreds of grandfriends visited the School to experience a slice of their grandchildren’s lives. (Pictured above, Harry Bator ’15 and his grandmother Jae Roosevelt.)

“We know it’s a special experience for you to see your grandkids,” said Head of School Rebecca T. Upham to the gathered grandfriends.  “They are ecstatic to see you and share their classes with you.”

Following an informative assembly with Upham and Lower School Director Sue Scarborough, the grandfriends spent the morning with their young friends learning about their class work and projects. 

Please CLICK HERE to link to a password-protected photo gallery. Top

Boys' Varsity Soccer Wraps Up Great Year

After and inspired season, and 19 hard fought games, BB&N’s Boys’ Varsity Soccer season came down to one minute of furious play. Facing soccer powerhouse Avon Old Farms (a large all boys school) in the New England Class A tournament finals, the Knights fell 1-0 in the last minute of overtime despite taking the play to the opponents for much of the extra time.

“Both teams had their spurts of good soccer in the final game, and we actually out chanced Avon in overtime,” says Coach Jesse Sarzana ’93. “But they found a way to pull it out in the end—something we’d been doing all season.”

Far from disappointed in his team, Sarzana noted that the 2007 team was a Cinderella story of sorts. “This team exceeded all expectations, and went above and beyond the entire year,” he says. “Individuals stepped up, we had fantastic chemistry, and at times we were really a sight to see—playing pass first team soccer like it should be played.”

Posting a 14-1 league record, and 16-3 overall record, the Knights won the ISL outright for the first time in the School’s history, and came one goal short of winning the Class A title.

Bolstered by a core of five seniors, (ISL Player of the Year Max Walker, pictured above, Peter Randall, Tarek Eljahmi, Daniel Fleischer, and Max Meyer), a solid back line, and good goaltending (Ciaran Nugent ’10), the team out-hustled most opponents and did just enough to win. Walker was also named offensive player of the year for his 20 goal campaign, as well as two additional scores in the postseason.  

“The entire School community got behind us, which was amazing,” Sarzana says. “Our playoff games were packed with fans showing great support which was well appreciated by all of us—the players really felt it.” Top

Holiday Season Concert Schedule

Here is the schedule for each campus’ holiday concert offerings:

US Winter Concert
Saturday Dec. 8, 7:30-9:30PM
First Parish of Brookline

MS Winterfest
Wednesday Dec. 19, 5:45-7:45PM
Big Room

LS Morse Building Sing-along
Friday Dec. 14, 8:45-9:45AM
LS Gym

LS New Wing Concert
Wednesday Dec. 19, 8:30-9:30AM
LS Gym

LS Brick Building Concert
Thursday Dec. 20, 7-8PM
LS Gym Top

Oaxacan Wood Carver Visits Middle School

Ventura Fabian, 65, sits stooped on the Big Room stage at the Middle School, whittling away at a length of wood. A legend in his home state of Oaxaca, Mexico and the surrounding countryside, the master wood carver is seemingly oblivious to the 1st and 6th grade students staring at him with rapt interest.

“It is a great pleasure to be here and share our art with you,” he says quietly through an interpreter. The humble artist prefers to let his sculptures do the talking, and if the hundreds of intricately carved and brightly painted sculptures arranged around him could speak, the noise would be deafening.

Using only a machete, carving knife, chisel, and hammer, Fabian has sculpted thousands of pieces in his lifetime, aided by his children, one of whom, Norberto, 24, has accompanied him to the US on a tour of educational facilities through the Mexican Consulate.

Fabian’s medium is Copal wood, a short, shrubby Mexican tree known for its unusual bending branch shapes and soft wood. Following the carving, the sculptures are sanded, dipped in gasoline to keep them free of bugs, and finally, painted bright colors.

“I like to do imaginative carvings,” Fabian says. Drawing from the folklore of the Zapatec indigenous people, and his history of farming, Fabian’s sculptures depict animal like figures in various states of dance or play. Top

French Celebration Draws Big Crowd

The first-ever BB&N all-campus French Celebration enjoyed a successful debut on Saturday, November 3. Despite the rain, 120 students and parents from the three campuses came to the Upper School, where they were regaled with puzzles, crepes, a lively performance by a group of young French singers, Les Teenagers, and a host of other fun activities. Top

Distinguished Alumna Visits Lower and Upper School Campuses

Students, faculty, and staff were given a rare treat as acclaimed opera singer Marion Dry ’69 visited both the Lower and Upper School campuses to perform as well as provide helpful vocal tips to students.

Dry, the recipient of this year’s Distinguished Alumna Award, first sang for fifth and sixth graders who sat enraptured by her powerful voice.

“This is extremely special for me because I am going to sing a song for you that I learned in this very room as a 4th grade student at Buckingham,” Dry said before singing The Ash Grove.

Moving on to the Nicholas Athletic Center, Dry then performed several songs at an Upper School assembly. Students soaked in the world-renowned contralto’s arias as well as her expertise in the field of professional music.

Speaking about her decision to follow music professionally, Dry encouraged students to use this crucial time in their lives to develop and nurture their own unique interests.

“Pay attention to what you enjoy and to what keeps you engaged,” Dry said. “Do something you care about, explore, and always ask questions.”

Dry, who currently teaches voice at Wellesley College and manages their performance series, has performed with the Berlin Opera and the Boston Symphony Orchestra among numerous other premiere orchestras and opera companies. Top

Soup Bowl Celebrates 15th Year

For the past 15 years, Middle School students have been crafting, glazing, and firing ceramic soup bowls under the guidance of Arts Chair Libby Maclaren for the Annual Soup Bowl Dinner. Parents purchased the bowls and dined together at the November 1st dinner, the proceeds of which went to the Love and Understanding program, which supports the education and feeding of poor children in Vietnam. “This year set a record,” writes Maclaren about the efforts of the 24 eighth-grade bowl makers and parent supporters. “Contributions of soup, salad, and bread were bountiful, and $1,155 was donated to the Love and Understanding program. Thank you all for your generosity and support.” Top

Chiapas Photo Exhibit On Tap for 2nd Week of December

The entire BB&N community is invited to attend a December 11 reception celebrating the Chiapas Photo Project exhibit taking place at the Middle School during the week of December 10th.

The images in this exhibition, titled Nuestra Comida, were taken by indigenous photographers of Tzotzil and Tzeltal ethnicities in the highlands of Chiapas in southeastern Mexico. The photographers generally dedicate themselves to agriculture, but at the same time they document their rural communities. These photographers take pictures of what they live daily. We highly encourage the community to come to see these images of the indigenous people of Chiapas. Food and refreshments will be served. Please RSVP to elizabeth_maclaren@bbns.org. Top

Students Impress With Annual Middle School Science Fair

The Cambridge scientific community was served warning last month, when BB&N eighth graders donned their lab coats and beakers for the annual Middle School Science Fair. Students filled the Middle School Big Room and Foyer with display boards showing the results of experiments they had engineered and conducted. From windmill physics to culinary exploration, the evening ran the gamut of scientific discovery.

Harrison Stetler ’12 examined the effects of varying water temperature on yeast growth. By affixing balloons to empty bottles, and heating a yeast and water mixture, he was able to determine the greatest growth by the size of the balloon. “I hypothesized about 25 degrees,” said Stetler. “I was very close.”

Ali Stellati ’12 designed an experiment to see how closely related the sense of smell and taste are. Test subjects tasted Jelly Belly jelly beans with their noses plugged and unplugged while guessing at the flavor. According to Stellati, the results were “inconclusive, but delicious!”

Harry Lee ’12 (pictured above) built model windmills to test if the number of blades on a turbine affects the speed at which it spins. “I figured that as long as the total surface area was the same, the number of blades wouldn’t make a difference,” says Lee. Many models, and test runs later—Lee was right. Top

World-Renowned Humanitarians to Visit BB&N

BB&N is thrilled to report that the co-founder and president of Partners in Health—world-renowned physician and anthropologist Dr. Paul Farmer and Ophelia Dahl—will visit the Middle School and Upper School on Thursday, December 13. They will speak with BB&N students about their work with Partners in Health (www.pih.org), an international health and social justice organization that has made significant public health advances in the world’s most impoverished areas. PIH’s mission is to “provide a preferential option for the poor in health care” in rural locales in countries such as Haiti, Peru, and Rwanda.

Dr. Farmer and his work are the focus of Tracy Kidder’s 2003 book, Mountains Beyond Mountains: Healing the World: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer.

Farmer and Dahl will visit the Middle School first on December 13, where they will speak with Middle Schoolers in the Big Room at 9:00 a.m. Later that morning, they will travel to the Nicholas Athletic Center, where they will speak to Upper School students at X-Block Assembly. Parents from all grades are invited to attend this gathering as well. We hope you’ll be able to take advantage of this unique opportunity to hear firsthand about the world-changing work of Dr. Farmer and Partners in Health. Top

Lower School Celebrates Thanksgiving

Faculty, staff, and students gathered in the Brick Building gym to share songs, laughter, and to celebrate the spirit of kindness and warmth felt by all members of the Lower School community. Top

US Director Writes Book on Gerrymandering

As students and faculty soaked up the sun this past summer, US Director Jack Knapp traveled around Iowa where he spent many weeks researching and performing interviews for his upcoming book on the topic of gerrymandering—a form of redistricting where the electoral district are manipulated for an electoral advantage.

Knapp feels that this topic is extremely pertinent to the upcoming election and the problem of widespread voting apathy across the United States: “Many feel that one vote doesn’t matter, and it’s gerrymandering that makes votes less significant,” he says. “It’s unconstitutional.”

Knapp, who aims to finish his book within the next three years, hopes his work will focus attention on this issue and encourage a change within the system. Top

Dr. William Pollack Meets With Faculty and Parents

Dr. William Pollack, well known expert in the areas of boys’ development and education, met with faculty on all three BB&N campuses in November to discuss issues surrounding the education of boys and young men. (In above photo, he’s discussing case studies with Middle School faculty in the Big Room.) In addition, Dr. Pollack spoke with BB&N parents on the evening of November 19.

He is best known for his best-selling book Real Boys, based on his groundbreaking research over two decades. The book explores this generation’s “silent crisis”: why so many boys are sad, lonely, and confused although they may appear tough, cheerful, and confident. Pollack challenges conventional expectations about manhood and masculinity that encourage parents to treat boys as little men, raising them through a toughening process that drives their true emotions underground. Only when we understand what boys are really like, says Pollack, can parents and teachers help them develop more self-confidence and the emotional savvy they need to deal with issues such as depression and violence, drugs and alcohol, sexuality, and love. Top