Keeping You Up to Date

Save the Date: Friday, April 11
A Celebration of Teaching Excellence at BB&N

Please save the date for a festive evening on Friday, April 11. Parents, alumni/ae, grandparents, faculty, and staff will gather together at the Nicholas Athletic Center to honor our extraordinary faculty. Watch your email and mail in the coming weeks for an invitation with further details, but we hope you will plan to join us. Top

Cello Magic at the Lower School

Beginner students were thrilled by a late-January visit by Sandy Kiefer, music director of the Copley Chamber Players, who introduced the youngsters to the music and magic of the cello. Ms. Kiefer wove together cello playing and interactive storytelling techniques to entertain and educate the enthralled audience. The interactive program, presented under the auspices of Young Audiences of Massachusetts, was supported by the Maureen Baker Lower School Language Arts Fund, established in 2004 by a group of Lower School parents to honor Ms. Baker, a teacher at the Buckingham School and BB&N from 1964 to 2004. Top

Gallery Talks Provide Glimpse into Artistic Process

Standing in the brand new gallery space in Renaissance Hall at a recent student gallery talk, Senior Emily Parkinson speaks about the process behind her silk-screening work—long sheets of brightly colored fabrics intricately patterned with her handmade designs. Top

Fifth Grader Performs with Local Orchestra

Fifth grader Sophie Applbaum will be featured as cello soloist with the Longy Youth Chamber Orchestra in a family concert at the Longy School of Music. This honor comes as a result of her winning second prize in the 10-14 year old category of the concerto competition at the Longy School of Music. Sophie, who has played the cello since she was five, will play the first movement of the Concerto in C minor for cello and orchestra by Johann Christian Bach. The 4 pm concert, which is open to the public, will be held in Pickman Hall at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge on Sunday, February 3. Top

Summer Programs and Community Service Resources

We want to inform BB&N families about information resources for two areas that may be of interest to many of you: community service and summer program opportunities. These resources are offered by a local organization called TeenLife Boston.

Community Service: TeenLife is hosting a Community Service Fair on Sunday, February 10, from 2-5 pm at the Atrium Mall in Chestnut Hill. All students, parents, and teachers from grades 7 through 12 at BB&N are invited to attend this free event. Over 35 non-profit exhibitors will be present to recruit students for individual volunteer opportunities, help with goods drives and special events, administrative internships, and in some cases, paid staff positions. Students, parents and teachers are encouraged to pre-register by February 4 in order to receive priority access at the event.

TeenLife also offers a Guide to Community Service - 2008. It lists hundreds of volunteer opportunities at non-profit organizations throughout in the Greater Boston area, both large and small, who seek to engage teens as volunteers, interns or staff members. This printed guide provides contact information, minimum age requirements for different tasks, and a description of the organization and the teen volunteer opportunities. CLICK HERE for more information or to place your order. A portion of the proceeds will benefit financial aid at BB&N.

Summer Programs: TeenLife’s Guide to Summer Programs – 2008 provides one-page summaries of nearly 400 programs offered by colleges, independent schools, private camps, health & recreation centers, and non-profits that include or are specifically geared to teens (ages 13-18 or entering Grade 7 to College). Each profile includes contact information, eligibility requirements, fees, hours, session dates, and a short description of the program. CLICK HERE for more information or to place your order. A portion of the proceeds will benefit financial aid at BB&N. Top

Upper School Woodworking Teacher Awarded Grant

Upper School woodworking teacher Paul Ruhlmann was recently awarded an Art Renewal for Teachers Grant from the Philanthropic Initiative Inc. The $5,000 grant is one of seven given to Massachusetts teachers this year and provides the recipients resources to renovate studio space, purchase equipment, travel for exhibits and other necessities important to renewing and encouraging their art form.

“I plan to use my grant to purchase a wood turning lathe, make some improvements to my home studio, and use my time this summer to create a series of wood sculptures,” says Ruhlmann.

Next fall, Ruhlmann will give a presentation on how he has benefited from the grant. Ruhlmann also hopes to apply for a further inter-disciplinary grant for the School to have an independent study course in mechanical sculpture, connecting Science with Art. Top

Annual Food Drive Begins on February 4

The 6th annual BB&N Food Drive will begin on Monday, February 4 and run through Friday, February 15. The schoolwide drive benefits the Preventive Food Pantry at the Boston Medical Center. The Food Pantry provides, free of charge, medically and nutritionally appropriate food to many of Boston’s neediest children, new mothers, and pregnant women.

CLICK HERE to see a list to which the Food Drive organizers are asking BB&N students and families to donate as many food items as they can.

Thank you in advance for your help in continuing the great success of this BB&N initiative. Top

Two Trailblazing Summer Programs On Tap

This year, BB&N will debut two exciting summer programs that tap into long-standing strengths of the Upper School.

The first is the Critical Languages, Global Politics & Diplomacy Summer Institute—a six-week program for any Greater Boston-area student entering grades 9-12. The daylong program features a curriculum that combines beginner-level study of a less commonly taught critical language (students can choose from Arabic, Chinese, or Russian) with the study of global politics and diplomacy. The courses will be taught by experienced, talented faculty; BB&N has earned a national reputation for educational excellence based on its more than 50 years of teaching critical languages. This unique summer program is a great match for students who see themselves as future leaders in international affairs, whether it be business, politics, or academia.

The second summer offering is a college counseling program designed to give Greater Boston-area students who may not have had access to in-depth college counseling in their junior year a comprehensive head start before their senior year. During the three-day program, students will learn how to create and research a list of colleges, get tips and practice with filling out applications, and instruction on how to write effective college essays. In addition, there will be work on interviewing and a visit a Boston-area college.

CLICK HERE for more information about the programs. Top

Letter from BB&N's Director of Health Services

Please CLICK HERE to read a letter from BB&N's director of health services, Debra Dzierzak, that reviews key health information for the BB&N community during cold and flu season. Top

LS Students Thrive in Local and National Chess Tournaments

BB&N may have to build a new trophy case at the Lower School based on the outstanding performance of its chess teams this year. 

In late January, two teams from BB&N’s Lower School, led by Coach Larry Eldridge, won championships at the Massachusetts Chess Association’s annual Holiday Team Challenge. The K-6 team, made up of Nicholas Trieu, Bunnard Phan, Darrith Phan, and Zachary Lovett, won all of its matches for a perfect 4-0 score. The K-3 team, composed of Will Nemirovsky, Tristan Young, Nat Adamian, and Ben Wiegand took first place with 3.5 points.

In early December, four third graders (pictured above with Senior Master Lou Mercuri) made BB&N history when they finished in third place out of 25 teams in the U.S. Chess Federation’s National Scholastic K-12/Collegiate Championship in Houston, Texas. Max Wiegand, Tristan Young, Will Nemirovsky and Issay Matsumoto were the team members.

In the team competition, BB&N was third out of 25 teams. In individual standings, Max Wiegand placed 12th out of 158 third grade players nationwide and Nicholas Trieu finished 22nd overall in the sixth grade category. Top

Middle School Play & Musical Revue Delights the Crowd

In a departure from years past, the Middle School winter play shared the bill with a musical revue, making for a delightful combination of theater and music. On the acting side, Director Katie Glick adapted Shakespeare’s Hamlet into a witty and irreverent production titled Shamlet. Featuring a Hamlet as a depressed murderer, Ophelia as a tramp addicted to dry erase markers, an impatient, disillusioned ghost, and many other memorable characters, the play tickled the audience in all of the right places.

Under the direction of Music Teacher Kathi Gellar, the other portion of the evening featured a selection of songs from famous Broadway productions titled They Call the Show Anita. The familiarity of the material and the energy of the students contributed to a series of wonderful performances, culminating with the big closing number Everything’s Comin’ Up Roses from the musical Gypsy. Top

Science Symposium Explores Intriguing Topics

The Upper School Science Department hosted its second annual Current Topics & Research in Science and Technology Symposium on January 17. Five seniors—four enrolled in the CTR course and one performing a Physics independent study—took turns presenting their research and findings to a room filled with parents, teachers, and fellow students. The symposium is a keystone event for CTR students, who are charged at the beginning of the school year with identifying an area of scientific interest and pursuing independent research to present to the community.

The students lived up to their end of the bargain, as they shed light on a fascinating variety of topics and fielded questions from inquiring minds in the audience. The presenters were, from left to right above: Extremophiles, by Tiffany Sommadossi; Aquatic Invasive Species, by Meredith Bosco; The History and Engineering of Bridge Design, by Justin Curhan; Internet Security, by Feng Wu; and Wireless Energy Transfer, by Max Seidman. Top

Middle School Geography Bee Goes Down to the Wire

Pageantry and academic acumen collided in the Middle School Big Room this winter when 12 students competed in the first ever Middle School Geography Bee. The event started with a bang as Middle School History Teachers Bill Rogers, Gabe Mejail, and Harold Francis entered the room to the Rocky theme, Eye of the Tiger. Replete with sunglasses and metal briefcases containing the questions for the bee, the faculty costumes lent the event an air of drama which students responded to, cheering and tittering anxiously.

The bee took the form of both verbal and written answer questions posed to the participants who lined the Big Room stage. As the fun and informative competition wound down, Miles Harrison ’13 and Thomas Hislop ’13 squared off as the last two standing. When Harrison correctly identified Guam as the US territory which sees the earliest sunrise, he secured the victory, and earned a chance to take a national test which could qualify him for the National Geography Bee later this year. Top

Former KGB Officer Visits Upper School

Upper School Russian students recently engaged in a lively Q&A session with Konstantin Preobrazhensky, a former KGB officer, who was invited to BB&N by Senior Brian Stearns.

“It was a very helpful experience for our students to see that a secret agent doesn't necessarily have to resemble James Bond,” said Upper School Russian teacher Armen Dedekian. “Konstantin probably is more stereotypical of a secret agent because most are brainy rather than muscular and macho.”

Born in 1953 in Moscow, Preobrazhensky began working for the Foreign Intelligence Department of the KGB in 1976. He was arrested in 1985 by the Japanese police for recruiting Chinese scholars while working as a TASS correspondent and subsequently published a book, The Spy Who Loved Japan, in 1994. Preobrazhensky was also a columnist for the Moscow Times from 1993-2002 after leaving the KGB and a regular speaker on Voices of America.

Dedekian summed up the occasion: “As Jack Knapp said, ‘What other school in the country can say that they had a former KGB agent come as a guest speaker?!’ This indeed makes BB&N quite special.” Top