giving | mission & Values
Our values—inquiry, integrity, belonging, and kindness—shape all we do, from how we teach and learn to how we care for one another and engage with the world. The stories below are just a few examples of how your generosity makes an impact on students, faculty, and staff across all our campuses.
integrity
This spring, BB&N’s first graders turned a year of learning into action by raising money for the Boston Medical Center (BMC) rooftop garden. Students created All About Pollinator Gardens books, greeting cards, and handcrafted bee homes, which were sold at the Lower School Book Fair. All proceeds benefited the rooftop garden, which grows fresh food for the BMC Food Pantry.
The fundraiser was the culmination of an interdisciplinary study focused on the role pollinators play in supporting healthy gardens and food security. Throughout the school year, students built their bee homes, created watercolor artwork, and engaged in project-based activities. They visited the BMC rooftop garden and Fenway Farms and heard from pollinator experts at Tufts University. Toward the end of their exploration, students also donated food to a community fridge in Cambridge.
inquiry
The History and Social Sciences Department and the English Department have announced the winners of their junior-year writing prizes for essays written last winter and spring, respectively, and judged over the summer by panels of judges outside of BB&N.
Four BB&N seniors have received top honors in the annual Junior Profile Contest, the final event in the cornerstone English project for all eleventh-graders. The panel of judges—working writers and editors—has awarded first prize to Sarah Hirsch ’26, second prize to Ryan Clay ’26, and honorable mentions to Sadie Saarony ’26 and You-Yan Wang ’26.
inquiry
The Bionic Project returned to the Upper School campus this week to teach third-graders about life with a physical disability. The local organization is a non-profit founded in 2018 by a former Shady Hill School teacher, and its mission is to foster a more inclusive world through education, story, and sport.
Educators Nico Calabria and Sydney Coblentz launched the day with an assembly about messages in the media and person-first language around disabilities. Then, students engaged in a hands-on seminar on designing an ADA-compliant classroom based on their knowledge from class and with help from the Bionic facilitators. After the classroom sessions, students got the opportunity to join the team in a game of amputee soccer, using the crutches athletes use to play the sport.
integrity
This year’s fourth-straight Community Day at the Upper School focused on’outside of the box,’ something focused on by alumna Rockie Yewendwossen ’25 in her Senior Spring Project. Author Jason Craige Harris launched the event by speaking to students about having difficult conversations, then students transitioned to group games and to two sets of workshops.
After Harris brought the energy to the gym, students transitioned to play group games and win prizes, setting the tone for the rest of the day. For the rest of the morning, everyone attended 2 of the 70 peer-led workshops that covered everything from cupcake decorating and pancakes to dechlorinating water and building a marble run.
inquiry
Eco Bash looked a little different this year; instead of a full day of activities, the Eco Reps planned a more focused session featuring a speaker from Surfrider, a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting the ocean for all people. After the assembly, students headed into the commons to peruse booths set up by BB&N clubs and local eco-friendly organizations like Green Cambridge.
Surfrider volunteer and Backcountry Hunters and Anglers member Christopher Borgatti spoke to students about Surfrider’s mission, history, and why it matters. After providing background, Chris emphasized that the students in the room would have to respond to the environmental crisis more than previous generations out of necessity. However, this generation may be more equipped to handle the situation through their knowledge of social media and communication.
belonging
The annual spring concerts at the Lower School launched a season of art across all three BB&N campuses. Both performances featured a range of instruments, soloists, and even languages as students shared what they’ve learned over the year through music.
The upper-grade concert once again featured student soloists performing during transitions, a concert staple introduced by new music teacher Brenda Chien last year. Students sang songs in French, Spanish, Mandarin, and more, as their peers accompanied on the piano, drums, guitar, recorder, and even buckets. To close the concert, all of the grades led the audience in a rousing rendition of their recently composed BB&N Lower School Song.
kindness
Two upperclassmen in the BB&N Upper School music program are giving back to the community in the best way they know how–through music. Two pianists, Vartan Arakelian ’26 and Matthew Ding ’27, organized small concerts to not only highlight the talent on campus but to support oft-forgotten parts of the Greater Boston area.
Orchestra and chamber music director Elliot Cless ’02 described the two students’ missions:
“Vartan Arakelian (varakelian@bbns.org; alone in img_9562) is a senior who plays piano in Chamber Music, as well as piano and percussion in Orchestra. During his sophomore year, Vartan initiated a food drive to benefit a local food pantry that takes place during the Winter Chamber Music concert, in conjunction with the nonprofit “Music for Food.”
inquiry
Established in 1937 at Browne and Nichols School, the BB&N debate team has a history of success in regional and world debate tournaments. This year alone, the squad earned four top-three finishes, including second place in the first tournament hosted at BB&N.
Coached by Upper School English teacher Talayah Hudson, the team travels to competitions as close as the Rivers School and as far as Bermuda. Last weekend, the group trekked to Loomis Chaffee and walked away with the third-place school award.
belonging
The annual spring sixth-grade musical is always a wonderful spectacle, and this year’s production of Mary Poppins Jr. was no different. Students traveled all the way to Six Cherry Tree Lane with Mary Poppins and the Banks family to show the audience the power of family and belief.
In a classic Disney tale, the show follows Jane and Michael Banks, two rebellious siblings who go through nannies faster than their mother and workaholic father can replace them. In comes Mary Poppins, a magical caretaker who takes them on adventures across London with the help of a friendly chimney sweep, Bert.
inquiry
BB&N is a proud member of Round Square, an international organization that encourages students at its member schools to collaborate across cultures to develop skills that create proactive future leaders. Every year, BB&N sends a group of Upper School students to conferences worldwide, most recently in Oman and Dubai.
After returning to Cambridge in late September, students reflected on their almost two-week experience in the Middle East. All students noted that one of their favorite parts of the conference was getting to know students from other cultures and countries. One attendee, Sydney Francis ’26, remarked, “I feel like I’ve become more open-minded in interacting with people from different cultures. I got to see how people from all different parts of the world view the world.”
inquiry
This year’s Middle School Latinx and Hispanic Heritage Month CAB was an event for the ages. Students learned about and celebrated Hispanic heritage through food, music, and dancing.
Ms. Allen’s Music Club kicked off the afternoon with a performance in the Big Room. Then, thanks to a collaboration with the LAHFA (Latin American & Hispanic Family Association), one group of students tasted cultural food like pupusas, churros, and cohinxas. At the same time, salsa instructor Lumyr Derisier from Salsa y Control dance studio brought interactive learning to the stage for the other group of homerooms. Both groups eventually tried the food and the dancing in a festive introduction to Hispanic culture to mark the month.
The Middle School will host many history month CABs throughout the year. After such an engaging start, there is much to look forward to in future assemblies.
belonging
For an incredible 72nd year, ninth graders partook in the school’s annual Bivouac program up at BB&N’s Camp Marienfeld in New Hampshire. The longstanding program serves as an orientation for all freshmen, as well as a valuable means to integrate new students into the community. Despite being outside of their comfort zones and enduring a lack of smartphones (gasp!), the resilient members of The Class of 2029 tackled Bivouac head-on, learning about nature, team building, orienteering, sustainability practices, and perhaps most importantly, crafting memories that will last a lifetime.
inquiry
The 2024-2025 school year witnessed an exciting first in BB&N’s fifth-grade curriculum. Through an exciting collaboration with the nonprofit Educational Passages, science teacher Lauren Rader’s class began work on a seafaring vessel that will sail the ocean collecting important data, and potentially connecting students to other cultures and people. Known as “Miniboats,” the project utilizes a wide spectrum of skills to build, outfit, calibrate, and launch a five-foot fiberglass boat into the ocean where the currents will carry it to unknown shores, gathering useful intel along the way.