Fall/Winter 2018
bulletin Dr. Jennifer Price BB&N’s Fourth Head of School
Inside this issue:
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Dr. Price’s Entry Report Summary
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Growing Mobile: Andrew Paradise ’00
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Faculty Emerita Profile: Beth Jacobson
bulletin Fall/Winter 2018
Events Calendar January Saturday, January 12 Boston Art Weekend Tuesday, January 29 BB&N in Philadelphia
February Thursday, February 21 BB&N in Seattle Monday, February 25 BB&N in San Francisco Wednesday, February 27 BB&N in Los Angeles (Eastside) Thursday, February 28 BB&N in Los Angeles (Westside)
April Monday, April 8 BB&N in Washington, DC Tuesday, April 9 BB&N in New York
For more information about alumni/ae events and programs, visit bbns.org/alumniae For School news and events, visit bbns.org/news-events NOTE TO PARENTS OF ALUMNI/AE: If this issue of the Bulletin was sent to your child who has a new mailing address, please help us update our records! Send the correct contact information to alumni_programs@bbns.org or Alumni/ae Programs, Buckingham Browne & Nichols School, 80 Gerry’s Landing Road, Cambridge, MA 02138.
Head of School Entry Report Summary
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Head of School Jennifer Price shares findings and themes that emerged from her Entry Tour
Community News
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Jennifer Price Installed as Head of School, Fall Sports, 66 years of Bivouac, Inside the Classroom with Kevin Bau, New Trustees Named, Upper School Fall Play, and more
Features Meet Dr. Jennifer Price: 18 Woman in Motion and on a Mission BB&N’s fourth head of school is making a big impact already in her first few months on campus
Paradise ’00 30 Andrew An entrepreneur inventing the future one business at a time
BB&N Teachers Expand 32 Horizons with International Partnerships BB&N teachers Christina DelloRusso and Amanda Borking reflect on globally oriented professional development trips
Faculty Profile: 36 Former Beth Jacobson
Advancing Our Mission Leadership Society Fall Gathering, 38 1974 Senior Welcome Dinner, Isabel Marchant O’Neil P’52: The Case for Polite Persistence
Alumni/ae News & Notes
42 Alumni/ae News and Notes 46 Golden Alumni/ae Luncheon 60 Head of the Charles 68 Milestones
Director of Communications Joe Clifford, Editor Associate Director of Communications Andrew Fletcher, Senior Editor Communications and Website Coordinator Hadley Kyle, Editor Contributing Writers Amanda Borking Joe Clifford Cecily Craighill Davis Christina DelloRusso Andrew Fletcher Sam Klein Roche ’19 Sharon Krauss Rebecca Lombardo Liz Marshall Dr. Jennifer Price Richard Price Jr. Kate Radlauer Janet Rosen Al Rossiter Cynthia Siedman-Willen Contributing Editors Cecily Craighill Davis Janet Rosen Tracy Rosette Brianna Smith ’10 Alumni/ae News & Notes Cecily Craighill Davis Tracy Rosette Brianna Smith ’10 Design & Production Nanci Booth www.nancibooth.com 781-301-1733 Photography/Artwork/Design Leila Bailey-Stewart Joe Clifford Andrew Fletcher Sharon Krauss Eric Nordberg ’88 Shawn Read Adam Richins Joshua Touster
Board of Trustees, 2018-2019 Officers Charles A. Brizius, Chair Erica Gervais Pappendick, Vice Chair/ Secretary Bob Higgins, Vice Chair/Treasurer Members Leslie Ahlstrand ’08 Jake Anderson-Bialis ’98 Carmen Arce-Bowen Pam Baker Jeff Barber Jimmy Berylson ’00 Margaret Boasberg Agnes Bundy Scanlan Bihua Chen Tim Cohen Louisa Connaughton Mary Beth Gordon Christine Gross-Loh Jason Hafler ’00 Rachel Kroner Hanselman ’89 Kathryn Kargman Holden ’01 Freddie Jacobs Ken Lang Peter Levitt ’84 Bridget Terry Long Tristin Mannion Leslie Riedel Micki Rowaan Emma Sagan ’10 Matthew Sidman ’90 Stephen Spaloss David Thompson ’85 Head of School Dr. Jennifer Price Front Cover:
BB&N’s fourth head of school, Dr. Jennifer Price, on the terrace of the Middle School’s Musgrave building on Sparks Street. (Photo by Leila Bailey-Stewart) Correspondence may be sent to: Office of Alumni/ae Programs (alumni_programs@bbns.org or 617-800-2721) or the Office of Communications (communications@bbns.org or 617-800-2403), 80 Gerry’s Landing Road Cambridge, MA 02138-5512
FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT
www.bbns.org
Head of School Entry Report Summary PROCESS When I began at BB&N this summer, I knew the first few months would be crucial ones for me to learn as much as possible about the strengths, the stories, the history, the traditions, and the people of BB&N, as well as the exciting opportunities waiting for this amazing school. For the first four months, I engaged in an extensive, far-ranging entry process. It included more than three dozen “Listening Tour” meetings with groups and individuals, attended by more than 400 members of our community, and a survey with more than 1,200 participants. This process, supplemented by the scores of interactions I’ve enjoyed each day on our campuses since the start of school, has provided me with an incredibly helpful array of perspectives on how our constituents—students, faculty and staff, alumni/ae, parents, grandparents, and trustees—think and feel about this school we all share in common. On November 8th, I shared my Entry Process findings with the BB&N community in a presentation held at the Upper School Theater, and an in-depth, printed Entry Report will be shared with the entire community in December 2018. In the meantime, I offer the following summary of my findings. ~DR. JENNIFER PRICE, HEAD OF SCHOOL
FINDINGS 1. Strengths The first question of my survey and each of my entry meetings was “What are the best aspects of BB&N that I should make every effort to preserve?” Best Aspects of BB&N to Preserve N=844
400
Alumni/ae Faculty/Staff
360
Parents
319
320
280
69
Students
287 57 241
240
24
65
200
69 74
160
141 13
120
20 159
127
95 8
124
80
73
40
29
50 46
26
Academics
34
19
Faculty-Student Diversity/Equity/ Connection Inclusion
35
Sense of Community
50
48
17
18
7
8
6
12
19
16
19
Arts
Bivouac
12
6
Kindness
Athletics
7
5
The subsequent questions in my survey and entry meetings help us dig deeper into these specific “best aspects.” A) Academics The academic experience is, of course, the crown jewel of BB&N. The biggest factor by far in that excellent experience, according to our constituents, is the close connection that is fostered between our faculty/staff and our students.
“BB&N is a school where the hard worker is smart, and a smart person is ‘cool.’ We are a community of motivated people who want to do well.” ~CLASS OF 2024 STUDENT “The faculty are some of the friendliest, most caring, and most devoted teachers out there. This image of the typical BB&N teacher—who goes above and beyond and connects with their students on a personal level—is definitely worth preserving.” ~CLASS OF 2018 ALUMNUS/A (LIFER) 2
B) Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion BB&N has a long history being committed to a diverse community and to ensuring that all kids can bring their whole selves to our school.
What Effectively Addresses the Needs of All Students? N=671
100
Alumni/ae
91
90 9
83
82
Parents
4
80
70
Faculty/Staff 84
11
Students
22 28
33
60 39
50
36
40 29
52
4
40
30
13
“Having a school filled with people of varying backgrounds, opinions, and perspectives helps, not hinders, learning. Recruiting and retaining diverse students and faculty who are excited about learning is key to keeping the energy alive.” ~MS FACULTY
29
12
29
20
13
20
10 8
Diversity
5
Financial Aid
11
Inclusive Community
Affinity Groups
12
6
5
Gender/LGBTQ
Curriculum
FULL REPORT A video of Dr. Price’s November 8 Entry Report presentation to the community and an in-depth, printed Report can be found at: www.bbns.org/entry-report
C) Sense of Community BB&N’s sense of community currently tends to occur mostly at the campus level and not as much at the “all school” level.
What Does BB&N Do Well to Build a Sense of Community? N=566
100
Alumni/ae Faculty/Staff
90
Parents 80 Students 70
63 60
60
16
58 53
10
48
50 28
40
6
19 15 11 18
10 10
Bonding Activities
46
14
30
30
20
19 19
“BB&N makes inclusion, and acceptance of differences an absolute must. As a result, our children learn not to view things as ‘differences’ but instead embrace these differences without question.” ~LS/US PARENT
14 12
19
4
15
14
4
6
Bivouac
Athletics
16
Assemblies
15
9 4
Diversity/Equity/ Student Support Inclusion
3
2. Opportunities for Growth The second, very important overall question that shapes my entry tour’s findings is: “What does BB&N most need to work on?” What Does BB&N Most Need to Work On? N=834
250
225
Alumni/ae Faculty/Staff
219
Parents 200
52
Students
175
150
50
129
125
22
100
75
26 69
88
66
64
61
9
14
63
50
30
35
57
18
Diversity/ Equity/ Inclusion
Balance/Homework/ Stress
56 3
12
35 34
29
2 4
38
34
25
56
26 12
12
9
Sense of Community
Academics
Communication
Socioeconomic Status
Athletics Program
6
Facilities/ Parking
Just as with BB&N’s strengths, doing a deeper dive on these “what do we need to work on?” responses yields some exciting opportunities for growth at our school. A) Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Our constituents noted diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) issues as both a strength and an opportunity for growth. One area identified consistently was the need to better address socio-economic status. I met an alumnus this summer who expressed it well: “Leaving BB&N,” he said, “I felt so strongly prepared to talk about issues of race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. But I felt very unprepared to talk about issues of class.” How Might We Better Address the Needs of All Students? N=671
150
135
130
120
23
Alumni/ae Faculty/Staff Parents
105
90
Students 95 7
38
“One area of challenge is making sure students on financial aid feel fully part of the community and are not marginalized in small ways that will feel big to them.” ~MS FACULTY
87 16
75
34 19
60
45
36 66 50
30
40
7
10
22 9
15
13 3
Socioeconomic Status
4
Inclusive Community
12
Diversity
13 6
Gender/LGBTQ
Curriculum
Describe Your Most Difficult Academic Experience at BB&N B) B) Balance, Balance, Homework, Homework, and and Stress Stress The is finding the school is so well knownStudents for, and the N=552 The challenge challenge for for BB&N BB&N here is to find the the sweet spot between academic excellence, which social/emotional well-being of excellence, our students. These do not need to be mutually exclusive goals: both are really important, and both can sweet spot between academic Parents Balance/ happen. for which our school is so well known, 202 41 26 38 97 Homework/ Faculty/Staff Stress and the social/emotional well-being of Alumni/ae our students. These need not be mutually exclusive goals; both are vitally important 60 150 120 180 210 270 300 240 30 90 and both are achievable.
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C) Sense of Community The dominant theme emerging here is the desire for a greater sense of all-school togetherness, for more unity between and among our campuses. This was felt most strongly by our faculty and staff. I’m pleased to report that we have already started to address this at our opening meeting, our October professional day, and our continuing commitment to have faculty of the same disciplines schoolwide meet with each other throughout the year. “My sense is that ‘school spirit’ is lower at BB&N than other independent schools I have seen. The physical break between the US, MS, and LS seems part of this—with little sense of ‘all school’ unity.” ~LS PARENT “Building bridges across our four campuses to ensure that we are one school with common purposes and goals.” ~STAFF MEMBER D) Academics When I asked the question, “In what area should BB&N strive to be seen as a national leader?” the runaway winner was Academics. On one level, of course, this is hardly surprising. A robust, expansive, broad-minded academic experience that pushes students to the depth and distance of their abilities is the long-standing calling card of our school. The exciting horizon is to ensure that BB&N’s pedagogy and curriculum remains on the forefront of preparing our students to thrive and lead in our ever-changing world.
LEADING THEMES THAT EMERGED FROM MY ENTRY TOUR Strengths • The faculty and staff are the ‘secret sauce’ of BB&N. • The strength of the academic program is critical to our success. • This school has been and continues to be committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). •
BB&N has and continues to transform lives.
Opportunities • There is work still to do on DEI, especially around issues related to socio-economic status. • Continue to work on finding the appropriate balance between academic excellence and social-emotional health. • Attract, retain, and support a diverse, world-class faculty and staff. • Strengthen the “uKnighted” community. • Ensure we have an educational program that enhances our level of academic excellence and relevance.
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? • December 2018: written Entry Report ENTRY PROCESS July-October 2018
• January 2019: Board of Trustees (BOT) approves 4-5 Strategic Objectives • January - April 2019: Ad hoc committees of the BOT that include faculty/staff and interested others work on proposing specific initiatives for each Strategic Objective • May 2019: BOT approves draft Strategic Plan • May - September 2019: “Listening Tour” with draft Strategic Plan and implementation of targeted initiatives • September 2019: BOT approves a final Strategic Plan
STRATEGIC PLAN
CAMPUS MASTER PLAN August 2018 -May 2019
January September 2019
REPORT ON INCLUSIVE COMMUNITIES July 2018 -January 2019
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PICTURED [ 1 [ Members of the BB&N Players, the Middle School improv troupe: from left, Sandro Benmayor ’23, Eric Bookwalter ’23, Anjali Reddy ’23, Ava Wade-Currie ’23 (on floor), Alexandra Fabbri ’23, Elsie Salkever ’23, and Madera Lipson ’23 [ 2 [ Dr. Jennifer Price during her address to the crowd [ 3 [ Members of the One School One Choir perform a rousing rendition of “Put a Little Love in Your Heart.” [ 4 [ Price and her family (from left, Charlie, Katya, Jen, and Elsie ’23) [ 5 [ Head of School Jen Price and guest speaker Patricia N. Muumba
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Community News It’s Official! Dr. Jennifer Price Installed as BB&N’s Fourth Head of School During an evening of laughter, poignancy, and energy, more than 500 community members gathered in a festively adorned Nicholas Athletic Center to celebrate the installation of Dr. Jennifer Price as BB&N’s fourth head of school. The event signified the ceremonial beginning of her tenure at the school, but based on the comments of the speakers and tone of the evening, it was abundantly clear that in just her first three months Price already has had a dramatic impact. The November 15th event featured speakers from all strata of the school community— including students from all three campuses—welcoming Price with humorous and thoughtful gifts, along with various performances that displayed the wide array of student talents. An Upper School woodwind quintet set the scene prior to the program and a funny performance by the Middle School student improv troupe allowed Price’s daughter, BB&N eighth grader Elsie, the opportunity to roast her mother (much to the delight of the hundreds of guests in attendance). Capping the evening was a rousing rendition of “Put a Little Love in Your Heart” by the One School One Choir, a collaborative singing group comprised of faculty, staff, and Lower and Upper School students, as spectators clapped and swayed in time. In a heartfelt and moving tribute, guest speaker Patricia N. Muumba thanked Price for her guidance and life-altering support. As a 16-year-old immigrant from Uganda, newly arrived at Newton North High School, Muumba sought out then-Principal Price as a mentor and continued to lean on her through high school and college. Currently in her final year of studies toward an architecture degree at Cornell University, Patricia has also co-founded the Muumba Project, a nonprofit dedicated to creating innovative, impactful educational spaces for those without opportunity around the world. “I have had the great fortune to be a student to Dr. Price’s principal, a mentee to her mentor, and, most proudly, a friend,” Muumba said. “While wearing all these hats, I have seen and felt, firsthand, the sense of wonder she brings to each situation and every individual she comes in contact with.” Muumba outlined numerous lessons she had learned from Price: “Buckingham Browne & Nichols School, you are so fortunate to have Dr. Jennifer Price as the new Head of School,” she spoke, with a tissue box nearby in the event of tears. “Dr. Price is a walking manifestation of what she believes in: kindness, strength, equality, inclusion, resilience, and scholarship. She represents what she wants the world to look like, and it will someday, because she was here in it.” When Price took to the podium, she began by thanking all in attendance for the opportunity to join BB&N, including a special shout-out to the students: “You are the reason I am here. In my short time at BB&N, I have been blown away by you all.” Price then spoke to the attendees with sincere passion and her trademark candor and sense of humor: “What does one say at an Installation?” she quipped. “Let’s be honest, it sort of feels like I’m a washing machine or a dishwasher. I am not very good at staying still...so being installed somewhere is not really going to work.” Price continued, focusing on the “transformative power of education,” noting the role education had played in her life and her family’s trajectory, along with examples from alumni/ae she had spoken with during her “listening tour” this summer. “Education clearly transforms lives. Here at BB&N, we have and continue to impact lives. This is a place where we provide life-changing opportunities for all of our students. I am honored and humbled to be trusted to lead this school into its next chapter of transforming lives and educating the next generation of Knights who will help leave this world just a little bit better than they found it.”
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As guests left the evening in high spirits, it was evident that BB&N’s next chapter of transformation had already begun. 7
Banner Day for BB&N at Homecoming Family Fall Festival BB&N’s fields and courts came alive this October during the school’s Homecoming and Family Fall Festival. Alumni/ae, students, and families joined in the festivities, which included games, food trucks, bouncy houses, and so much more. The exuberance of the weekend began with a Spirit Day on Friday, and students on all three campuses embraced the moment by wearing “uKNIGHTed” t-shirts to display their BB&N pride. Head of School Jennifer Price, replete with BB&N face paint, set the same tone on Saturday, riling up the crowd and taking a boisterous role in her first Homecoming at the school. The afternoon was all smiles for everyone in attendance, and as winning scores trickled in from the various game taking place, those grins only widened.
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2 VARSITY GIRLS SOCCER: BB&N 4, Exeter 0
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VARSITY VOLLEYBALL: BB&N 3, Groton 1 VARSITY FOOTBALL: BB&N 38, Belmont Hill 24 VARSITY BOYS SOCCER: BB&N 0, St. Sebastian's School 0 BOYS CROSS COUNTRY: Beat Brooks, Lost to Groton and Milton GIRLS CROSS COUNTRY: Beat Brooks, Lost to Groton and Milton
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PICTURED
6 8
[ 1 [ Presley Jacobson ’25 and Leena Wong ’25 get into the spirit of the day. [ 2 [ Students led the raucous crowd all afternoon. [ 3 [ Tommy Maloney ’19 charges through the welcoming tunnel of hands before kickoff. [ 4 [ Camille Stockwell ’20 and Jessie Reed ’20 get ready to cheer on the home teams. [ 5 [ Head of School Jennifer Price with three of BB&N’s newest fans, Martha, Mouse, and Maggie. [ 6 [ BB&N varsity volleyball brings it in after defeating Groton.
Community News Bivouac Rolls On for 66th Year Nothing brings a class together like an outdoor adventure, and for the 66th year now, BB&N’s Bivouac program has done just that. Despite being outside of their comfort zones and enduring a lack of smartphones (gasp!), the resilient members of The Class of 2022 tackled Bivouac head-on once again this year. The annual rite of passage sends freshmen into an 11-day wilderness immersion where they form bonds and glean lifelong lessons from “nature’s classroom” in the New Hampshire woods. See below for a taste of the action.
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2
3
4 PICTURED
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[ 1 [ Kallie Francisque ’22 and Connie Yang ’22 [ 2 [ Laura Cox ’22 and Helen Cobert ’22 [ 3 [ Nick Heisler ’22, Angus Crafter ’22, and Elijah Osagie ’22 [ 4 [ Charlie Ward ’22 and Tushar Aggarwal ’22 [ 5 [ CJ Beals ’22, Nathan Bornstein ’22, and Andi Sun ’22
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Singer Songwriter Casey McQuillen Visits Middle School Middle School students assembled in the Big Room this September were treated to more than just songs when musician Casey McQuillen stopped by BB&N on her “You Matter” tour. While she did perform several tunes, the focus of McQuillen’s visit held higher aspirations than simply entertaining people with her guitar and voice.
Casey McQuillen snaps a selfie of an enlivened BB&N Middle School crowd during her visit.
A native of Andover, Massachusetts, McQuillen began writing songs in the seventh grade before an impressive showing on season 13 of the television show American Idol thrust her into the spotlight. Rather than resting on a taste of success, McQuillen’s career has branched out into sharing a positive message and trying to make a difference in school-age kids’ lives. Her show, both poignant and funny, played more like a conversation punctuated by songs than a proper concert. Through her musings and music, the singer empathized with students about the teen constructs of being “cool,” “fitting in,” and being true to oneself despite the myriad pressures facing kids in school. “It’s so much easier to believe bad things about yourself than good things,” she noted at one point, while discussing anxieties she herself experienced in middle school and high school. “I finally realized that I had spent too much of my life not doing things out of a fear of failure.” It was a theme that held throughout her anecdotes and songs, and one that proved meaningful for everyone in attendance.
McQuillen was honest and relatable in her takes on the teen psyche. She cautioned students about the drawbacks of social media, while not eschewing its positives. By the end of the visit, McQuillen had the entire Big Room standing and singing along to a cover of Alicia Keys’ “Girl on Fire.” It was a fitting anthem and ending to an empowering show.
Urban Improv Troupe Places Student Well-Being on Center Stage Leena Wong ’25 is in a difficult situation. Standing on the stage in the Brick Building community room, the BB&N 6th grader has found herself overextended between school, baseball, dance, and a number of other extracurricular activities. Her father is concerned about her, and over the cries of her petulant younger brother, she’s having some trouble stating her case and figuring out what to do. Don’t worry—the good news is that it’s all make-believe, part of a program being run by Urban Improv, an educational improvisational theater troupe which visited the school. On September 5th, Urban Improv, an arm of the organization Rehearsal for Life, spent the afternoon role-playing with sixth grade students about issues that impact kids. Delving into topics such as responsibility, school/ life balance, prioritizing, and others, the troupe used comedy and improv acting to help students explore common issues within their age group. At times funny, and at times serious, the interactive visit allowed students to learn about ways to handle stressful situations. The performance included singing, games, and skits, all catered toward deconstructing the stresses that occur in a student’s life. Urban Improv’s Artistic Education Director, Yaa D. Acheampang, noted that the group has been working in the Boston area for 25 years, including a previous visit to BB&N last year. Their comedic, laid-back approach allows for open discussion of serious topics, and judging from the rapt attention and engagement of the sixth graders at this fall’s visit, the program is bearing fruit. 10
Alex Levitt ’25 joins Urban Improv on stage to workshop a scenario.
Community News New Trustees Named for 2018-2019 Jake Anderson-Bialis ’98
Bihua Chen, P’22, ’25, ’28
Jake lives in San Francisco with his wife Deborah Anderson-Bialis. He is the co-Founder of FertilityIQ, an online service providing insights and tools regarding fertility issues. Jake previously founded The Run and Only, a new-format professional basketball league, and was a partner at Sequoia Capital. He is a longtime volunteer with Big Brother Big Sister Foundation, Inc., and has served as a reunion and BB&N Fund volunteer.
Bihua lives in Boston with husband Jackson Loomis and daughters Cora ’28, Corina ’25, and Cordelia ’23. Bihua is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer at Cormorant Asset Management. She previously managed healthcare sector investment portfolios for a multi-strategy hedge fund in New York, American Express Asset Management Boston, and Asterion Life Science Fund. She serves on the board of Apellis Pharmaceuticals.
Carmen Arce-Bowen, P’28 Carmen resides in Watertown with husband Jim Bowen and daughter Pilar ’28. She is a Vice President for The Partnership Inc., a firm focusing on recruiting and developing racially and ethnically diverse leadership professionals. Carmen served as the Director of Personnel and Administration for the Deval Patrick administration, and has been on the boards of MassVote, The Chelsea Collaborative, and Emerge Massachusetts. Carmen has volunteered as a grade representative and a LS Admission tour guide. Pam Baker, P’23, ’25, ’28 Pam lives in Boston with husband Jesse Baker and children Sarah ’28, Robbie ’25, and Katie ’23. She is an active volunteer on both the LS and MS campuses, serving this year as MS Chair of The BB&N Fund and as a member of the LS Faculty Appreciation Committee. Pam has served as the PA’s LS Vice President, as a grade representative, co-chair of the Sixth Grade Gift Committee, and in multiple volunteer roles for the LS Circus. Margaret Boasberg, P’19, ’19, ’22 Margaret resides in Newton with husband Chris Bierly and twin daughters Alyse and Kira, who are BB&N seniors, and Tess ’22. Margaret is a partner with Bridgespan Group which consults with nonprofits globally on strategy, philanthropy, and other topics. Margaret’s work at Bridgespan Group focuses on education, public health, and youth development. Margaret has served as the PA’s US Chorale Rep and US Musical Liaison.
Louisa Connaughton Louisa will serve on the BB&N Board of Trustees during 20182019 as the faculty representative. Louisa has been a teacher at BB&N for six years, beginning her tenure at the fifth-grade level, and currently working as a fourth-grade teacher. For the past three years, she has served on the BB&N Board of Trustees Finance Committee. Rachel Kroner Hanselman ’89, P’27 Rachel resides in Newton with husband John Hanselman and daughter Charlotte ’27. She has served as an Alumni/ae Council member and class agent, and was co-chair of her 25th Reunion Committee. Rachel has served as a Lower School grade representative and a Lower School Admission tour guide. Micki Rowaan, P’20, ’22 Parents’ Association Representative Micki lives in Boston with her husband David Berger and sons Nico ’22, and Jake ’22. She is President of the BB&N Parents’ Association and is the PA Representative to the BB&N Board of Trustees for a one-year term during 2018-2019. She has volunteered extensively on all of BB&N’s campuses, serving as a grade representative, MS Executive Board Vice President, Admission tour guide, and as a member of the Sixth Grade Gift Committee.
PICTURED Top row from left: Jake Anderson-Bialis ’98, Margaret Boasberg, P’19, ’19, ’22, Rachel Kroner Hanselman ’89, P’27, and Pam Baker, P’23, ’25, ’28 Bottom row from left: Louisa Connaughton, Micki Rowaan, P’20, ’22, Bihua Chen, P’23, ’25, ’28, and Carmen Arce-Bowen, P’28
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Proof Positive: Kevin Bau’s Honors Geometry Students Rise to the Challenge I by Sharon Krauss Nikhil Datta ’21 jumps right in. “I have a question on 8. I figured out that the two triangles are congruent to each other. After that, how do you prove that those two sides are parallel?”
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Math teacher Kevin Bau’s band of eager ninth- and tenth-grade Honors Geometry students has been focusing on triangle properties as they learn how to compose proofs. “We’re working on using logic, on justifying assertions,” Bau says. “My hope is that this work is transferable to building an airtight argument about anything.” Looking at the homework problem projected on the whiteboard—two sideby-side triangles joined at point M—James Wade ’21 suggests, “Can’t we say that angle DMA is equal to angle B, so the lines are parallel?” Bau scans the class. “What do you guys think? “James, what’s the reason for that?” asks Anoushka Mahendra-Rajah ’21. “Because the angles are the same.” Alluding to a postulate they’ve learned, 12
Eli Jensen ’21 adds, “They’re corresponding angles.”
the homework, he now projects an early twentieth-century newspaper photo of a small crowd surrounding a horse.
“Oh, I get it now,” says Sam Subramanian ’21. In addition to developing students’ critical thinking skills, Bau says that he aims to create “a culture of respect for everyone’s voice in the class,” the benefits of which are not lost on the students. “My two main class rules,” says Bau, “are to work hard and be nice. I try to make sure I’m modeling those for the kids all the time, too.” “We have a lot of friendly banter in class,” says Julia Shephard ’22. Samantha (Sam B) Bernstein ’21 ascribes her enjoyment of the class to “the other students’ motivation and love of math, which is infectious—and of course, Mr. Bau’s love of geometry. It really is incredible what a good teacher like Mr. Bau can convey to his students.” Bau relies not just on elegant proofs or the golden ratio, though, to inspire his students. He believes in the “power of stories” to engage students and get them to think about why they’re working in certain ways. With no more questions raised about
“This is the story of Clever Hans, a horse in early 1900s Germany. Apparently, he could do math.” Bau explains that Hans would stomp his hoof the correct number of times in answer to simple arithmetic questions. “His trainer could also ask him more complex questions, like, if today is Tuesday, the second of October, what day of the month will Friday be? And he’d tap out… six, is it?” “Wouldn’t it be the fifth?” Sam B asks. “Hold on,” says Bau. “Oh, yeah….” He breaks into a grin that invites everyone to laugh. “Clever Hans is possibly smarter than I am.” Bau goes on to say that the trainer was not out to make money; he just thought he had an amazing horse. The skeptical German government, though, sent in a team of investigators. “One psychologist discovered that Clever Hans didn’t actually know math.” “Oh, this is so disappointing,” says Sophia Cohen ’21, making her classmates and teacher crack up.
Community News “He figured out that Clever Hans could answer questions correctly only if he could see the trainer and if the trainer himself knew the answer.” In a nutshell, the trainer’s subconscious body language signaled to Hans when he should stop stomping. “I tell you this,” explains Bau, “because I want to avoid training you to be Clever Hanses. I shouldn’t always be the person telling you, even with my body language, if an answer is right or wrong. I want you guys to be the arbiters of deciding—together.” For a moment the story’s lesson seeps silently into the students. Then Nikhil asks, “But what if we don’t know what the right or wrong answer is?” Laughing along with his students, Bau says, “Good question. I’m not going to totally abandon you and ‘Peace out,’ but my hope is that I’m just another voice in this classroom and that we can decide collectively what we’re convinced by and what we’re not. With that in mind, in your teams, I’m going to have you work on a slightly harder question.” Bau turns to the whiteboard, his signature warm smile assuring support for students’ efforts. “We’ve got a regular pentagon. You guys remember what ‘regular’ means?” Sophia responds, “All sides and angles are the same.”
the rightmost vertex, he says, “Your task is to decide, if we connect these three vertices, do we have a straight line or not? You need to be able to explain your thinking convincingly to the class.” Champing at the bit during the last of Bau’s directions, the students decamp to the whiteboards to collaborate in trios. “It always helps to have someone to bounce your ideas off of,” says Alex Wu ’21. Visiting each group in turn, Bau listens and watches as the students, thinking out loud, mark up their diagrams. Marie Quintanar ’21 points to the angle on the exterior of the equilateral triangle. “Is this 60, as well?” Anoushka taps all the angles formed by lines radiating from the interior vertex to the pentagon’s five vertices and says, “If these were all 60, we’d have a hexagon, not a pentagon, right?” She has realized there’s an inconsistency among the angles, which James and his group discover by remembering that a pentagon’s internal angles add up to 540 degrees, making each angle 108 degrees. Subtracting the equilateral triangle’s 60-degree angle from 108, James states, “These two are not equilateral triangles.” “Convince me,” says Bau. “Because this angle’s 48.” “Great!” says Bau, eliciting the students’ laughter. “That’s pretty convincing.” In another group, Matt Hong ’21 turns to Bau and says, “Oh—this is why you said the other day that we couldn’t say the line necessarily divides the angle in half, right?” When Bau shrugs, Sam B calls over, “By looking at the body language, I’d say yes.” Laughing, Bau says, “I’m going out of my way not to Clever Hans you guys, but I am like the worst actor ever. I’m trying not to signal anything.”
Inside the pentagon, Bau draws a regular (or equilateral) triangle. Pointing to the pentagon’s leftmost vertex (an angle’s point), then the triangle’s top vertex, then
years as a Wall Street investment banker. He did some volunteer work, running a tutoring program for kids in Harlem, and realized, “This is kind of hard, but it’s kind of fun, actually. It feels nice to have a kid come in totally confused and leave a little less confused.” With an Ed.M. from Harvard, he launched his new, more fulfilling career. “Julia and Sam, why don’t you talk to us all about what you’ve figured out so far.” “Okay, so if this is an equilateral triangle, then this angle is 60,” says Julia, pointing to an angle created at the pentagon’s rightmost vertex. “Sam thinks yes; I am an unconvinced.” “It’s okay if you have different conclusions,” says Bau. “Sam, can you tell us what you figured out and why?” Pausing, Sam readjusts his conclusion. “These two angles can’t be equal because we don’t know if these lines are parallel.” “Nice! So, we can’t say for certain that that top-right angle is 60,” says Bau, nodding. Sam B reports on the work she did with Sophia and Abby Chen ’22. “Using the isosceles triangle theorem, we knew that the angles opposite the congruent sides must be equal to each other. If this angle is 48, then 180 (the total degrees in a triangle) minus 48 equals 132, divided by 2 (angles) is 66.” Noting the three angles anchored at the pentagon’s central point, Sam concludes, “So, 66 + 60 + 66 does not equal 180. It is not a straight line.” “How do people feel about those 66-degree angles?” asks Bau. As others are nodding, Tori Huang ’21 says, “Nice job!” It’s been a good class, Bau believes, when the students leave feeling challenged, “pushed a bit but not spent,” he says. “I’d like them to leave feeling ‘that was kind of cool,’ appreciating some of math’s beauty.”
Reading his own signals, Bau recognized that he’d become disenchanted after earning an M.B.A. and working for several 13
BB&N Community Welcomes New Faces In addition to Head of School Jennifer Price, BB&N welcomed several new folks to leadership positions within the school this year. Below, we get to know a bit more about the new faces in these vital roles.
LEILA BAILEY-STEWART I Special Assistant to the Head of School for Inclusive Communities
Bulletin: What has stood out the most about the BB&N community in your time here thus far?
Leila joined BB&N with more than 15 years of experience at City Year, an educational nonprofit organization dedicated to helping students and schools succeed in high-need communities. She most recently served as Vice President of Leadership Development, designing and implementing diversity, inclusion, and equity programs.
Leila: The educational opportunities at BB&N are top-notch. The faculty and staff work with passion and dedication, the students are incredible and talented, and parents and families are really involved and committed to their child’s experience at BB&N. People care and are well-meaning. There is a strong desire to strengthen the BB&N community, but is coupled with the complexity of the school’s structure and culture. BB&N has the potential to be even greater than it already is.
Bulletin: Head of School Jennifer Price recently joked that you have the longest title in the history of BB&N. What are the essential pieces of your role at BB&N? Leila: The title is a mouthful. In this role, my primary focus is to listen and learn about what work has already been done to create and foster an inclusive community here at BB&N, to assess the mission alignment, impact, and sustainability of that work, to identify areas where BB&N might improve in order to become an even more inclusive community, and to make informed recommendations about how BB&N should move forward. Some of the areas I’ve focused on as a part of learning about the school include, but are not limited to, multicultural services, global education, admissions, parent and student groups, human resources, curriculum, student experience, community connections, and professional development. I’ve also started to participate in activities that I call campus immersion. As a part of understanding the complete picture of BB&N, I want to understand the unique aspects of each campus. As a part of this work, I will be delivering a report to the Board of Trustees in January. I’ve also tried to be an active member of the BB&N community and an added resource.
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Bulletin: What is something people might be surprised to learn about you? Leila: I played competitive chess growing up and am a certified Olympic bowling coach. But on a lighter note, touching chalk makes me very uncomfortable. I think it’s a little ironic because I work at a school…but you won’t find chalk or a chalkboard in my office! TARA GOHLMANN I Chief Operating Officer/Chief Financial Officer Prior to BB&N, Tara served as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer at Boston College High School. Tara has also served as acting CFO/Business Manager at the North Bennet Street School in Boston and Director of Finance at Abpro Corporation. Bulletin: It appears that one focus in your first year at BB&N will be overseeing the Campus Master Plan process. What will that work look like as the year progresses? Tara: I’ll be piggybacking off of Head of School Jen Price’s listening tour and
digesting feedback from our meetings with faculty, alums, and students in which we talked about what is working well with the current campuses and what could work better. Over the next couple of months, we’ll be evaluating the current state of our facilities and then begin laying out options for a master campus plan to present to the Board of Trustees around May. It’s an incredibly exciting project and an excellent opportunity to reimagine possibilities for the school. We are currently residing on a fantastic footprint within a vibrant part of Cambridge, and we want to ensure that spaces we provide for students match the outstanding programs the school puts forth. Bulletin: Having worked at other schools prior to joining BB&N, what are your impressions of the school to date? Tara: I feel so honored to be part of this community—it’s clear to me that people care so deeply about the work they are doing with students and families. It’s a joy to go to work every day at a place where people are so kind and invested. Bulletin: What is something people might be surprised to learn about you? Tara: My mom is one of 14 children, so growing up I was surrounded by oodles of noodles of cousins. So, if anyone sees me in the lunch line and gets a sharp elbow, you’ll know why!
Community News
Tara Gohlmann, Julie Gray, and Leila Bailey-Stewart
JULIE GRAY I Chief Advancement Officer Julie joins BB&N from the Dana Hall School in Wellesley, where she had been Director of Advancement for the past 12 years. Julie also served as the Director of Development at Tenacre Country Day School for 10 years, and was at The Fessenden School as the Director of Annual Giving for six years.
The upcoming strategic plan, which will provide the blueprint for the school’s next 5-10 years, will provide a significant opportunity to engage the community, through our fundraising efforts, in supporting and sustaining excellence. I look forward to leading this initiative and to being part of this exciting time at BB&N.
Bulletin: “Supporting excellence at BB&N” is an important phrase, and an essential tenet of the school. What does that phrase mean to you, and how do you hope to put it to work at BB&N?
Bulletin: I know you accompanied Dr. Price on many of her group meetings with alums this summer. What is your early impression of the BB&N graduate community?
Julie: The work of the advancement office plays a major role in supporting excellence at BB&N. BB&N’s values and mission are at the core of our advancement program. From a fundraising perspective, supporting excellence includes building a culture of giving, one of our most important goals. This takes time and involves every member of the community—uKNIGHTed!
Julie: The alumni/ae with whom we met were passionate, candid, diverse, dedicated, and grateful to meet new Head of School Jen Price. They spoke often about the academic rigor and excellence that defines BB&N and about our amazing, first-rate faculty. Not surprisingly, they wish to continue the conversation about lifelong learning with other alumni/ae.
Since those meetings, I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know many alumni/ae in less formal settings, (receptions, Homecoming, Head of the Charles, etc.) and it is abundantly clear to me that our alums exemplify BB&N’s motto and represent the school’s character and soul. I’m looking forward to helping foster relationships between alumni/ae and students, to encourage alumni/ae support of the School, and to continue to make BB&N meaningful in their lives. Bulletin: What is something that people might be surprised to learn about you? Julie: My dad was an amateur radio operator. At an early age, I learned and memorized the Morse code. I even had my own CB radio station in the basement where I could communicate with one of my friends who had a similar set-up. My CB radio handle (call name) was Rusty Spike! (..- -.- -. .. --. .... - . -..)
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BB&N Fall Athletic Snapshots BB&N athletes completed another successful season on the fields, trails, and courts this fall. The football team won the New England Class A championship and the girls soccer team reached the New England semifinals.
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[ 1 [ Matt Thompson ’21 splits two defenders on the soccer pitch. [ 2 [ Cameron Gaisford ’22 (left) and Zane Davis ’22 hit their stride during a meet. [ 3 [ Matt Bulman ’20 gains the edge on a play. [ 4 [ Maya Mangiafico ’20 unleashes a pass downfield. [ 5 [ Jenna Hallice ’20 plays the ball in front of the goal. [ 6 [ Emily Angelino ’20 digs out the ball to save the point.
BB&N Alumnus Eren Orbey ’14 Named Rhodes Scholar Recipient Congratulations to BB&N graduate Eren Orbey ’14 for his recent recognition as a 2018 recipient of a Rhodes Scholarship. Known as one of the most prestigious academic awards in the United States, Orbey was one of 32 college students chosen for their “academic excellence, personal energy, ambition for impact, and ability to work with others to achieve their goals, as well as their commitment to becoming a force for good in the world.” Currently a double major in computer science and English language and literature at Yale, Orbey is also a contributor to The New Yorker magazine. His childhood was shaped by tragedy when as a 3-year-old, his father was murdered in Ankara, Turkey. The experience led to a current book project, one which, according to Yale University, “melds memoir, history, and contemporary reporting to create a portrait of his father and his father’s killer.” With this honor, Orbey becomes the eighth BB&N graduate to be named a Rhodes Scholar, and the first since 2000. Following his graduation from Yale, Orbey plans to attend Oxford University, where he will pursue master’s degrees in global and imperial history and in world literatures in English. Rhodes Scholar recipient Eren Orbey ’14 with Upper School English teacher Sharon Krauss in 2014
Upper School Theater Program Tackles Big Themes in Fall Play
PICTURED [ 1 [ Max Ambris ’19 and Charlotte Gifford ’19 [ 2 [ William Li ’20, Kira Bierly ’19, Alyse Bierly ’19, and Alice O’Neill ’19 [ 3 [ Rebecca Mironko ’19 and Charlotte Gifford ’19
BB&N theater students stepped up their game this fall with their production of playwright Cecil Philip Taylor’s Good. The award-winning play tells the story of a professor in pre-war Germany and his reaction to the increasing power of the Nazi party. The play grapples with questions of conscience and morality, cataloguing one man’s rationalization of the terrible regime overtaking his country.
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by Liz Marshall
WOMAN IN
Motion & Mission n ON A
Jennifer Price, BB&N’s Fourth Head of School If you get the opportunity to meet Jen Price, give some thought to your choice of footwear. Heels are out of the question. She won’t be wearing them and neither should you. Whether you’re wearing sneakers, boots, or loafers, just pick something you can walk in. As you enter her office, or any of the several small corners around campus that she’s designated as “satellite offices,” she’ll greet you with a hearty handshake and a warm smile. “Let me show you something…” she’ll begin, and you’re off.
struggles of living in this turbulent time in history. I am honored to have a friend like Jen, someone who has inspired and encouraged me at every turn, and who will no doubt share her bright light, boundless energy, and tremendous insight as she enters this promising new chapter at BB&N.
Walking with Jen, half the challenge is just keeping up as she navigates the muddy trail while corralling the mischievous pups who have taken off into the woods. As we hike, she talks about what’s Striding through the hallways of the most important to her—family and work. Upper School, tramping along the Jen is grounded by her partner of 25 sports fields, or weaving through years, Katya Salkever, who is a force the courtyard, Jen stays in motion in her own right. With both a Ph.D. in as she talks, listens, and asks Higher Education and a degree from Jen won Teacher of the questions with agility. In the culinary school, she balances teaching few months since she’s been at Year two straight years graduate courses at BC and editing BB&N, Jen has seen the interior an academic journal with her passions at Maynard HS in the of every building on campus, for cooking and tennis, all the while discovered long forgotten corners late ’90s; she masterfully supporting her busy family. of the grounds, and crisscrossed Jen and Kat’s partnership is an alchemy taught history the country to Seattle, San forged in deep love and mutual respect and Francisco, DC, and Florida, listening to their shared commitment to raising their two alumni/ae and families, eager to get to active teens, Elsie (8th grade, BB&N) and Charlie know this new community. She’s a woman in (11th grade, Newton North). Jen has always been clear motion and on a mission. that being a parent is her highest priority, and she delights in helping Elsie train for triathlons and supporting Charlie’s love of photography and music. She talks about her I’ve spent a lot of time walking with Jen. Most Saturday close connection with her dad (see Richard Price’s essay mornings for the last ten years we’ve walked at Weston on page 24) and her role as older sister to Grace and Reservoir with her three rambunctious, identical Catherine, who now have young families of their own. Golden Doodle pups. It’s a ritual that has formed the
DID YOU KNOW
bedrock of our friendship—built week by week as we share the joys and ordeals of parenting our teenagers, the exhilarations of our professional worlds, and the 18
Jen’s connection to her sisters has deepened as they’ve shared great loss. On September 11, 2001, working a
Photo by Leila Bailey-Stewart
long day at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School as a House Dean, Jen worried about her staff and students as planes hit the World Trade Center. It wasn’t until the end of the day that she focused on her own family, and with Katya and their weeks-old infant at home, realized with horror that her mother and stepfather had been on the plane that went down in Shanksville, PA. With the chapter of grief and sorrow that came next, she never became despondent—if anything, the pain became a catalyst for moving ahead and making a positive difference. With the knowledge that time is short, she became even more motivated to action, supporting her sisters and at age 30, taking on the role of president of Families of Flight #93, building community and a lasting memorial in Shanksville. Jen’s history is one of constant motion. Before her field hockey days at Princeton University, Jen had an active childhood full of outlets for her kinetic energy and natural curiosity. That enthusiasm continues to this day as she plays tennis and softball and only recently “retired” from playing in a recreational flag football league. Planted firmly in the middle of the huddle, Jen is a player who relishes the game itself—the competition, the energy, the strategy, the laughs…and the win. Always aiming for victory, Jen and Katya have been the champions of the West Newton Neighborhood Club tennis tournament for the last three years standing.
what sports they play, what activities they love, where they’re from—seeking to learn each person’s unique story. Leaning in, Jen listens closely to kids and kids open up to her, trusting that she cares how they feel. Jen is energized by her professional roles, thriving in the puzzles and responsibilities she’s held as an educational leader. “Jen has an energy as a leader that draws people in,” says Deb Holman, who worked with her as an administrator in both Newton and North Andover. “She’s really smart and she’ll push out ideas, sort of rapid-fire, but at the same time she welcomes people to push back or to offer their own ideas.” That easy give and take is at the core of Jen’s passion as a transformational educator. Her path to BB&N has taken her through teaching, administration, and supervision in the public school system. She has developed a passion for bridging the achievement gap, addressing inequity, and working to give all students the chance to learn, grow, and thrive in excellent schools.
During her tenure as Principal of Newton North High School, Jen sought ways to address the imbalance between students of very different means within an affluent district. Seeing the disparities in the college application process inspired her to found Transitioning Together, a mentoring program to support first-generation college applicants. Exploring the roots of the achievement gap led her to create the Dover Legacy Scholars, a program that supports students of color in their academic journey. earned her
DID YOU KNOW
I don’t think Jen would mind my telling you that she’s actually not a very…polished tennis player. Jen With no time for practice, those Neighborhood tournament doctorate of Recognizing that many families matches make up most of the education from couldn’t afford to participate in hours she spends on the court. Harvard in 2012 Newton North’s study abroad What she’s got going is a strategic programs, Jen was inspired to create mind, a powerful arm, and a whole the Global Educational Leadership lot of gusto. Gripping her racquet Fund (GELF), a project that remains one with intensity, Jen slams the ball to the of her proudest accomplishments. Jen back court, drawing her opponent just engaged the help of family and friends to create far enough out that Katya can step in with a smooth strike down the line to win match point. Another a fundraising dinner centered around a five-course meal catered by Katya, along with music, dance, and secret to Jen’s success is surrounding herself with great an auction. GELF, since renamed in her honor as the performers—in this case, Katya just happens to be the Jennifer Price Global Educational Leadership Fund, reigning Neighborhood Club Singles champ and, in so continues to provide funding for students to travel many ways, she puts their team over the top. abroad. When Jen made the move to North Andover, she brought along the idea of a scholarship program, It should come as no surprise that Jen chose to spend and today there is a North Andover GELF dinner some of her first days as Head of School camped out tradition, still featuring Katya’s delectable food while up at Bivouac, sleeping in a tent, plunging into the building community and opportunity. lake, and scaling Mt. Monadnock with the incoming ninth graders. She insisted on climbing into a tree and “Jen works with such intensity, but she also loves to then descending the zipline upside-down while yelling, have fun, and she’s game for almost anything,” says “U-Knighted” to the students gathered below. Those Midge Connolly, who worked with Jen as Assistant first days in the woods gave her the chance to see Principal at Newton North. When theater students this community from the inside, to join with students asked for her help with their Hunger Games event, she making the leap to the Upper School, and to share the agreed to ride a Segway into a pep rally dressed as experience of transition with others who were newly Effie Trinket, complete with powdered wig and puffy entering BB&N. While putting on a harness for a turn pink gown. This may have been the first and last time to scale the high ropes course, Jen engaged with the she was seen in a gown. One Halloween she went to students, not just asking their names, but finding out 20
Pictured: ABOVE: BB&N blue and gold were the colors of the day on Homecoming Saturday as Dr. Price gets her face properly adorned by Kallie Francisque ’22. RIGHT: Jen chats with BB&N parents Diane Quintanar, Karen Donovan, and Doran Donovan no outside the boathouse during the Head of the Charles Regatta on October 21st.
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work d dressed in a full-sized, furry Energizer Bunny costume. When a student was spotted spraying graffiti behind the building, a chase ensued, with the boy running from Jen and the House Dean. “No one will forget the sight of the giant pink bunny, whipping off the whole head of the costume and sprinting across the field after this kid,” says Midge. This sense of fun is also at the heart of a beloved PriceSalkever ritual, the annual Thanksgiving morning Pie Party. With origins in Jen’s grandparents’ tradition of eating pie for breakfast, the party brings together a wide cross-section of people from different spheres of her life. Guests bring dozens of varieties of pie to add to Katya’s decadent selections. Balancing plates of key lime pie in the kitchen, two strangers strike up a conversation and discover ways their worlds intersect. Jen loves to make these introductions, bringing her worlds together. This year, Jen and Katya brought the Pie Party to the Head’s residence at St. Anne’s, inviting the BB&N community to share in this delicious tradition.
I was surprised when Jen first mentioned that she was considering leaving North Andover for the Head of School position at BB&N. On one of our walks in the spring of 2017, she shared her immediate excitement along with some trepidation about a move into the independent school world, seemingly a long way from her roots in the public system and her deeply held ideals. As she visited campus, met with faculty, and began to understand BB&N, it became clear that the position would be a perfect match for her energy and experience.
As she has stepped into the role this fall, her transition has borne all the hallmarks of what she loves to do—build a hotshot team, ask a lot of questions, and look closely at ways to improve the systems of a thriving institution. I’ve heard about the new Head’s Homework Holiday and how she’s problem-solving a way to feed hungry student athletes before their afternoon practices in the Athletic Center. She’s spoken proudly of the results of her listening tour (see executive summary on pages 2-5) that will inform next steps and the upcoming Strategic Plan. Watching While she is often fearless in her professional roles, her powerful speech to the Upper and Middle School there is one thing that causes her to come undone, students in late October after the tragedy at the and that is…condiments. Keep this in mind if you meet Tree of Life Synagogue, I hear her asking students her for lunch. Ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise—these to commit to supporting and understanding innocent sauces are completely unacceptable, one another, knowing that our differences and should be avoided at all costs. Her make us stronger. These are all ways aversion extends to a need to avoid of connecting with and caring for the touching the squirt bottles and to be students—balancing the drive for absolutely certain that her sandwich achievement with real caring and was made on dry bread. For all the support that will help them to ways she can seem superhuman, grow. It is already clear that she always good to know about the Jen grew up a Yankees doesn’t have to leave behind her kryptonite. passions as she steps into this fan but she’s come to exciting new role, and that she’s off When Jen became the her senses since to an auspicious start in this new Superintendent of Schools in North community. moving to Red Sox Andover, she didn’t want to lose country her connection to classrooms and In August, I spent an afternoon the student experience. Her approach unpacking boxes as the family was was to set high standards, to fight for moving into St. Anne’s. Heading toward the resources, and to find out what was working door, Jen paused to tie her sneakers. “Come here, and where the systems could improve. Showing check this out,” she said, gesturing out beyond the up as a Mystery Reader for the 2nd graders, filling in as deck. In the yard, an area of green grass stretched over a substitute teacher, and even covering bus duty after to the picket fence that had just been built to replace school allowed her to stay connected to the day-to-day the tall wooden slats that stood bordering the property. experience of students. Jen proudly showed me how the back half of the yard had been cleared out to create a new Outdoor Learning “On a warm afternoon, you could find both of us Space with gathering areas for Beginners and K-1 riding on my Vespa…she’d be on the back wearing my learners. One of her first decisions was to request that 10-year-old son’s helmet,” says Gregg Gilligan, who a barrier be removed to open up space for the students worked as Jen’s Assistant Superintendent and now and to create a pathway from her house directly into leads the district. “We would ride that scooter from the heart of the school. Where once stood an imposing school to school and just show up.” Last year, just after fence, there is now a wooden gate that swings open to high school graduation, Jen took a group of seniors a freshly built path. Jen bounds through the gate with a around to visit their old elementary schools. Dressed smile and says, “C’mon! Let me show you something…” in their caps and gowns, these kids walked through and we’re off. the buildings, reminiscing, waving, and inspiring the younger students.
DID YOU KNOW
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Pictured: CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: On the first day of school, the head of school gives a friendly send-off to ninth graders Anika Desai and Saffron Patel as they boarded buses for the 11-day visit to Bivouac. Dr. Price tags a ride with Dr. Gregg Gilligan during one of their famous Vespa tours when she was superintendent and he was assistant superintendent of the North Andover Public Schools. Dr. Price “uKnighted� with seventh graders for an impromptu selfie on the Middle School green before the Motto assembly. This is the only known photo of a rightside-up Dr. Jennifer Price on the zipline at Bivouac.
VIGNETTES FROM A FATHER by Richard Price Jr.
As a father with three adult daughters, I find that I think about the lives of each as a series of vignettes. This is certainly true for Jennifer. Jennifer, like her father and her grandfather, spent her summers on a small lake in northern New Jersey. I recall the day when in the middle of a volleyball game, Jen told me that she was bored watching and asked if she could walk back to our cottage to get a favorite toy. The walk down the main road was safe enough but it was nearly a mile. Not thinking that she would go it alone, I simply said, “Sure.” Off she went while I followed behind, out of sight. Her mother was more than surprised when Jennifer knocked on the door. She was two years old. Jennifer’s mother taught nursing in a college in Newark. She was a caring, generous person, the “social conscience” of our marriage. Jennifer owes much to her. When Jennifer was six, we moved to England. Based on her interview with the headmaster, who had serious misgivings about her reading skills, she was accepted into a private school in Wimbledon. Three weeks into school, Jen came home one afternoon to proudly announce that she had just caught up in reading with the slowest reader in her class. Three years later, she was one of the very few accepted into one of the best schools in London. She was determined.
Jennifer was recruited to play field hockey at Princeton University. She was a varsity starter as a freshman. But her focus changed. With a minor in Princeton’s littleknown teacher prep program, she became their first student to teach in the Trenton Public Schools. Full credit to Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs for solidifying Jen’s interest in education and educational policy.
DID YOU KNOW
While her classmates headed for Wall Street and the big money, Jennifer made what has proven to be a lifetime commitment to education.
Jennifer started her educational career at Maynard High School Jen guest lectures as a history teacher. She was a each year at the repeat teacher of the year. In her Datawise Summer second year, while teaching a service learning class, she arranged Institute at Harvard to have her class invited to a Navajo University reservation over spring break. The school, however, could not fund the trip. So Jen organized a “haunted house” fundraiser in the community. The trip received rave reviews.
Walking in the north of England was a favorite vacation. Following the guidebooks of Wainwright, we would head off on rather long hikes. Jennifer very much enjoyed charging ahead. “Don’t worry, Mom, I’ll wait for you.” Thirty years later, her daughter Elsie did the same thing hiking in Italy with her grandparents. Returning from England, Jennifer and her sisters attended the Peck School in Morristown, NJ. Jen was awarded 24
the Loyalty Prize, the top honor for those graduating. Having been accepted at Hotchkiss and Lawrenceville, she decided to attend public high school in Madison, NJ, where she was an outstanding athlete and a gifted student. She was also the only girl, and perhaps the only non-college-track student, to take shop.
When Jen moved on to Newton North High School, she experienced a similar “lack of funding” roadblock to create a new lab. Not to be discouraged, she set out to visit Route 128 tech companies, one of which donated $25,000 to allow Newton North to create its highly acclaimed Innovation Lab. Also while at Newton North, Jennifer, with the invaluable assistance of her partner Katya, created the Global Educational Leadership Fund. Katya’s annual dinner, supported by many enthusiastic
community members, has provided funding for 170 students to travel abroad during the school year to one of Newton North’s partnering schools. Finally, Jennifer lost her mother on 9-11 when United Airlines Flight #93 crashed in western Pennsylvania. Jen’s response to this horrible event was twofold. First and foremost, she was there for her sisters. But beyond that, she focused her efforts on working to ensure that the nation would not forget Flight #93. As president of the Families of Flight #93, she worked energetically with the National Park Service to create a lasting memorial for us all. Should you discount these memories from a proud father? Perhaps, but truly, not too much. Jennifer’s passion for education is real. As an educator, she is committed to making a difference both on an individual and a community-wide level. Jen is strong, driven, compassionate, and generous. I am confident that these are traits that you will see at BB&N.
Pictured: FROM TOP TO BOTTOM: Jen at 8 years old in England Jen and her father, Richard, at her official installation as BB&N’s fourth head of school on November 15, 2018 25
Q&A: A CONVERSATION BETWEEN DR. JENNIFER PRICE AND SAM KLEIN ROCHE ’19 1 Sam: Now that you have seen life at Bivouac, what do you think you would have enjoyed most if you went on the trip as a ninth-grader? Dr. Price: I would have loved being able to get to know my classmates in that setting. Whether you came up from the Middle or Lower School, or you’re new to BB&N, it’s a whole new group of kids. The thing that I liked the most about Biv is that it puts everyone on the same playing field. You’re all living in a tent, you’re all trying to build an A-frame that you pray stays up, you’re all trying to build a table that you just hope and pray doesn’t fall over when the head of school comes and has dinner with you (which happened, by the way). It puts everyone in this equally uncomfortable, exciting space together. I think that is what really would have resonated with me as a kid. We are all beginning this journey together. How do we weave that thread of Biv—the lessons of Biv, the resiliency, the confidence, all of that—through our entire school? Because I think it’s really powerful and that we’re all in this together. I worry that we don’t have enough instances of that in our school. There was rain, and you have to jump in the lake. It creates an atmosphere where you need to come together to succeed. I actually think in schools we don’t do enough to show that this is important. Here’s what I mean: I come in to BB&N as the head of school and I am only going to be successful if I have a team around me. I don’t just mean the leadership team; if I come in here and the faculty and staff aren’t partnering with me, I’m not going to get anywhere. That’s one of the really important lessons of Biv: it doesn’t matter whether you’re the head of school or you are a new member of our kitchen staff—we are all in this together.
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2 Sam: What’s the most surprising part of the job?? Dr. Price: What has surprised me the most about my role as head of school is the diversity of what I do. I’ve been a principal and a superintendent so I know what it’s like having a complex job. Nevertheless, being head of school is even more diverse in terms of what I’m able to do. Within the period of a few short hours, I can go from being a part of the football/field hockey challenge, to working with the investment committee of the board to figure out how to thoughtfully invest our endowment, to working with the leadership team, to sitting in a classroom with third graders talking about leadership, to trying to work on a strategic plan for the building of the school while thinking about the square-footage per student of our buildings and the deferred maintenance on our buildings. The job is just so diverse. On one hand, I get to be goofy with kids and have a good time and work with teachers, but on the other hand I’m thinking really strategically about the school. In the public school world, much of that stuff is done by the mayor or by the town manager. But being the head of school, you have all of those things collide. You really have to be able to move between two very different things very quickly. Being in the top position in an organization, you may go through twenty interactions a day, but for the people you are interacting with it might be their single interaction with you for a year. You need to be on. I love that. For many people it would be exhausting, for me it’s energizing.
3 Sam: You have demonstrated that one of your goals as head of school is to be a consistent presence on the campuses. What are lunchtime conversations like with students and faculty? Dr. Price: I’ve just loved getting to know kids. I gave a speech recently about current events and revealed a little bit about my own history, about my mom and stepdad. I was walking back to the school after that speech and a student said, “You know, Dr. Price, that was incredibly courageous of you to talk about that, especially as you are new to this community and trying to establish yourself.” I mean, are you kidding me that somebody would be that thoughtful? Not only to talk to me, but to say that was courageous and then to empathize to a level of how I must be feeling—that was just incredible to me. I’ve been blown away by BB&N students and their ability to connect with me in such an authentic way. I was at the Lower School and I met two kindergarteners who were playing “dogs.” They knew my dogs’ names, Mouse, Martha, and Maggie (see photo at right), and we played dogs together. How cool is that? That I’m getting to have these empathetic conversations with Upper School kids and I’m playing with kindergarteners. Every day I get to do that. In my entry survey, the kids said, “Just get to know us, we want to know you, come by our campuses.” It’s really important for BB&N that as the new head of school I was present on the campuses. The thing that people might not understand is that it might be even more important for me. When I think of the energy needed to do this job, I get so much of it from interacting with students and faculty and staff. If I didn’t get that, I wouldn’t have the energy to do the rest of my job.
Pictured: FROM TOP TO BOTTOM: Sam Klein Roche ’19 interviews Dr. Price in her Upper School office. Sam lives in Newton, Mass., and is the Editorials Editor of The Vanguard newspaper. Jen Price enjoys the Homecoming festivities with three popular, new members of the BB&N community: Mouse, Martha, and Maggie.
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Also, being on the campuses, I get to know things like it would be nice to occasionally have better cereal options. Yes, it’s a small thing, but I actually think it matters that once a month we get to have Cinnamon Toast Crunch or Lucky Charms.
4 Sam: What role does BB&N have in providing its students with a civic education? Dr. Price: It’s fun to think about. First of all, the reality of the situation is that the students whom we have the privilege to educate have a high probability of being able to be in places later in life where they can make a significant difference in the world. As I told the senior class earlier this year, when I think of difference, it’s a positive. It’s framed in terms of “how do I leave a place better than I found it?” Because we are an independent school, we have a little bit more latitude to have those conversations. It’s really important to understand that there’s diversity of thought within our school and that not everyone thinks the same way. I think that sometimes that can be hard because our school is located in liberal Cambridge. For students who may not espouse the prevailing belief, we need to create a safe space to try on their beliefs. I don’t want to have a place where we all think the same because I don’t think that helps. I do feel it’s important that we need to model ways to have meaningful discourse. When we don’t agree on something, how do we do that in a respectful, kind way? I just think that is going to be so important for us as a nation, as an educational institution, to prepare kids to be confident in their position and to listen to others. I worry that our skill of listening—of really hearing another’s perspective—has been reduced. BB&N can have a role in improving that. I think our role is to push kids to think critically, to push kids to hear someone who thinks differently than you, and to push our kids to think about how they want to lead and do it better.
5 Sam: Can you give me an example of a moment you have witnessed in a classroom that speaks to the character of BB&N? Dr. Price: Advisory at the Middle School. They were doing this really fun activity with a gumdrop and toothpick structure and three groups of kids. One group was looking at the structure and would explain it to another group of kids, who then had to run to a third group that attempted to rebuild the model based on this information. Just watching this diverse group of eighth graders doing this seemingly simple but yet really difficult task was so fun to see. I got to watch the debrief: what worked, what didn’t work, how they interacted with one another. Advisory doesn’t just happen because you put kids in a room with an adult. 28
It was wonderful to watch advisory’s really structured ways to build community and to build reflection. There is really thoughtful planning and training and leadership development. The kindness and caring and concern that goes into individual kids here is pretty impressive.
6 Sam: What has been your experience of the arts at BB&N? Have any student voices spoken to you in particular? Dr. Price: Last year I got to see (the Upper School play) Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime and I was just blown away by that. I’ve seen a lot of student theatre, being the principal of Newton North where they put on thirteen productions a year. I am really impressed by all the arts at BB&N. I will be hosting an art exhibition at my house and I’m loving the glasses portraits that are currently hanging in the Upper School gallery. I’m trying to convince the artists to let me hang their pictures. For my installation, Lower School music teacher Greg Fernandes formed the One School, One Choir and they were so fantastic. And the woodshop and Mr. Ruhlmann—I’ve heard from so many alumni/ae about how powerful that can be. All of it illustrates how powerful the connection of the arts is. My connection to the arts is not only what I’ve seen and gotten to be a part of but also what I’ve talked about with alumni/ae. The theatre program here has transformed kids’ lives. When I was out in Hollywood, I met two alums who were trying to make a go of it in the theatre world and they bring it all back to Mr. Lindberg. Another young lady who graduated from here and went to Tisch School of the Arts says that the best theatre instruction she ever received happened here. How powerful is that?
7 Sam: Do we have the right balance between athletics and academics? How do you see yourself navigating that? Dr. Price: I would add the arts; I would put all three of those there. From my listening tour, it’s clear that this kind of balance among these three significant drivers at the institution is not quite right yet. It’s not quite wrong either. Lots of current and past BB&N students say, “I really like that I was required to play on a team.” There’s incredible value to playing sports. Much of what I personally learned as a leader was from playing on sports teams in high school and in college. Have we quite figured out the right number or amount, or the waiver system, and are we taking into account those kids for whom the arts is the primary thing they feel the most passionate about? I don’t think we’ve gotten it entirely correct but I don’t think it’s one of those situations where we go to a different extreme.
I think there’s got to be a happier medium. I know the school has been searching for that. I think there’s value in trying to get to a place that allows students to have the opportunities of team and to interact with classmates in a team setting and also values and prioritizes everything else kids are doing. To me, it’s not like a “blow it up,” it’s trying to find a better balance. We have so much to offer here. I wonder if we are demanding too much from our kids. We have smart, wonderful, mostly compliant kids here who are trying to do what we’re asking them to do and I wonder if between all the different demands, are we asking too much. That might be around homework, that might be around athletic schedules where kids don’t even start practice until six or seven at night, that might be around providing enough food to make it through the day. I just don’t see that there is one answer to this. It’s a lot of small answers to try to create a better student experience. I will tell you that as I think about moving BB&N forward, one of my priorities is going to be thinking about the daily experience for students at BB&N, and how are we supporting and providing guidance for that.
8 Sam: You spoke during last Monday’s assembly about how we can process violent events in the world by coming together. What is it like being WKH KHDG RI RXU FRPPXQLW\ GXULQJ D GLIÞFXOW DQG painful time for our country? Especially an era of post-truth. Dr. Price: I was at a conference where the editor of The Washington Post gave an amazing talk on the role of truth and it was really powerful. It’s such an interesting time. My hope is that we’re not in an era of post-truth, we’re in an era of suspended truth, because I hope and pray we get back to it. I think one of the things an academic institution should do is help
students understand how to determine truth. Some of that is purely academic. Wikipedia is not where you should start and end. How to really research and think. Debates, persuasive essays, all of that is part of the creation of your truth.
DID YOU KNOW A cereal aficionado, Jen ranks Lucky Charms as her favorite
But then, some of it is harder. It’s even bigger than just finding your version of truth, it’s really understanding that our society has gotten into a place where we have polar definitions of truth. If you think about our phones and our news apps: in my own news feed, CNN and Politico come up quickly. So I make it a point to click on the Fox or the Breitbart feeds as well. Or I’ll flip between MSNBC and Fox on the same issue to see what they’re saying. That’s a lot to teach kids. You turn on the television and you look at Fox or MSNBC or CNN and you assume you are getting truth, even though those three news outlets are reporting the same incidents very differently. So, I think the challenge is teaching kids to be thoughtful consumers of this, and that can be really hard.
Pictured: Lower School music teacher Greg Fernandes directs the One School One Choir at Dr. Price’s installation.
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Andrew Paradise ’00 has been seeing around corners for years now, a helpful skill in the most commonplace of tasks, but an essential one when it comes to starting your own businesses. Perhaps it helps explain how at the age of 38, Paradise has already conceived of and started three successful technology companies in the mobile space. As a 24-year-old, just six years out of BB&N, he founded Photrade, an image-based advertising system (not Phototrade, because that name was already owned and too expensive). Paradise realized that as blogging began to rise in popularity, many bloggers were stealing copyrighted imagery to use in their posts. “With this new type of publication coming into vogue…we wanted to be able to share media in a format they could afford.” When that business took off, Paradise sold the company, and capitalizing on the smartphone trend, quickly started another: AisleBuyer. Anticipating the breadth of functionality in smartphone technology, Paradise built WKH ƓUVW VRIWZDUH WR DOORZ FXVWRPHUV WR VNLS checkout lines in stores and make purchases directly on their phones. In 2012, tech giant Intuit purchased AisleBuyer for a tidy sum of $100 million, and Paradise again went back to the drawing board. Whereas his idea for AisleBuyer had occurred at the exact right time for smartphone proliferation, the idea for his next and current company, Skillz Inc., was one he had been sitting on for nearly nine years. “Most ideas are either too early or too late,” Paradise notes. “With AisleBuyer, things in that space were moving really fast, and it was just the right idea at the right time. With Skillz, the way I like to think of it as an inventor is that the world wasn’t ready for that LQYHQWLRQ \HW ZKHQ , ƓUVW KDG WKH LGHD Ő Fast forward to 2013 when Skillz was founded; clearly the world was ready. Last year, Skillz was named number one on the Inc. 5000 list, Inc. Magazine’s annual feature of America’s fastest growing private companies—an unusual feat for technology 30
A N D R E W PA R A D I S E ’ 0 0
by Andrew Fletcher
Inventing the Future — One Company at a Time: platform businesses. “Microsoft never won the Inc. 5000 in their best year of growth,� Paradise points out. “Neither did Intuit.�
technologies and bringing them to market is a really exciting one for any inventor...we hope to be ready for that last step by end of next year.�
So, what is Skillz? As gaming on mobile devices became a trend, Paradise had an idea that people would be interested in competing in their favorite video games from in-home, for fun or for prizes. “I wanted to try to build a secure multi-player system that would enable that kind of competition,� he says.
7KDW 3DUDGLVH LGHQWLĆ“HV DV DQ Ĺ?LQYHQWRUĹ? VSHDNV WR KLV SDVVLRQ LQ EHLQJ present for the earliest inception point of any endeavor, or perhaps it’s just more fun than the blanket term, CEO. You would need a walk-in closet to hold all of the hats he wears—programmer, product builder, product PDQDJHU Ć“QDQFLDO DGYLVRU PDUNHWHU DQG PXFK PRUHĹ‹DQG KH LV SURXG RI the list’s breadth. Harkening back to his time at BB&N, Paradise credits his math teacher and wrestling coach, Tom Randall, for instilling in him the importance of well-rounded learning.
Given that most mobile companies can’t afford to build a platform that supports player vs. player gaming, Skillz provides these companies a pre-built interface that integrates into their games, allowing them to feature tournament-play in their games at an affordable price. (Mostly for sport and fun, although 10 percent of the two million competitions they host daily are money or prize tournaments.) It also broadcasts tournaments of the games for other people to watch, a key part of the Skillz business model going forward, given the growth of esports spectatorship. The model is working; this year Skillz boasts upwards of $400 million in revenue and has more than 18 million registered users. That latter statistic feels particularly prescient to Paradise given the emergence of esports as a veritable industry. “This year about 350 million people will be watching esports‌ and there are 2.6 billion people who play some form of mobile game every month,â€? Paradise says. “Now, they may not identify as gamers, maybe they’re just playing ‘Candy Crush’ or ‘Words with )ULHQGVĹ? GXULQJ D FRPPXWHĹ™EXW WKDW SOD\ EHKDYLRU LQĹ´XHQFHV WKH spectatorship of a competition.â€? What Paradise is getting at is the massive number of people who now watch gaming as a spectator sport; a trend that statistics show is on the rise, and one that Paradise likens to the early years of other well-established, traditional sports. “Football was invented in the 1860s, and it was roughly 50 years until the NFL was founded in 1920‌and basketball was invented in the 1890s, and the NBA was formed in 1949,â€? Paradise says. “With video games, you’ve had spectatorship in arcades since the ’70s‌ then watching friends play in your living room on home consoles‌ and now live and remote audiences for esports. Following the logic that it takes roughly 50 years and multiple generations for a sport to ‘catch on,’ by the mid-2020s, we’re projecting that two billion people will be watching esports.â€? Skillz is poised to help the industry take that leap, and with Paradise at the helm, all signs indicate the company will stick the landing. Indeed, it’s something he’s been working towards his entire career. Ĺ?$IWHU EXLOGLQJ DQG VHOOLQJ WKH Ć“UVW WZR FRPSDQLHV WKH WRS UHDVRQ WR do a third was that I really wanted to try to build a company from the beginning through going public,â€? he says. “That process of creating
“One of the things that really shaped my career, that Mr. Randall impressed upon us, was the value of being a renaissance man,â€? he says. “That idea of cross-training is probably one of the reasons I ended up completing two degrees.â€? Paradise holds a bachelor’s degree in commerce and economics from the University of Auckland, along with another in English literature from UMass Amherst. He learned to code by reading books borrowed from his local library, and he’s been hands-on in all parts of every company he’s been involved with. Paradise credits this renaissance approach for much of his success, and recommends it to anyone interested in entrepreneurial enterprise. “Get involved, get interested, learn about all the facets of business-building from accounting to programming to product management—if you want to EH DQ DUFKLWHFW Ć“UVW OHDUQ WKH IXQGDPHQWDOV RI FRQVWUXFWLRQ Ĺ? KH VD\V It’s an apt metaphor for Paradise to use, considering he’s been building DQG GHĆ“QLQJ WUHQGV LQ WKH PRELOH VSDFH IRU IRXUWHHQ \HDUV ,I WKH IXWXUH of esports plays out as he projects, Skillz will be breaking ground for years to come. Get your smart phones ready‌and game on.
Paradise ’00 at work in Skillz Inc. headquarters in San Francisco
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BB&N Teachers Expand Horizons and Curricula with International Partnerships Having spent some time in Bangalore, India with her husband, Upper School science teacher Amanda Borking became intrigued with the city. So, when BB&N’s director of global education, Karina Baum, approached her with a contact at a Bangalore School pitching a potential for collaboration, Borking jumped at the chance. As a result, Borking was one of two BB&N teachers who undertook school-funded summer trips to schools in the Eastern Hemisphere, facilitated by Round Square, a global membership network of 180 affiliated schools that focuses on experiential learning and character education. Grade four teacher Christina DelloRusso heard about the Round Square travel opportunity through an email Baum sent out to BB&N faculty. After doing some research, DelloRusso found a school in Nairobi, Kenya, engaged in service learning programs at the elementary school level that mirrored ideas in her curriculum. After reaching out to the school through Round Square, DelloRusso knew she had found a match. Over the next and ext few pages, Borking a DelloRusso sso explain in their own words word the many ny benefits, both personal and professional, have p o sional, that these experiences h led to.
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Grade Four Teacher Christina DelloRusso: Nairobi, Kenya This summer, I traveled to Nairobi, Kenya, to visit the Brookhouse School, a school very similar to BB&N in many respects. Through Round Square, I had arranged to collaborate with Josephine Bong’o, a science and S.T.E.A.M. teacher for yearfive students, and with very little preparation, yet no hesitation, I boarded my flight that would take me to Kenya. This trip reinforced the importance of elementary school teachers developing their own global competencies. As someone who has lived abroad and traveled frequently from a young age, I assumed that I possessed many of the requisite skills. And yet during this trip, I was shown which skills I possessed, and which ones I needed to develop. It caused me to think deeply about the competencies I am developing in my classroom, and gave me a chance to examine Round Square’s principles, observe these guidelines in action, and consider how to bring them into my own classroom. I spent five days at the Brookhouse School, visiting classrooms, meeting with teachers, administrators, and students, and I found myself quickly adopted by the community. I recognized also that my experience went so far beyond the collaboration with Josephine, and I was able to work and talk with a variety of teachers from multiple grades. I had asked to look specifically at the service projects the school does as I was eager to begin one in my own classroom, and each grade invited me in to see their work. Each service project connected to the environment, from collecting plastic bottles to making environmentally friendly fire starters, or stitching blankets for the nearby-orphaned elephants. From the very early years to the older grades, students were able to articulate what their project was, and why it was important for the greater community. Much of my time was used chatting with the students, who regularly invited me to eat snack and lunch with them, or sit with them at recess. There were the moments of humorous mortification, such as when I enthusiastically introduced myself as “Christina” to the shocked and somewhat horrified faces of the students. The teachers gently corrected me, “It’s going to have to be Miss Christina.” The students also found it hilarious that I spent the first thirty-six hours in my “distressed” travel jeans because my luggage was lost. They kept asking what Americans wore to school, especially as their uniforms looked very dignified next to my casual attire. I had many enlightening conversations as well. Students proudly explained to me about life in Kenya, and I was impressed with the freedom their teachers allow them: little things such as letting them eat snacks outside by themselves, or the fact that all the grades do cooking class, and even the very young ones use real knives and tools. In turn, they asked me about the United States. When I asked them what they thought of the U.S., they responded that they associated the U.S. with Amazon, Disneyland, New York City, and McDonalds. The older students had similar answers, but also brought up guns, politics,
Brookhouse year-five teacher Josephine Bong’o and BB&N fourth-grade teacher Christina DelloRusso and race. My experience went beyond the classrooms in many ways. In the afternoons and evenings, the teachers invited me to see local spots of interests, visit their homes for dinner, or simply texted me to make sure I had everything I needed. Even after I left the school and spent ten days exploring Kenya, the teachers would send me messages, checking to make sure I was enjoying my time in their country. For Josephine and me, this is very much the beginning of a long-lasting connection. Our goal in these first few months is to establish a relationship between our classes, and give our students more context about the schools and the countries in which they reside. Through my conversations with the Brookhouse students, I became aware of how little we understand about what daily life looks like in another country, and what resources are abundant or depleted in each country. Both of our classes will examine the concept of limited resources and what responsible consumption looks like in our cities. Josephine and I have been in regular communication since my visit, and we continue to work on shaping the collaboration for this school year, while remaining flexible and receptive to the voices of our students. My current curriculum is highly project based, and focuses on fossil fuels, renewable energies, and creating change within a system. While I was pleased to discover that our study already does contain many global aspects, both my trip to the Brookhouse School and my enhanced understanding of the Round Square principles have given me multiple ways to continue to build my curriculum. My hope is that I can foster in my students a curiosity about the world, the ability to share and communicate ideas effectively, and the value of adventure in all our lives.
“I learned so much in Kenya, including a deeper sense of curiosity, a different idea of basic necessities, a real sense of the sheer degree of American consumption, and most of all, a need to explore further.”
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Upper School Science Teacher Amanda Borking: Bangalore, India I first became interested in this collaboration whilst chatting with our Director of Global Education Dr. Karina Baum, about the rapid urbanization in Bangalore which was linked to a project I was doing in my biology class. She mentioned that she had attended a Round Square Conference in Windsor, UK, and had been hearing from a grade five teacher named Radhika Surendran at Inventure Academy, Bangalore, about a “Trash Tour” (a tour of different recycling facilities, particularly around plastic) that she had taken her class on. On researching Radhika, I also discovered that she had been integrating a theme-based learning approach in the lower school there. This idea of embedding a cohesive theme into class curriculum was of great interest to me. I was in Bangalore for a little over a week and was able to observe some classes, take a tour of the school, and hear about different aspects of school life there. I was mostly involved with the “Theme” teachers who welcomingly encouraged my interaction with their students, which was a true delight. In one class that I observed, the students had to group pictures of food in any way they liked, and it was interesting for me to see the culture of Bangalore expressed in their choices in terms of “veg,” “non-veg,” and “junk food” as food groups. I found that I was actually really drawn to the relationship between food, culture, and religion in Bangalore and enjoyed the opportunity to visit a Sattvic restaurant and learn more about the perception and influence that different foods may have on the body. When completing the Global Nutrition project in my biology class this year, I will certainly be introducing this concept to my students. One of the first things you notice on arriving in Bangalore is the traffic, the construction, and the amount of plastic trash. There has been a significant influx of people to Bangalore over the past 10 years, largely in the IT sector, and hence a huge amount of construction, mostly to provide accommodation to employees. Unfortunately, the transport system has not been developed to deal with this and the traffic is overwhelming. I had an 8-mile journey to school, which took at least an hour each way! The gap in wealth is astounding. There are workers living in makeshift tents right around the corner from Louis Vuitton stores in an air-conditioned mall. With all of this development comes the inevitable increase in trash, particularly plastic waste, which can be seen everywhere. Radhika managed to arrange for us to take a more in-depth version of the “Trash Tour” that she had previously taken her class on. During this tour, we visited one of the oldest fruit and vegetable markets in the city, K.R. Market, where there was once a biomethanation plant that generated energy from produce waste. The energy produced was sufficient to run the entire market; however, this is unfortunately no longer in operation due to contractors not being paid! I also gained insight into the challenges faced in changing the mindset of the population in Bangalore in terms of their willingness to segregate and dispose of their trash appropriately. This school year, I feel excited about linking some of my experiences in Bangalore into my curriculum, specifically the biology curriculum. I am currently in the process of developing a theme-based curriculum for my biology class. The theme that I will adopt is based on “Balance—Just Right.” This is a theme that Radhika has developed for the lower school at Inventure. I have changed the order of topics in my curriculum to allow for better flow within the theme and began the year with the sub-theme of “How the smallest unit is Just Right.” This will introduce atoms, ions, and bonding. I will also be asking students to reflect on how they feel that “Balance— Just Right” can be linked to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). For example, we will study electron sharing in a molecule of methane and how the number of electrons has to be “Just Right,” and will look at methane production and use the example of the biomethanation plant at K.R. Market—specifically, how the methane produced from the produce waste was used as a fuel. This theme will also extend to our study of sustainable ecosystems and the concept of ensuring that factors within an ecosystem are “Just Right.” I feel that my biology students will benefit from being able to make connections back to the theme to encourage wider thinking, think critically about ‘real-life’ concepts, and become more locally and globally aware. I cannot describe the sensory overload that I experienced in Bangalore, nor the incredible interactions that I had with some of the people there. Bangalore is a place that I am certain I will return to and Radhika is not simply a Round Square colleague, but a lifelong friend.
1. Upper School science teacher Amanda Borking (second from right) with Inventure teachers 2. While in Bangalore, Borking observed many curriculum pieces, including this “food web” class demonstration by third grade students at Inventure. 34 22
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“I feel so privileged to have been given this wonderful opportunity to not just collaborate in person with an inspirational teacher from the other side of the world, but also to have been rewarded with personal growth on many levels.�
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F OR MER FAC ULT Y PR O F I LE by Al Rossiter, Faculty Emeritus
When Beth Jacobson greets you with a warm smile, often an enthusiastic hug, and asks how you are, she really wants to know. Beth’s friend and BB&N French teacher emerita, Brigitte Tournier, puts it this way: “I loved watching, in awe, how incredibly in tune and jolly she was with what seemed like every former student ever—remembering everyone’s name and what they had been up to since leaving BB&N.”
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Those who know Beth, and have worked with her, would say without question that she is a “people person.” She enjoys asking questions. She is an attentive listener. Mark Lindberg, current BB&N faculty: “Beth loved ‘her’ alums. When she inquired about their partners or their children or their career, she really wanted to hear their answers, their news.” What could be a better attribute for a person who was responsible for interacting with approximately 6,700 graduates of Browne & Nichols, Buckingham, and then BB&N, and for working to keep them connected to their school? Gina Walcott ’84 and former trustee: “Beth gave unwavering support and a level of dedication unlike any other, coupled with large doses of an infectious smile, a warm embrace, a quick wit, a gentle nudge where necessary, boatloads of enthusiasm and creativity, and a long history of results and success.”
Buckingham and Browne & Nichols officially merged in 1974. So, our newly appointed director of alumni/ae affairs tended to the women of Buckingham, some of whom thought their school and its values would get lost in the merger; to the culture of B&N which differed from that of Buckingham; and finally, with newly minted BB&N graduates, who had attended a school which was in the throes of trying to make co-education work and workable. No easy task. “Beth understood the merger issues and dealt with them gently,” says Nancy Fryberger ’54. “Most times, people just want to be listened to,” Beth says, and she spent many hours listening to the women of Buckingham, who were concerned, and to graduates who wondered what the newly created school would be like. Many graduates from all three schools knew they had a reliable contact and a willing listener in Beth.
Alumni/ae directors need to know their institutions well, to be informed in order to answer the questions of graduates who want to know “how is the school doing?” Beth had a long association with our school, starting in 1976 when she worked the Lower School Circus, and then volunteered to serve on the Parents’ Association. Then a few years later, she was offered a part-time assignment to update the parent directory. Someone in authority must have known that she had the interest, the smarts, and the ability to lead an alumni/ae association, so in 1978 she was appointed director. That she had two sons, Scott ’91 and Eric ’90, attend the Lower, Middle, and Upper Schools gave her an insider’s view of our school.
But she had to be more than a nice person and a good listener. She had many ideas about how to improve the connections between graduates and the school, and she was able to bring many of those ideas to fruition. She had to work with numerous committees, individuals, and groups, but she did it all with grace. She listened. She reached out. She reveled in the diversity and the strength of our graduates. Nancy Fryberger: “Beth is a person who cares deeply about others. She is smart, always looking for new ways to engage the community—facilitating the connections between the schools, classmates, teachers, mentors, and friends, as well as supporting the traditions we all held dear.”
Beth Jacobson A Legacy of Keeping Alums Connected
Faculty Emerita Beth Jacobson
When asked what she is most proud of in her 26 years as Director, Beth lists several accomplishments: •
Helping to expand and deepen the BB&N Bulletin, (for example, seeking marriage photos of recent graduates and baby pictures of their offspring, as well as photos of attendees at the many alumni/ae events.)
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Starting the Golden Alumni/ae luncheons for the 50th reunion and older graduates, many of whom didn’t know each other well. As Beth says, “These gatherings were especially important for the Buckingham women, who thoroughly enjoyed getting together for companionship and reminiscing. It kept them connected to the school they knew as well as the current BB&N.”
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Establishing the Distinguished Alumnus/a Award. “I really wanted current students to know and to interact with graduates who had led extraordinary lives.” A sample of the recipients includes: Sylvia Poggioli ’64, National Public Radio Senior European correspondent; Chief Judge Jamie Baker ’78, of the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces; Ellen Goodman ’57, journalist and syndicated columnist; John Constable ’44, renowned global plastic surgeon; Peter Beinart ’89, columnist, journalist, and political commentator.
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Beth also worked to bring practicing artists to the school. John Norton, art teacher emeritus: “I worked with Beth trying to communicate with alums who were active in the arts. We put together several alumni/ae art exhibits together.”
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Expanding alumni/ae receptions to Washington, DC, San Francisco, Palo Alto, Seattle, New York City, and London.
Beth retired from BB&N in 2013. “All those night and weekend commitments began to wear me down. I always say I had the best job in the whole school, but it was time to move on.” And move on she did, this time with a parttime commitment to The Cambridge Homes, where she eventually became Chair of the Friends Committee and a member of the board. Beth is not a person to sit still, so she has brought all her experience of working with others to a new institution. They are fortunate to have her. Beth knows it is essential for the Head of School to travel the country, interacting with graduates. Jen Price, our new head, has done just that. But her job has been made that much easier because of Beth’s 26-year commitment to helping graduates stay in touch with their school. As John Norton put it, “In many ways Beth was a crucial link to the school’s institutional memory, a fabulous resource, and, the nicest of persons.” Amen to that. As the school gained its reputation and grew in size, it needed someone like Beth to help graduates stay in touch. She did just that, for which we can all be appreciative.
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Advancing Our Mission
The 1974 Leadership Society Fall Gathering: Celebrating Our Leadership Supporters More than 125 members of the 1974 Leadership Society gathered at the new Warrior Ice Arena at Boston Landing in Brighton on October 18, 2018. The fall evening reception brought together alumni/ae, parents, past parents, grandparents, faculty, staff, and friends who demonstrated leadership support for the School during 2017-2018. Board of Trustees Chair Chuck Brizius P’19, ’21, ’24 began the evening by thanking everyone in attendance for their extraordinary leadership support, which led the School to set yet another fundraising record in 2017-2018, raising more than $3.7 million for The BB&N Fund and an additional $2.79 million in capital commitments. Chief Advancement Officer Julie Gray warmed up the crowd with a round of trivia inspired by Head of School Jennifer Price, testing how well the community knows their new Head, including asking those in attendance to name Jen’s favorite cereal, among other things (see page 29 for the answer!). Julie then turned it over to Jen, introducing her as an authentic, thoughtful, and visible leader. Jen echoed Julie’s and Chuck’s gratitude and shared with guests her learnings from her summer/fall Listening Tour and online entry survey. She discussed both the clear strengths of the School and areas of opportunity for BB&N to explore. It was clear that the assembled group responded favorably to the beginnings of her vision for BB&N. BB&N is grateful to all of the 1974 Leadership Society members who continue to make BB&N a priority and demonstrate their belief in the school through their strong and generous philanthropic support.
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2 PICTURED [ 1 [ Board Chair Chuck Brizius P’19, ’21, ’24, Jen Price, Head of School, and Kaeghan Kelly ’10 [ 2 [ Erik Yesson P’21, Karen Kalina ’81, P’21, Former Trustee, Freddie Turner ‘91, P’25, Former Trustee, and Alejandro Heyworth P’25
[ 3 [ Sam Epee-Bounya P’17, ’21, ’24, Alexandra Epee-Bounya P’17, ’21, ’24, Nikki Jacobs P’15, ’17, Pam Baker P’23, ’25, ’28, Trustee, and Tiffany Chang P’23, ’23
[ 4 [ Jennifer Winn Aronson ’92, P’31, and Eric Aronson P’31 [ 5 [ Jason Hafler ‘00, Trustee, Bridget Terry Long P’26, ’28, Trustee, and Abby Hafler [ 6 [ Head of School Jen Price P’23 and Former Trustees Dick and Pat Light P’89, ’91, GP’24, ’29
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[ 7 [ Janet Goddard P’20, ’22, Hank Goddard P’20, ’22, Eileen Rhie P’20, Tony Rhie P’20
Isabel Marchant O’Neil P’52 The Case for Polite Persistence
4 5 Robert O’Neil ‘52, a former president of the University of Virginia and loyal supporter of The BB&N Fund for 30 consecutive years, died this September. Before his passing, he shared memories of his family's history, illustrating the direct impact of philanthropy in shaping BB&N. Bob’s mother Isabel Marchant O’Neil played a critical role in fundraising to relocate the Browne & Nichols Upper School from its Garden Street site to 80 Gerry’s Landing Road. Launched in 1946, the B&N fundraising campaign, A Mile to Go, raised $450,000 or $4.7 million in today’s dollars. “No record of achievement can long be maintained with inadequate facilities,” the building campaign case stated. With thriftiness remarkable even in an era of dramatically lower construction costs, the campaign united B&N in new facilities and created a $50,000 fund for salaries and scholarships. A nondescript plaque outside the Upper School that reads “1948" has been the only marker of the campaign’s success. The 10-person campaign committee included Massachusetts Governor Robert Bradford (Class of 1918) and Isabel O’Neil, the only female member. Relentless and resilient, Isabel survived a double mastectomy and breast cancer, typically terminal at that time. To ensure the campaign’s success given her health issues, she moved with her husband Walter, a B&N Overseer, and son Bob into Harvard Square’s Hotel Continental. The Class of 1948 dedicated its yearbook to “her tireless and faithful efforts.”
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Great fundraisers are often forgotten because they advance missions rather than themselves. The 1948 plaque was once covered by vegetation; now the sign is visible to the right of the Upper School main entrance. With this story the plaque can speak—or at least whisper. “This is our lifetime gift to Browne and Nichols School,” Isabel wrote in 1947, “[and in its] walls our spirit will live on with the present and future generations.”
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The formerly obscured 1948 plaque marking the campaign that allowed BB&N to relocate to Gerry’s Landing.
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Class of 2019 Senior Parents’ Gift Drive Launches at the Senior Welcome Dinner
Advancing Our Mission
This year’s Senior Parents’ Gift program was officially kicked off by Co-Chairs Negin and Oliver Ewald and Betsey and Charlie Gifford at the Senior Welcome Dinner in September, where seniors and their families came together to celebrate the start of their milestone year. As it has done for more than 30 years, the Senior Parents’ Gift program provides an opportunity for parents of the senior class to leave a lasting legacy at the school. Historically, the Senior Parents’ Gift has been in support of one of the school’s highest priorities; and this year is no different. Thank you to the Class of 2019 Senior Parents’ Gift Committee for enthusiastically endorsing the establishment of both The Class of 2019 Senior Parents’ Financial Aid Fund, to provide tuition and supplemental support for BB&N’s financial aid program; and The Class of 2019 Senior Parents’ Faculty Support Fund, to support compensation and professional development opportunities for our faculty members. Many thanks to the following members of the Class of 2019 Senior Parents’ Gift Committee for their dedicated efforts over the past weeks and coming months!
Charles and Betsey Gifford, Co-Chairs Lilly ’17, Charlotte ’19, Gemma ’22
Eric and Sari Aske Magnus ’19
Chuck and Kate Brizius Alexandra ’19, Caroline ’21, Thomas ’24
Kenneth and Christine Baily Isabelle ’19, Ethan ’24
Michael Brunelli and Jacqueline Stephen ’86 Michael ’16, James ’19, JoJo ’19
Scott and Amy Goebel Kathryn ’19, Charlie ’22, Caroline ’24
Arup Datta and Madhuleena Saha Samiha ’19, Nikhil ’21
Brenda Herschbach Jarrell ’85 and Kevin Jarrell Becca ’15, Erica ’17, Will ’19
James DeVellis ’84 Sarah ’15, Mary ’17, Jamie ’19
JK Nicholas ’85 and Virginia Shannon Katherine ’17, Anna ’19
Oliver and Negin Ewald, Co-Chairs Leyla ’19, Max ’21
Zilu Zhou and Xiaotong Yu Joseph ’19, Vincent ’23
Ed and Lori Belz Talia ’19, Sivia ’24 Chris Bierly and Margaret Boasberg Alyse ’19, Kira ’19, Tess ’22 Ann Bitetti and Doug Lober George ’13, Rose ’19 Todd and Melissa Boudreau Ava ’17, Chloe ’19
PICTURED [ 1 [ Senior Parents’ Gift Co-Chair Charlie Gifford P’17, ’19, ’22 announces the Senior Parents’ Gift drive with co-chairs Betsey Gifford P’17, ‘19, ‘22 and Oliver and Negin Ewald P’19, ’21 [ 2 [ Chris Chen ‘19 and Nick Vanasse ‘19 proudly display their Class of 2019 shirts, gifts from the BB&N Advancement Office [ 3 [ Sean and Cindy Klein Roche P’19, ’22 with their son Sam Roche ’19 and Gabriela Gonzenbach, the faculty keynote speaker at this year’s Senior Welcome Dinner [ 4 [ Senior Parents’ Gift Committee member Ed Belz P’19, ‘24 with daughter Talia Belz ‘19 and Aurash Vatan ‘19
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Answering the Call: The 2018-2019 BB&N Fund Volunteer Committee Each year BB&N parents, alumni/ae, past parents, grandparents, faculty, staff, and friends receive mailings, emails, and calls reminding them that their participation and support of the school is deeply valued. This year, more than 20 volunteers are reaching out to our BB&N community on behalf of The BB&N Fund. Providing more than 7 percent of the budget each year, The BB&N Fund is critical to sustaining the excellence of the school, faculty, and programs. This year’s BB&N Fund Volunteer Committee includes current parents and alumni/ae who are reaching out to encourage as many members of the BB&N community to participate as possible. We greatly appreciate and welcome the participation, volunteer time, and support of each member of our community in the way that best fits their time and ability.
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Co-Chairs Stephanie Price P’21 Mike Rorick P’22
Committee Members Pratima Abichandani P’21, ‘23 Beth Myers Azano ‘95, P’29 Pam Baker P’23, ’25, ‘28 Andrew Bernstein P’21 Michael Cirami P’30, ‘32 Kim Druker Stockwell ’86, P’20, ‘22 Nicole Ferry-Lacchia P’20 Kimathi Foster P’28 Christa Hawkins P’21, ‘24
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Darla Jelley P’25 Christine Kahvejian P’23, ‘24 Domenica Karavitaki P’23 Ken Lang P’16, ’18, ’20, ’22, ‘24 Michelle Lev P’23, ‘25 Rachel Loughran P’20 Meg Macri P’21 Melissa Reilly P’26 Paramjeet “Soni” Soni P’22 Allison Wade P’15, ‘23 Towne Williams P’25, ’27, ’30, ‘32 Angela Zhu P’23 41
6 HIVES EDITION E ARC H T M FRO
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This bottle of Buckingham am Browne & Nichols Commonwealth h Dry Red Wine has been passed down own from headmaster to headmaster ster beginning with Peter Gunness in the late ’80s. Produced by David Tower, wer, the owner and operator of the now-closed w-closed Commonwealth Vineyard in Plymouth, the vintage remains unopened, ened, perhaps as a symbol of the student ent dynamism waiting to be uncorked ed at BB&N.
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This newspaper clipping from the June 27, 1929 Boston Herald shows John L. Coon ’32 along with “Bugg,” the South American anteater and mascot of the Henley Regatta Thames-cup-winning Browne & Nichols’ crew team. Named for his diet, “Bugg” caused minor annoyances on the boat trip to England by continually attempting to eat the buttons off of the crew team’s clothing.
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This 1905 script (hand-written!) from a Buckingham production of A Christmas Carol includes crossed out sections of a scene featuring Ebenezer Scrooge. Buckingham dramatic productions of that era were extravaganzas—often months in the making, the performances served as community-building events and often garnered write-ups in the local papers.
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Browne & Nichols’ co-founder George H. Browne published this little tome in 1907. Described as “the vocabulary of Caesar’s complete works and of Cicero’s orations listed by frequency” the self-described “memory test” featured more than 3,000 Latin words for the reader to learn. Fun!
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A faculty gavel for Buckingham Council meetings circa 1964. The note contained therein reads: “To the council, a gavel for those who have served!”
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A 1950 Browne & Nichols’ tuition bill for Bob Zarse ’52 places the cost of the first half of the academic year at an astounding $406.50.
BB&N’S TOP GIVING PRIORITY: THE BB&N FUND
WHAT IS THE BB&N FUND?
HOW IS THE BB&N FUND USED?
As is true at all independent schools, tuition alone does not cover the full cost of a BB&N education. The BB&N Fund is the School’s primary fundraising program designed to support BB&N’s annual operating budget. Every year, we rely on the generosity of parents, alumni/ae, past parents, grandparents, faculty, staff, and friends to help bridge the gap between the revenue from tuition and the actual cost of educating a student. A successful BB&N Fund keeps tuition increases to a minimum and supports the daily operations of the School.
Gifts to The BB&N Fund support every aspect of the School’s operating budget including academic programs, faculty compensation and professional development, financial aid, athletics, performing and visual arts, and maintenance of the physical plant— everything that makes a BB&N education so special. The BB&N Fund accounts for nearly 8% of the School’s annual budget.
WHY SHOULD I GIVE?
WHEN DO I DONATE?
Participating in The BB&N Fund is one of the most meaningful ways to show support for BB&N for two main reasons. First, every gift makes a difference. And second, all students benefit equally from The BB&N Fund. Even though giving capabilities vary, it’s symbolically vital in a small community like ours that all members give back and contribute what they can. Every gift, no matter the amount, helps to support our community of diverse, curious, and motivated students.
BB&N’s fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30. Gifts made to The BB&N Fund go to work immediately in the current school year. Although we gratefully accept gifts at any time, contributing to The BB&N Fund early in the year gives the School more flexibility to respond to programming needs as they arise.
Buckingham Browne & Nichols School 80 Gerry’s Landing Road Cambridge, MA 02138-5512 www.bbns.org
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