Brunswick Trust Newsletter, Fall 2022

The Brunswick Trust

Being a Bruin: What It Means

Borrowing the Lower School theme of “Be” this year , our Brunswick community in all divisions is focusing on what it means to Be a Bruin. What do Bruins stand for? And what do we stand against? Each pillar of the Brunswick Trust reminds us of these lessons and serves to help us practice the skills necessary to take care of ourselves and each other.

Character & Leadership

Lower School boys kicked off the year combining an extra-special “B-Day” — Brunswick’s 120th birthday — with a brand-new theme for the 2022-23 school year: Be. Lower School Head Katie Signer said thinking about ways “ To Be” is a great way to begin a new school year; she introduced the theme in September by asking boys to think it through for themselves.

“Who or what should Brunswick boys be?” she queried. “What qualities and traits should they embody?”

To answer these questions, and in celebration of the big birthday, Brunswick’s very own Cake Boss, Chef Patrick, baked a giant cake for a big birthday celebration.

Boys created 120 “candles” adorned with thoughts about how they want to feel and be this year: Courage, Honor, Truth to be sure, but also qualities like “safe,” “kind,” “polite,” “proud,” and “welcoming.”

SMART Goals have been the focus at the Middle School this fall as boys completed a new midsemester reflection exercise designed to dovetail with the midpoint comments students received from teachers. SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measured, Achievable, Relevant, and Timed.

Boys were asked to review teacher comments and place a plus sign next to identified strengths and a star next to challenges. Students reviewed the Character Continuum with the objective of seeing how their academic strengths might overlap with character strengths.

Based on what they learned, boys were then asked to set SMART goals for the remainder of the semester.

Much more than just an intention to “do better” in math, a SMART Goal is specific and achievable. For example, a student might set a goal to create a weekly, 15-minute morning meeting with a math teacher to work on practice problems.

A visiting author spoke to Upper Schoolers this fall and detailed the everyday humanity of an American woman who served as a leader in the German resistance during World War II.

Rebecca Donner, author of All the Frequent Trouble of Our Days: The True Story of the American Woman at the Heart of the German Resistance to Hitler, spoke in Baker Theater on Sept. 29.

Her book details the life of Mildred Harnack, an American teacher and historian who married a German man and went on to help lead the resistance against Nazi brutality. Harnack was eventually arrested and initially sentenced to six months in prison by a German military tribunal; however, on Feb. 2, 1943, she was beheaded after Hitler himself intervened in her case.

Donner, who is Harnack’s niece, worked to convey Harnack’s bravery and strength to Upper School students, while also relating her everyday humanity.

“A lot of people in the resistance have been put up on a pedestal and honored for the way they (seemingly) performed above and beyond the call of duty,” said Kate Duennebier, Brunswick Trust coordinator. “Donner worked to take Mildred down from the pedestal; Mildred was just a human who behaved in a way maybe we all are capable of.”

Donner’s visit served as a follow-up to The Brunswick Trust parent/son/faculty all-campus summer read, All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr.

An Upper School Character & Ethics class is challenging juniors to work through their own thinking on some of the thorniest issues of our days. The required class was created six years ago to try to meet the needs of boys during a critical point of their Upper School career; it infuses the work of The Brunswick Trust directly into the academic curriculum.

Goals include having boys self-identify as ethical thinkers and gain self-knowledge in terms of their own decision making.

“The specific class we cover on ‘The Bystander Effect’ is really topical now, considering social media and how things are so easily shared,” said Jon Kaptcianos, Upper School math teacher and dean of student life. “It brings up good questions of community citizenship and obligation — when you’re seeing something not just in-person, but also on a screen.”

The class caps a three-year curriculum at the Upper School, with a freshman seminar followed by sophomore health class and the junior year course in character and ethics.

“It’s an opportunity to hash out issues that we all struggle with, but especially young people,” said Academic Dean Tucker Hastings. “It’s all about self-awareness, all about where the boys come out on these things.”

Recommended reading BE YOU! by Peter Reynolds

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging

AHomecoming get-together provided the perfect opportunity for a first-of-its-kind gathering of the nascent Black Student Mentorship Program. The gathering brought together about 35 students, parents, and alumni to mingle in the foyer of Sampson Field House just before the football game; it served as a kick-off to a year of planned BSMP activities, including meetings and speakers.

“The Homecoming event was amazing not just for parents and current students — it also benefited alumni who got a chance to see the school growing and evolving,” said Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Alecia Thomas. “It was a chance for families to come together to talk about their lived experiences, and also share what life is like post Brunswick.

All the Frequent Trouble of Our Days: The True Story of the American Woman at the Heart of the German Resistance to Hitler by Rebecca Donner

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Belonging continued from page 2

“It showed there is work that’s being done. They just loved it. They were able to connect with each other.”

The BSMP is sponsored by the DEIB and Alumni offices, as well as the Diversity Committee of the Board of Trustees. The goal is to provide social, career, and academic enhancement opportunities, while also strengthening the sense of belonging for current students who self-identify as Black and/ or African-American.

Brunswick’s all-campus diversity event, A Global Brunswick, returned to Maher Avenue this fall, the first time the event was held in person since before the pandemic.

In all, about 40 people participated, including parents, students, faculty and administrators. The event, held in the Upper School dining hall on Oct. 25, included a potluck dinner with everyone bringing culturally significant food.

The topic of the night revolved around how social media impacts social movements; one goal of this annual event is to work through uncomfortable feelings and talk about hard subjects in an effort to better prepare boys to enter a complicated world.

The recently revived CUBs group kicked off the new school year on Nov. 16 with a gathering for 23 registered families. The meeting saw the group use yarn to weave a “spider web” of sorts to show how each member is connected to the whole; individuals also volunteered what was special about themselves.

“That’s what makes our community so rich,” said Thomas. “Before you know it, we are all connected.”

CUBs is an acronym for Culturally United Bruins.

“It’s a great program,” said Thomas. “It includes all families from all backgrounds.”

Middle School DIA club members have been meeting at lunchtime with Sean Stanley, Brunswick’s new associate director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging. Stanley came to Brunswick this year from Wesleyan University, where he served as an assistant football coach for the last eight years and an NCAA DEI representative for the past three years.

Stanley meets with sixth grade DIA club members on Mondays, seventh graders on Tuesdays, eighth graders on Thursdays, and he hosts a Students of Color affinity lunch on Fridays. He visits with fifth grade boys about once a month, and also drops in at the Lower School.

One of the most popular groups at the Middle School, the club has been discussing how to think and be critical of information that’s on social media or in the news — also examining the power of music to bring social change.

“It’s been a great, welcoming community,” Stanley said. “I’m excited to help these boys as they learn about their identities, and also to create an experience where everyone feels like they belong and can take advantage of all the opportunities Brunswick offers.”

Brunswick recently marked Latinx/Hispanic Heritage Month with special recognition at the Middle School, the first Latinx Affinity meeting of the year at the Upper School, and special storytelling by DEIB staff at the Pre and Lower Schools. Readings including Pablo’s Tree by Pat Mora, All Around Us by Xelena Gonzalez, Mango, Abuela & Me by Meg Medina. Every division also celebrated with food all month long.

Recommended reading

Happy in Our Skin by Fran Manushkin

Between the World and Me by Ta’Nehisi Coates

Health & Wellness

Ateddy bear has been enlisted to help teach the messages of Health & Wellness to Pre and Lower School boys.

Emma Eschricht, Pre and Lower School nurse, introduced Care for the Bear to ’Wick’s youngest in October; the initiative has seen boys each receive their very own stuffed bear to help them digest some of the fundamental lessons of self-care. Included are basics like hand washing and hygiene, changing clothes, eating right, exercise, and brushing your teeth.

First graders were especially excited with the project; they get to keep the bears in their lockers and have made little beds for them to keep them cozy as they also learn about sleep rituals.

The overall goal is use the bear to discuss a boy’s physical, emotional, psychological, spiritual, intellectual, and social needs; these are the five essential elements of health and wellness identified by Brunswick’s new and comprehensive schoolwide initiative — The Center for Wellness, Insight, Courage & Kindness: The ’WICK Center, for short.

“The hope is they will learn to take care of themselves by taking care of the bear,” said Eschricht. “It’s super positive! It’s so cute!”

Brunswick launched its inaugural ’WICK Center Speaker Series — focusing on wellness, insight, courage, and kindness — with a day-long visit from a renowned author and teacher, a positive psychologist who has served as a strength-based performance coach for some of the world’s most successful professionals.

Daniel Lerner, author of U Thrive: How to Succeed in College (and Life), spoke to Upper Schoolers in a morning assembly on Thursday, Oct. 20. Afterward, he joined students in the dining hall for one-on-one conversations.

He spoke to parents in an evening event that drew hundreds to Baker Theater. That talk, Passionately Successful: Making the Most of Happiness and Human Potential, posed illuminating, fundamental questions: How do I become really good at something but also stay well? Can success and happiness coexist?

The answer is yes, Lerner said, though the two “don’t go together as often as we would like.”

Drawing from his “Science of Happiness” course — the most popular elective at New York University — and his cuttingedge research into high-performance professionals, Lerner said there is no one way to hedge against all unhappiness, but part of the equation is to engage in work that is fundamentally enjoyable, while also taking time to explore.

“It begins with a little spark,” he said. “It requires a bit of patience. It’s a way of saying: I’m going to build into that in a way that’s organic to me.”

Faculty at the Pre and Lower School kicked off the year with a full-day seminar from Jessica Hoffman, Ph.D., director of adolescent initiatives at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence; the goal was to give teachers more opportunity to address specific needs in their classroom through delivery of the RULER curriculum.

Developed by the Yale center, RULER is an acronym for the five skills of emotional intelligence: recognizing, understanding, labeling, expressing, and regulating.

Trust Time is now built into the calendar at the Pre and Lower Schools; the sessions see bi-weekly classroom activities around health & wellness and RULER.

Counselor Joey Zannino kicked off lessons this fall with visits to every classroom in both buildings. Here’s a rundown of what went on:

In pre-kindergarten and kindergarten, Zannino introduced/ reintroduced the Mood Meter, a key component of the RULER curriculum that helps students and teachers recognize and label their emotions, while also recognizing that all emotions matter and can be useful in different kinds of activities and learning.

At the Lower School, Zannino presented lessons centered around “respect.” Each grade level used an age-appropriate

definition of respect, with special emphasis on how “kindness” plays into it.

Older grade levels broke down “respect” into three types: self-respect, respect for others, and respect for the community. First graders drew a picture of something that they did for themselves that morning (made breakfast, got dressed, brushed teeth, etc.), second graders threw pebbles into a “kindness pond” to reflect on kind acts others have done for them and observe the ripple effects of a kind act, and third graders made “fortune-teller” toys prompting discussion about the three different types of respect.

“All of the lessons went very well, and I think the boys will be excited this year when they see Trust Time on the board as part of their daily schedule every other week,” Zannino said.

Lower School Physical Education recently finished a crosscountry unit that consisted of a week of running laps around Cosby Field.

“We emphasize the fact that all running is not the same, and when they are running for a distance (cross country), the boys need to learn how to pace themselves and gradually build up speed to finish ‘strong,’” said Marc Strileckis, associate director of athletics.

“Beyond the actual race/run strategies, we briefly went over how the heart and lungs work to pump blood through the body and essentially fuel muscles. We also went over different muscles that need to be stretched to prepare for running.

“They got a better understanding of how their body works,” said Strileckis. “Especially the heart and muscles.”

These are messages that dovetail with lessons science teacher Brett Martell covers at the Lower School; fourth graders began the year learning about the human body — including the skeleton, muscles, red and white blood cells, lungs, and more.

“Our conversations center on how our bodies are like machines,” said Martell. “If you want the body to run well, you have to do things for it. I relate performance directly to lunchtime, and how french fries and bagels are not quite giving your body the best it can have.”

Martell said the boys are already pretty knowledgeable in these topics, and they find inspiration in the idea of building

their bodies into big and strong athletes — like the ones they see at the Upper School.

Boys in third grade visited the Outdoor Classroom to learn about photosynthesis, and consider questions about how to survive and to thrive amid the competitive world of plants.

“They really are sponges,” he said. “They love facts. This is not new. These are things we have been doing all along. These are topics that matter.”

Here’s a little about what’s new this year in health and wellness at the Middle School, where teachers are getting bi-weeekly emails offering “small yet poignant” tools they can use to support student wellness and mental health.

The tools are derived from a curriculum developed by Upstream, a Colorado non-profit that aims to share actionable, bite-sized tools for student well-being.

Teachers are emailed a short lesson about meditation exercises to share with advisory students every other Tuesday, meaning students are learning a new mindfulness tool every other week. Practice of the mindfulness tools occurs in a specific subject every month; early November practice was in science, but it will rotate every two months to other subjects.

“Not every student is going to take to every tool,” said Marcie Molloy, M.D., Brunswick’s director of health and wellness. “We expect kids to find one that works for them and use it in a way that works for them.”

“These tools can be done anywhere, and they don’t require a lot of time,” she said. “They don’t even require special space.”

A Common Sense Media Connected Schools Conversation that centered on teens and their digital lives streamed on YouTube on Sept. 28; dozens of Brunswick parents tuned in.

The conversation featured Harvard researchers Carrie James, Ph.D., and Emily Weinstein, Ph.D.; the two have a newly released book, Behind Their Screens: What Teens Are Facing (and Adults Are Missing).

Weinstein and James surveyed more than 3,500 teens about their digital habits, as well as their thoughts about the digital

universe. The YouTube panel saw the authors wade through some of their results, while offering practical tips and even a “digital-habits” check-up for parents and families.

The talk was recorded and can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANnAP08VfJ0

Special Note: The ’WICK Speaker Series continues with Tracy Dennis-Tiwary, Ph.D., author of Rethinking Anxiety: Why

Service & Sustainability

The Brunswick Sustainability Council kicked off the new year with its first meeting on Oct. 13; the group is full of plans to put more green into the Brunswick “brown and white.”

Among the Council’s recent accomplishments is a new website. “We are devoted to making an active change on our campus,” said Griffin Porphy ’24, who spearheaded the site. “Some of our goals for the next few years include electric leaf blowers, a farm, and possibly even small windmills.”

One of the biggest challenges the Sustainability Council faces, Porphy said, is a lack of recognition and awareness. To remedy this, Porphy and his peers helped create the new website as a way to aggregate information and celebrate accomplishments.

“Not only will it raise awareness for the group, but it will also allow for advancements on campus to be showcased and highlighted,” Porphy said.

The website can be found here:

https://sites. google.com/ brunswickschool.org/ brunswicksustainability/ home

The Sustainability Council is one of the most popular clubs at

Anxiety Can Be an Advantage, and What to Do When It’s Not. The talk is set for Thursday, Jan. 5, at 6:30 p.m. in Baker Theater.

Recommended reading

U Thrive: How to Succeed in College (And Life) by Dan Lerner and Alan Schlecter, M.D. Behind Their Screens: What Teens Are Facing (and Adults Are Missing) by Carrie James and Emily Weinstein

the Upper School; around 25 students routinely take part, all of them highly motivated and committed to trying to save our environment.

Horizons at Brunswick boys are making gains in reading and math.

Every summer, these Greenwich public school students take STAR Assessment tests that reveal current skill levels and allow the program to tailor learning plans for each student.

Dr. Carrie James Dr. Emily Weinstein

Service & Sustainability continued from page 6

Results show that the long-term relationship with these students, who spend every summer at Horizons beginning in kindergarten, really pays off. Two-thirds of every kindergarten class enters the program below grade level; each year thereafter, more and more students begin the summer at grade level.

“By the end of each summer, we see a decrease in the percentage of students needing ‘urgent intervention’ and an increase in the percentage of students who are ‘at/or above benchmark,’” said Marianne Barnum, executive director of Horizons. “I’m proud of the continued improvement of Horizons students.”

Brunswick hosted its first blood drive since before the pandemic on Oct. 11; more than 30 people turned up in Pettengill Gym to roll up their sleeves and make the gift of life to The American Red Cross.

Community Service Director Amy Kerekes said she hopes to hold blood donation drives at Brunswick in both spring and fall from now on.

the annual 5K Run for Waterside School on Oct. 15; the run is held in loving memory of Jeffrey Hammond Long ’01, who was 36 when he died in 2018 after being injured by a truck while riding his bicycle in Washington, D.C.

Fourteen Upper School boys and their teachers embarked on an Oct. 21 relief mission coordinated by the group Midnight Run, which has always been a popular service in the Upper School.

Students came together to collect clothing, toiletries, and food for the homeless in New York City, then delivered it on a “route” designated by the organization Midnight Run, a group that offers an especially “hands-on” type of service opportunity.

“That human exchange, rather than the exchange of goods, is the essence of the Midnight Run mission,” according to their website.

Two students, Asher Benn ’24and Henry Putnam ’24, were so inspired by past runs they have created a Midnight Run Club.

“There’s lots more going on in the arena of community service,” she said.

For example, after pausing for the pandemic, varsity sports teams are once again able to give back to their community in person.

“It’s a great bonding experience for the varsity players; they are able to share their talents,” Kerekes said.

Varsity soccer spent a Saturday morning teaching the game to the children of the Don Bosco Center in Port Chester, N.Y., while the varsity cross country and crew teams participated in

Guided by Amy Kerekes and English teacher Pete Adams, the two led the Oct. 21 run into the city, collecting and organizing clothing donations and helping make 200 bags of food and toiletries to distribute on the streets of New York.

The new club intends to fundraise and do several Midnight Run service runs per year.

Click here to download the Curbside Compositing Environmental Impact Report