“With All Thy Getting, Get Understanding”
Brunswick boys spent the holiday season and the winter months practicing gratitude and kindness and reflecting on respect for self and for those around us. We are grateful to the boys for their care of our Brunswick family and our surrounding communities.
Character & Leadership
Middle Schoolers mailed missives of gratitude to friends and family in November after gathering for a Gratitude Assembly that got them thinking about the benefits of gratefulness, as well all kinds of things to be thankful for.
Brunswick Trust coordinator Kate Duennebier was moved to put together an assembly on gratitude after thinking about the Thanksgiving holiday — a celebration we trace back to the Pilgrims but one that was actually enshrined on the calendar by Abraham Lincoln during the height of the Civil War.
“Think about the holiday for a moment,” Duennebier said to the boys. “We all pause. All of America. It’s not
a religious holiday. It’s an American one, and we get to share in it together.”
Duennebier also conveyed some of the science of gratitude. She pointed to three scientists who have shown that being thankful and saying so helps others and especially ourselves.
“It’s a long way of saying that research has found that expressing gratitude not only boosts our own happiness, but also has lasting effects more than most anything else,” she said.
Boys did more than just learn about gratitude. They also practiced it.
They broke into advisories to write letters of gratitude to friends and family — the letters went out in the mail just before Thanksgiving.
They further kicked off a “Gratitude Journal.”
“This is probably the most common (and easiest) method of becoming a grateful person,” Duennebier said. “It’s simple. You write down three things you’re grateful for every day. The idea is that in the beginning you’re naming the big stuff. But as time goes on, you have to pay more attention. Observe.
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“What better time to do this than over Thanksgiving break,” she said. “Challenge your family to do one, too.”
Seniors in the Upper School Connections program led a Brotherhood/Force for Good assembly at the Lower School in early December.
“It was so powerful,” said Leslie Anderson, coordinator of Connections. “There was rapt attention. The Upper School boys are like heroes to them.”
Key to the Upper Schoolers’ message was the concept of being an “Upstander” — a person who intervenes and pushes back against bullying.
“How to be a force for good is to be an ‘Upstander,’” Anderson said.
Lower Schoolers broke into small groups to “build” their very own Upstanders. Using ink and paper and all the tools of the trade of elementary school, students gave each Upstander a brain to think with, ears for listening, eyes to see, a mouth to smile with, and, especially, a heart to care.
Seniors who spoke at the assembly included Teddy Danforth, Will MacGillivray, Jackson Fels, Tomas Delgado, Miles Barakett, Trip Williams, Luke Michalik, Jesse Schutzman, Holden Fraser, and Collin Eschricht.
Fourth grade ambassadors kicked off their visits to Lower School classrooms in January by taking inspiration from Japanese soccer fans who were seen cleaning up stadiums after the 2022 World Cup matches.
The practice is a deeply ingrained part of Japanese culture — even young children are taught to clean up their classrooms and school facilities as a sign of respect.
“Even their sports teams — they leave the locker rooms immaculate,” said Brett Martell, Lower School science teacher and coordinator of the ambassador program. “They do it because it’s the right thing to do.”
Taking their cue from the Japanese fans, ambassadors used their very first classroom visits of 2023 to highlight the Japanese practice that was so plainly on display in Qatar — and to challenge their younger classmates to come up with ideas on how to emulate it at the Lower School.
“It’s a mindset,” Martell said. “And hey, we can do that, too. It’s a model we want to match up with.”
In all, 22 fourth graders are serving as ambassadors this year, visiting the classrooms of their younger schoolmates to deliver news, run activities, and speak the language of The Brunswick Trust.
Upper Schoolers went to the movies in November for a good old-fashioned shared experience, gathering together in Baker Theater to watch Greyhound.
The movie stars Tom Hanks as a World War II U.S. Navy commander tasked with protecting ship traffic in the Atlantic from German U-boats — the convoy must pass through what was known as the “Black Pit,” a multi-day stretch in which ships were out of range of protective air cover.
Students gathered in advisories to discuss the film, including how its story relates to two recent Brunswick Trust books about World War II, All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr and 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. Donner spoke to Upper Schoolers in Baker Theater in late September.
Eighth graders are once again conducting an “inventory of strengths” that will inform their understanding of midpoint progress reports and their upcoming, seminal Capstone Projects.
Kate Duennebier introduced the VIA Institute on Character last year — the Institute arose in the early 2000s after a big shift in scientific thinking, one that moved decidedly away from diagnosing what’s wrong with a person in favor of looking more closely at human goodness and what’s right.
“The shift here is that we started to look at what works, rather than what’s broken,” Duennebier said. “That’s the foundation on which this VIA institute was built.
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“They created this renowned survey to bring their work to the world,” she said.
The survey provides an “inventory of strengths” for use in the practice of wellness — eighth graders completed it in January and are using its findings to see how character strengths impact academics and especially projects like the Capstone, which will see them tasked with working together in groups of three and four this spring.
“In a nutshell, we are using the VIA character survey as a tool to enhance our existing Character Continuum,” Duennebier said.
Twenty-one juniors made the trek up to the Vermont Campus in Randolph, Vt., in mid-January to train for the leadership roles they will shoulder during their senior year.
The students are preparing to help lead small groups of sophomores to Vermont for the seminal experience that sees boys unplugged, outside, and working together.
“It bears repeating,” said Danny Dychkowski. “This group, unlike every other trip to Vermont, is an elected trip. These boys have made the choice and commitment to return, both as juniors and seniors. They know the campus, they know the expectations, and they come in fully vested in the program. How does this look during the trip? Circle talks are more intense, volunteers are everywhere, and things get done without a teacher having to ask.”
Boys stayed in the newly constructed cabins in groups of four and five — they were responsible for their own heat by utilizing Vermont Castings wood stoves, which are made in Randolph.
“The cabins are well insulated and the stoves are super efficient — one group got their cabin up to 94 degrees!” said Dychkowski. “After some trial and error, and some more error, the boys learned how to regulate the output of the stoves
(and to coordinate with a slightly opened window) to maintain their cabins at a reasonable temperature. We try to drive home the message that it is okay to fail, but you need to try again. The stoves embodied that message — a low-stakes life lesson on persistence.”
It has been an unusually warm winter, so instead of crosscountry skiing and fat-tire biking on campus, boys trekked to the Rikert Nordic Center at Bread Loaf, where they make
Ice climbing, a marquee experience for the juniors, was not possible this year because of the warm temperatures, so a shelter and fire-building competition in the woods was substituted.
“These changes in the program really align with our goals of adaptability, decision-making, and risk management,”
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Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging
Across divisions, students heard from classmates and speakers in January about the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.
Serving as speaker at Middle and Upper School assemblies was educator, art enthusiast, and former NFL/CFL football player Billy McBride. With his own remarkable life story as the backdrop, McBride spoke to Upper Schoolers in a morning assembly organized and led by Diversity in Action.
Having grown up in Syracuse, N.Y., McBride moved out of his family home at 17. He survived being stabbed as a young man, and went on to graduate from Tennessee State University. After graduation, he was drafted by the San Francisco 49ers and played the majority of his professional football career in the Canadian Football League.
He later received his master’s degree in exercise sciences and sports studies from Smith College — today, he serves as associate athletic director for diversity and inclusion, the director of club sports, and as a senior coach at Amherst College.
“I get to offer you a concise look at my survival and my blessings, as a young man who had to learn to trust and love through those who filled my empty tool box with nuggets of confidence, courage, faith and compassion, and respect for my fellow citizens,” he told students. “But most important, it is love that has to be shared in order to live a meaningful and productive life.”
McBride, along with Associate Director of DEIB Sean Stanley and Assistant DEIB Director Thomas Nins, read an excerpt from Dr. King’s famous Letter from a Birmingham Jail before students broke into advisory groups for small-group and “fish bowl” discussions led by DIA.
McBride also spoke to Middle Schoolers, adjusting his message to urge courageous choices.
He also had a fabulous visit at the Lower School, where he met with students in a class and signed autographs.
“I talked about love a lot,” McBride said of his visit to Brunswick. “Love of self, love of community, love of learning. It’s impactful.
“I left recharged,” he said.
Fourth graders led a Lower School assembly to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. in mid-January. Students started the gathering with the anthem Lift Every Voice and Sing — seven fourth graders then took turns at the podium to offer details of Dr. King’s life and work, including the March on Washington, his famous I Have a Dream speech, and its connection to the Declaration of Independence.
The assembly also featured a video put together by Lower School technology teacher Tim Coupe, as well as comments from Head of Lower School Katie Signer, connecting Dr. King’s message with the work of the Student Council Ambassadors, who kicked off the year with lessons and reminders on how to show respect and do what is right.
Pre School students celebrated Black History Month by studying famous Black Americans like Jean Michel Basquiat, Louis Armstrong, Rosa Parks, Jackie Robinson, Maya Angelou, and George Washington Carver. Each class presented its findings during Friday assemblies — visitors can view the projects on the bulletin board in the main lobby.
’Wick’s youngest also learned about the importance of the African American National Anthem, Lift Every Voice and Sing. To culminate all of this work, boys created a slideshow highlighting students engaging in the true spirit of Black History Month: togetherness, love, brotherhood, and kindness.
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Health & Wellness
Ateddy bear has been enlisted to help teach the messages of Health & Wellness to Pre and Lower School boys.
Those pivotal moments between thought and action were the subject of Wellness Lessons this winter — boys considered how to pause, breathe, and consider their “best selves” before deciding how to respond to any given situation.
Joey Zannino visited classrooms at both schools to talk with the boys about what’s called the Meta Moment, a component of the RULER social-emotional learning approach developed by the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence.
Big Bear Hug by Nicholas Oldland provided fodder for conversation — the book is about a bear who loves everything in nature, but comes across a man with an ax chopping down the most beautiful tree in the forest. Before attacking the man, the bear pauses and reflects on his best self as a lover of all things and decides to give the man a hug instead.
“Boys spent time thinking about people they admire and look up to,” Zannino said. “We spent time discussing what qualities they possessed that made them good role models — someone who does the right thing, makes good choices, and makes other people feel good. The boys then reflected on what types of words they would want other friends to use to describe them. Each boy then came up with a list of a few words that described his best self.’
A follow-up lesson featured Soda Pop Head by Julia Cook, which further facilitated discussion about making a shift from automatic, unhelpful responses to strategic, helpful responses, particularly when faced with an emotional situation.
“We talked about how you can plan out your behavior before entering a difficult situation, and that there is always time in between an action and your reaction,” Zannino said. “In that time, boys are encouraged to Sense (that something is happening in body, mind, or behavior), Pause (to avoid responding in an unhelpful manner — take a breath, take a walk), See (your “best self” respond to the situation), and Strategize (your solution).”
Sleep as a superpower was the focus of two Care for the Bear lessons at the Pre and Lower School led by Marcie Molloy M.D., health and wellness director, last month.
Boys in Pre-K through first grade learned about all the benefits of a good night’s sleep — like being a good friend and performing better in sports or in school, as well as the stages of sleep, how much sleep we need, how dreams help us process our experiences, and the importance of a nighttime routine and keeping technology out of the bedroom.
“They started to understand sleep as a superpower,” she said. “They took to the fact that their brain is active when they sleep, and it needs to be rested. It needs to be rejuvenated.”
Helping relay these sleepy lessons were Curious George and LeBron James, whose devotion to sleep has been widely recognized.
Care for the Bear is a new initiative that has seen boys receive their very own stuffed bear to help them digest some of the fundamental lessons of self-care. The overall goal is to use the bear to discuss a boy’s physical, emotional/psychological, spiritual, intellectual, and social needs — the five essential elements of health and wellness identified by Brunswick’s new and comprehensive schoolwide initiative, The Center for Wellness, Insight, Courage & Kindness.
Many fifth grade boys have now had lessons in CPR thanks to Middle School Nurse Ginny Martin, who teaches health classes on Wednesdays.
Martin meets with eight boys at a time for eight sessions throughout the year — this is the first year she has tried CPR lessons with some of her classes, as time has permitted.
“It was very well received,” she said. “The boys learned the fundamentals of CPR and the Heimlich maneuver.”
Anxiety as a force for good was the topic of two Upper School talks by celebrated psychologist and neuroscientist Tracy A. Dennis-Tiwary, Ph.D. A Hunter College professor and prolific speaker on the topic of anxiety, Dennis-Tiwary spoke to both students
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and parents about pervasive and popular misunderstandings of the dreaded emotion in separate assemblies in Baker Theater in early January.
“We have to radically change the way we are talking about anxiety,” she said. “Anxiety is not a bug in the system. It’s a feature. It’s an advantage.
“It has to be uncomfortable, it has to make us pay attention — to make us work to make our futures better,” she said. “We need this difficult, horrible, crazy emotion. We need it, and that means we need to figure out how to work with it.”
Dennis-Tiwary was the second speaker in the inaugural year of the ’WICK Center Speaker Series, which brings leading thinkers to the Upper School for daylong visits that focus on wellness, insight, courage, and kindness.
She delivered her talk, Rethinking Anxiety: Why Anxiety Can Be An Advantage, and What to Do When It’s Not, to Upper Schoolers in the morning before joining students for lunch in the dining hall for questions and one-on-one conversation. She spoke to parents in the evening.
At Hunter College, Dennis-Tiwary is a professor of psychology and neuroscience, director of the Emotion Regulation Lab, and co-executive director of the Center for Health Technology.
Brunswick parents were invited to tune into a Common Sense Media Connected Schools Conversation on pornography earlier this month.
A first of its kind webinar for Common Sense, Move Over Playboy, Online Pornography Is Here and Kids Are Watching livestreamed on YouTube in February.
The conversation featured panelists Dolly Klock, M.D., family medicine physician and founder of AdoLessons; Supreet Mann Ph.D., senior research manager at Common Sense; Peggy Orenstein, New York Times bestselling author of Boys & Sex and Girls & Sex ; and Edward Spector, Psy.D., a psychologist specializing in digital addiction.
The panel reviewed new Common Sense research that showed as many as three quarters of teenagers have bumped into online pornography, often unintentionally, and at an average age of 12.
“We don’t have the luxury of silence,” said Orenstein. “We have to talk to them about what’s real and not real. It’s not like our parents’ generation.”
Panelists stressed the benefits of basic early sex education and open communication, with a focus on the need to filter this subject through the structure and values of individual families.
“As always, we appreciate the efforts of Common Sense to facilitate discussions around difficult topics and to provide parents with some very practical guidance on how to have these discussions at home,” said Molloy.
“Their partnership is valuable for our school, and their website is a wealth of very specific and helpful guidance for parents.”
Watch the recording below t
More resources may be found at Common Sense Media.
A national nonprofit with a mission to educate young people about healthy and unhealthy relationships brought its message to Upper Schoolers in two concurrent assemblies with Greenwich Academy in early February.
One Love Foundation, created in the wake of the murder of University of Virginia senior and lacrosse standout Yeardley Love, offered the two presentations with the goal of beginning the conversation around relationship health.
Juniors and seniors attended the assembly in Baker Theater, while freshmen and sophomores attended their own assembly at Greenwich Academy.
Both presentations focused on the 10 signs of healthy/ unhealthy relationships, and how to safely navigate endings.
The Brunswick assembly featured more conversation and student engagement, while the GA talk was more structured, with a video and follow-up discussions.
“This is an important topic to introduce,” said Jonathan Kaptcianos, dean of student life. “Our students face big challenges in all facets of life. Having this discussion gives them the confidence and language to help navigate the various types of relationships they have with their peers.”
One Love has worked with over 100 million people through in-person programming and virtual education. Their mission is carried out by engaging with young people through compelling, relatable films and honest conversations around healthy and unhealthy relationship behaviors.
Note: The final installment of this year’s ’WICK Speaker Series is set for Tuesday, April 25, at 6:30 p.m. in Baker Theater. On tap is Sleep Is Your Superpower, by Matthew Walker, Ph.D.
RECOMMENDED READING
Future Tense: Why Anxiety is Good for You
(Even Though It Feels Bad)
By Tracy Dennis-Tiwary
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Service & Sustainability
Upper School environmental students flew to Qatar last month for a three-day fact-finding mission aimed at gleaning information about sustainable development practices in emerging countries.
Six boys and two teachers flew to Doha just after exams ended in January — four sophomores and two freshmen were joined by Arabic teacher Mimi Melkonian and Biology teacher Oliver Bierman-Lytle for the trip.
Among the sites visited by the group were the National Museum of Qatar, the Museum of Islamic Art, Education City, and Lusail Stadium and other sites built for the FIFA World Cup.
Students Leo Gazal ’25 and Sayah Trahanas ’25 summed up their reflections in a letter to Head of School Tom Philip.
“The National Museum, located on the Doha Corniche, is surrounded by a reflecting pool and the Arabian Gulf, with views of the downtown filling the rest of the skyline,” they wrote.
“The museum’s brilliantly illuminated facilities displayed Qatar’s rich history, extending from its nomadic past to its sustainable future, showcasing countless artifacts and innovations. Here, we learned about the financial workings of Qatar’s economy, as well as Qatar’s plans to sustainably regulate and diversify the future of its thriving energy sector.
“The Education City mosque is designed to show the people of Qatar that the country can develop and become more sustainable while preserving its century-old traditions.
“Overall, our first-ever excursion to the Middle East was a success, as we discovered the new virtues of sustainability and financial literacy through the unique lens of the Arab World,” they wrote.
“There was more to the trip than visiting their plans for a more sustainable future. Instead, it allowed us to recognize that the
Middle East is revolutionizing itself from an empty desert into a land of both financial and educational opportunity.
“We were inspired by the variety of technologies enabled by the unique Qatari spirit of innovation in the mind of sustainability.”
Aside from Trahanas and Gazal, students making the trek to Qatar included Grayson O’Hara ’25, Griffin Green ’25, Anthony Sayegh ’26, and John Pavelski ’26.
Middle School boys in the Animal Service Club held two fundraisers this winter for the Catherine Violet Hubbard Animal Sanctuary in Newtown, Conn.
Mom Jenny Hubbard began the foundation in memory of her daughter, Catherine, who was in kindergarten when she was killed in the Sandy Hook shootings.
It was Catherine’s dream to grow up and take care of animals. Boys collected pet food and money for the foundation’s Senior Paws Program, which provides senior citizens in lowincome housing, including in Greenwich, with pet food, grooming, and veterinary care. The program helps seniors keep their pets together, providing resources so owners don’t have to make difficult decisions about whether to feed themselves or their pets.
Boys also ran a “fill the bag” competition that was even more successful — the contest saw boys in each grade fundraise and compete by grade level for a free-dress day. It was the fifth graders who prevailed.
“It was a very close race,” said Deanna Smyers, advisor to the club.
“Boys were giving $50 bills!” she said. “It was incredible. The generosity was amazing and we ended up raising $1,420.”
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Upper Schoolers partnered with high school students from the Keystone Club of the Greenwich Boys & Girls Club for Midnight Run, a face-to-face relief mission aimed at connecting mainstream adults and teenagers with New York City’s homeless.
Ten Brunswick students and 12 Club members met up on a frigidly cold evening in early February — the groups spent time getting to know one another as they prepared food and organized donated clothing and toiletries.
At about 8:30 p.m., groups boarded buses and set out to the City to visit three assigned locations, meet homeless people, and distribute donations.
“People are waiting for us at each stop,” Amy Kerekes, director of community service at Brunswick, explained to the Greenwich Free Press. “The stops are usually at a house of worship or community center. We talk to people and hear all of their personal stories. A lot of them are just down on their luck.”
A Brunswick Community Service mainstay for many years, Midnight Run is a volunteer organization dedicated to finding common ground between the housed and the homeless. Every year, the group coordinates over 1,000 relief missions in which volunteers from churches, synagogues, schools, and other civic groups distribute food, clothing, blankets, and personal-care items to the homeless poor on the streets of New York City. According to their website, the goal of the late-night relief effort is to create a forum for “trust, sharing, understanding, and affection.”
Brunswick has participated in Midnight Run for many years — Kerekes said she hopes the partnership with BGCG will grow. “This was a valuable experience for our volunteers to see and to experience with each other,” said Kerekes. “Brunswick and BGCG look forward to further coordinated efforts in the future.”
Brunswick students attending included Johnny Saunders ’24, Matt Lejdstrom ’24 , Sebi DeAngelis ’24, Tommy Pope ’24, Brendan Davey ’24, Asher Benn ’24, Henry Putnam ’24, Blaine McClure ’24, Chris Smoller ’24, and Ryan Li ’26. Here’s an article in the Greenwich Free Press about the trip:
In Single Digits Temps, Brunswick and Keystone Club Kids Take “Midnight Run” to New York to Help Homeless
Pre-K boys enjoyed a mid-January field trip of sorts to the “Amazonian Rainforest” thanks to a visit by Animal Embassy of Stamford.
With the letter “R” serving as the week’s theme, students learned about rainforest animals up close and personal thanks to animal educator Chris Evers, who stationed himself in the Discovery Room as he hosted visits from each of the three Pre-K classes.
Among the animals boys had a chance to meet were a redfooted baby tortoise, a baby anaconda snake, a white tree frog, an owl, and a chinchilla.
“Chris has an incredible message for our boys,” said Deb Schwartz. “He said all animals are beautiful and unique, and we should leave animals in their natural habitats.”
In other news from the Pre School, ’Wick’s youngest traveled to the Atria senior living facility in Rye Brook, N.Y., for a community service visit that saw boys sing and share nursery rhymes as they visited with residents in February.
The Souper Bowl, a one-day canned food drive at the Pre, Lower, and Middle Schools, brought in a mini mountain of donations for Neighbor to Neighbor, whose mission is “improve the lives of residents in need throughout the Greenwich area and strengthen our community by creating access to food, clothing, and basic living essentials in an atmosphere of kindness and respect.”
Boys were able to use their donations to root for their favorite team.
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