Noble and Greenough
Noble and Greenough
A Day. A Life. A Day. A Life.
CONTENTS Day in the Life 3 Finding Balance 39 Community Voices 42 Graduates in the World 55 College Counseling 67 How to Apply 72 Letter from the Head 74 Nobles by the Numbers 76
What’s Nobles like? It depends. In the morning, Nobles is, well, early (unless you’re late). And sometimes it’s cold. (You know, Boston.) And then the first class starts, and you’re still not quite awake, and someone—maybe the teacher, maybe you—says something interesting, and suddenly…you’re thinking. You’re talking. You’re moving. You’re exploring. You’re competing. You’re creating. You’re collaborating. You’re exhilarated. You’re exhausted. And suddenly… it’s late. And sometimes it’s cold. (You know, Boston.) “Yeah, but what’s it like?” you ask. The truth is, we don’t have a definitive answer to that question. We have examples of answers (see the rest of this book). But like answers on a practice test, they might not be the actual answers. At least, they might not be your answers. Your answers will be different because your answers will be yours. Nobles’ job is to help you make your answers great. So that’s what this book—and Nobles—is about. Maximizing the greatness while maximizing the you-ness.
7:55 AM The buses roll up. The cars pull in. The kids pile out. We follow four of them through their day.
8:00 AM
WE INSPIRE ONE ANOTHER. PEOPLE ARE ALWAYS DOING SOMETHING AMAZING, THROWING THEMSELVES INTO EVERYTHING THEY DO, ENJOYING IT SO MUCH THAT YOU ALMOST DON’T HAVE A CHOICE BUT TO GET WRAPPED UP IN IT, TOO. THAT’S NOBLES IN A NUTSHELL.
The entire Nobles student body meets for assembly every morning. There are announcements, performances, speeches. It’s always different. It’s always interesting. It’s a great way to start the day off as a community.
8:25 AM
Kids at Nobles are into so many things. It was easy to find other people who shared my interests.
It seems counterintuitive, but being able to just sit in the library and relax with friends and take my mind off classes for a few minutes actually makes me more productive.
8:55 AM
NOBLES ENCOURAGES STUDENTS—AND WE ENCOURAGE OURSELVES—TO EXPLORE AS MANY SUBJECTS AND EXPERIENCES AS POSSIBLE AND TO DIG REALLY DEEPLY INTO THE ONES WE DISCOVER A PASSION FOR.
9:13 AM
I really like the teachers at Nobles. They all have unique personalities, and they’re all very passionate about the subjects they teach.
9:25 AM
I chose Nobles because I wanted a place where I would always be challenged and everyone around me wanted to work as hard as I did and learn as much as they could.
NOBLES TEACHERS MAKE CLASSES NOT LIKE CLASSES. EVERYTHING IS A PUZZLE, A PROJECT, A CONVERSATION. YOU JUST GET SUCKED IN.
9:55 AM
One of the things I love about Nobles is the lighthearted spirit of the students. Especially my freshman year, I felt like every day somebody would say or do something to make that day memorable. And that quality of life makes us better students. You perform better when you’re surrounded by people who support you. And you’re happier, too. Noble and Greenough School 17
10:50 AM
18 Noble and Greenough School
Nobles has given me opportunities to be a leader, and generally just take more charge of the things that I’m interested in. I know what I want, and I’ve learned to be patient with figuring out what I want when I don’t know. That’s what I’m hoping college is like—even more interesting people to meet, even more room to explore.
11:20 AM
LOTS OF STUDENTS AT NOBLES DOUBLE UP ON MATH OR SCIENCE CLASSES. I DOUBLED UP ON LANGUAGE—FRENCH AND CHINESE.
11:54 AM
When I absolutely need to focus to get something done, I go to the quiet room in the library. Everyone has to be dead silent in that room, and since we’re all working, everyone usually is.
12:10 PM
I love designing and building things on a 3D printer. That’s definitely when I am most in my element. I can design for hours on the CAD software, and then tweak and tweak and tweak the 3D printer until it’s perfect.
12:40 PM
Lunch in the Castle is one of my favorite parts of the day. I get to talk to my friends. I get to talk to teachers outside of class. It’s one of the places I’m most aware of all the relationships I’ve formed.
1:00 PM
Electronic Design and Engineering is an independent project-based class. It integrates all the skills I learned in my other science classes and lets me choose my own idea and set my own timeline.
Nobles is competitive, but it’s never about outdoing your peers. It’s about elevating everyone’s performance. Even in the classroom, we’re a team.
1:50 PM
I’M A PERFORMER AT HEART. MUSIC. THEATRE. DANCE. I’VE DONE IT ALL AT NOBLES.
2:23 PM
Each class has its own alcove in Shattuck Schoolhouse with cubbies for your things. They’re big between-class meeting places. And the great thing is that they’re all connected, so you have your own “sophomore” or “junior” alcove, but you can see your friends in all the classes. Noble and Greenough School 33
3:50 PM
I love going from school to practice. The transition from mental exertion to physical exertion gives me this great rush of adrenaline. Whatever happened the rest of the day just melts away, and I’m just running around with my teammates.
CALLI BIANCHI is a senior from Scituate, Massachusetts. She plays varsity volleyball and softball and is a counselor at Camp Sunshine, a camp for kids with life-threatening illnesses and their families. She’ll attend Harvard next year.
ANDREW JOHNSON is a senior from Dover, Massachusetts. He plays varsity soccer, was elected captain of the varsity lacrosse team, and is a tutor in the Achieve program, which helps Boston middle school students with life and academic skills. He’s going to MIT, where he plans to study computer science and mechanical engineering.
MIKAELA MARTIN is a senior from Boston. She sings in the blues band, dances, and does the winter musical. She is co-leader of the Peer Help Program and affinity group Sister 2 Sister in addition to being a core member of Students United for Racial Justice and Equality. She plans to study linguistics at Harvard.
ADAM QU is a senior from Needham, Massachusetts. He is a Nobles tour guide, a core member of affinity group Asian 2 Asian, a cross country runner and captain of the varsity crew team. He’ll attend Boston College to study biology and the humanities.
SAMPLE CLASS SCHEDULES
DAY:
Mon.
GRADE:
* middle school community and clubs period ** student clubs meeting period
Period 0
Period 1
Period 2
Period 3
Period 4
Period 5
Period 6
Period 8
Period 7
Assembly
Geography I
Music VI
Science VI
Lunch
French A
English via Latin
Algebra
Advisor Meeting
Music
Wind Ensemble MS
Algebra I-Honors
Lunch
English via Latin
French A
Geography I
Long Assembly/Middle School Assembly and X Block** (alternates) Science VI
Study Hall
R Block*
English via Latin
Study Hall
Lunch
Assembly
Algebra I-Honors
Geography I
Music VI
English via Latin
Lunch
Saxophone Lesson
Science VI
Fri.
Assembly
Science VI
Algebra I-Honors
Wind Ensemble MS
English via Latin
French A
Lunch
Geography I
Mon.
Assembly
Civics
English V
Algebra I-Honors
Lunch
Class V Latin
Science V
Spanish B
Advisor Meeting
English V
Middle School Dance
Spanish B
Lunch
Science V
Class V Latin
Civics
Long Assembly/Middle School Assembly and X Block** (alternates) Algebra I-Honors
English V
R Block*
Science V
Study Hall
Free Block
Assembly
Spanish B
Civics
English V
Voice Lesson
Lunch
Study Hall
Algebra I-Honors
Fri.
Assembly
Algebra I-Honors
Spanish B
Middle School Dance
Science V
Class V Latin
Lunch
Civics
Mon.
Assembly
Hist. of the Human Community
Spanish II-H
English IV
Geometry
Lunch
Painting I
Biology Honors
Biology Honors
Advisor Meeting
Spanish II-H
Biology Honors
Study Hall
Painting I
Painting I
Lunch
Hist. of the Human Community
Free Block
Long Assembly / Short Assembly and X Block** (alternates weekly)
English IV
Spanish II-H
Lunch
Study Hall
Geometry
Free Block
Assembly
Biology Honors
Hist. of the Human Community
Spanish II-H
Personal Development IV
Lunch
Geometry
English IV
Free Block
Fri.
Assembly
English IV
Study Hall
Biology Honors
Painting I
Lunch
Geometry
Hist. of the Human Community
X Block**
Mon.
Assembly
Photo II
English III
Chemistry
Lunch
US History
Chinese III
Algebra II Foundations
Free Block
Advisor Meeting
English III
Algebra II Foundations
Free Block
Lunch
Chinese III
Free Block
Photo II
Photo II
Long Assembly / Short Assembly and X Block** (alternates weekly)
Chemistry
English III
Lunch
Chinese III
US History
Free Block
Assembly
Algebra II Foundations
Photo II
English III
Personal Development III
Lunch
US History
Chemistry
Chemistry
Fri.
Assembly
Chemistry
Free Block
Algebra II Foundations
Chinese III
Lunch
US History
Free Block
X Block**
Mon.
Assembly
Honors Physics
AP European History
Spanish IV-H
Lunch
English II
Free Block
AP Computer Science
Free Block
Advisor Meeting
AP European History
AP Computer Science
Free Block
Free Block
Lunch
Honors Precalc/Differential Calc
Honors Physics
Honors Physics
Long Assembly / Short Assembly and X Block** (alternates weekly)
Spanish IV-H
AP European History
Free Block
Lunch
English II
Honors Precalc/Differential Calc
Assembly
AP Computer Science
Honors Physics
AP European History
Lunch
Honors Precalc/Differential Calc
English II
Spanish IV-H
Free Block
Fri.
Assembly
Spanish IV-H
Free Block
AP Computer Science
Lunch
Honors Precalc/Differential Calc
English II
Honors Physics
X Block**
Mon.
Assembly
AP Latin V
Free Block
Free Block
Lunch
AP European History
AP Physics
Molecular Gastronomy
Molecular Gastronomy
Advisor Meeting
Free Block
Molecular Gastronomy
Orchestra
AP Physics
AP Physics
Lunch
AP Latin
Free Block
Long Assembly / Short Assembly and X Block** (alternates weekly)
Free Block
Free Block
Lunch
AP Physics
AP European History
Free Block
Assembly
Molecular Gastronomy
AP Latin V
Free Block
Free Block
Lunch
AP European History
Free Block
Free Block
Assembly
Free Block
Orchestra
Molecular Gastronomy
AP Physics
Lunch
AP European History
AP Latin V
X Block**
Tues. Wed. Thurs.
Tues. Wed. Thurs.
Tues. Wed. Thurs.
Tues. Wed. Thurs.
Tues. Wed. Thurs.
Tues. Wed. Thurs. Fri.
7 8 9 10 11 12
FINDING BALANCE
Finding Balance While Pursuing Your Passion THERE ARE SO MANY WAYS TO DISCOVER AND GROW YOUR PASSIONS AT NOBLES, AND THE BEST PART IS, NO ONE’S PATH LOOKS THE SAME.
Adam Qu says, “Biology has been my favorite subject since I took my first class freshman year. I’m taking AP biology now. One of the things I like about it is that it helps me understand my own health and how my own body works. As a rower and cross country runner, that understanding is important to me. In college, I’m hoping to study biology in combination with the humanities.”
Calli Bianchi fell in love with ancient Greek and Roman history. “I think it’s just all very relevant to today,” says Calli. “It’s the beginning of government, the beginning of art and literature, the beginning of everything. How do you understand today if you don’t understand how it all started?” Andrew Johnson discovered something he always thought was cool could be wildly compelling: “Coming into Nobles as a freshman, I knew I liked math and science, but I had no idea I was going to focus on them or consider pursuing them in college. But they’ve become my passions, especially computer science. I’ve taken every computer science course Nobles offers. And my advisor, my college counselor, all my teachers completely supported me when I wanted to immerse myself as much as I could. They even helped me get into BeaverWorks, a fourweek summer STEM program at MIT.”
Mikaela Martin is taking language to its limits: “My family already spoke Spanish, and I started taking French during middle school at Nobles. Then Nobles added a Chinese program. I agonized over whether to drop French and start Chinese, but I loved languages so much, I decided to study both. The world is becoming so globalized anyway. Why not try to be quadrilingual?”
FINDING BALANCE
Of course, fitting all the pieces together is a lot of work. “In our enthusiasm to explore all the possibilities, we can put a lot of pressure on ourselves,” says Martin. “But Nobles—and Nobles students— are creative about finding balance.’” Devon Minor, already a successful computer scientist, musician and football player, pushed to launch a track program. “Nobles hasn’t had a track program since 1942,” he says. “But a lot of students really want to run track. So a friend of mine and I have been pushing Mr. Gallagher, our athletic director, to start a track program. It’s finally happening. This year, 2019, is our first year. There are 30 kids signed up, and I’m just really excited for the season.”
In a community like Nobles, your peers can really make a difference. Sometimes, just talking to classmates can help you figure things out. “Nobles surrounds you with really committed, intelligent peers,” says Liam Smith, “and they’re just as much a learning resource as the teachers. One of my best friends and I got into the habit of explaining things to each other. A lot of times in class, you think you understand a new idea, but you’re not always sure. So I explain it my way and he explains it his way, and we learn from each other’s perspective. You almost always learn something new when you see it through someone else’s eyes.”
One important technique is to talk to people early and often. Your advisor is always a good first place to turn. “I think it’s really special that every Nobles student gets a faculty advisor,” says Johnson. “Your advisor truly cares about you and how you’re doing. Not just academically, but how you’re doing socially and personally. I would say to use that resource as much as you can.”
In 2017, Nobles students founded Nobles Heads Together, a peer-support network to ensure everyone has a place to turn when they’re feeling stressed. Martin is one of the organization’s founders: “We have tons of support from our guidance counselors and the faculty—we’re surrounded by adults who care about us—but I think the support is much more effective when it comes from other students—from people who look like you and are young like you. So, Nobles Heads Together creates a space for students to talk openly about whatever they need help with.”
Smith sings in an a cappella group, plays drums, and does ceramics. “But theatre is my real art,” he says. “It’s such a powerful medium that has a really unique way of putting someone through an experience they’ve never had before. And the theatre community at Nobles is so strong, I instantly made a bunch of friends.”
But maybe the best part of Nobles, says Owen O’Connor, is how all the pieces fit together. “Take service and sports, for example,” he says. “My hockey team has gone to the local VA hospital several times to visit the patients. It’s really interesting meeting the vets and learning their stories. Some of them have come to our games. Some of us have had dinner with their families. Athletics and academics fit together in interesting ways, too. I think it’s because your coaches are often your teachers, and seeing them from those two different perspectives gives you a better understanding about what they expect out of you, which makes you work harder for them, both on the field and in the classroom.”
Self-care is important, too. Smith recommends making time for something you only do for yourself. “I’ve been doing ceramics for four years,” he says. “If a test or a paper or some other situation is making me anxious, I’ll just go to the studio and make something. It’s really fun to just relax and use my hands and not feel like I have to impress anyone with what I’m doing.”
Madeleine Charity has made a name for herself as a campus activist. “My first big experience with activism was going to the Student Leadership and Diversity Conference my sophomore year,” she says. “Being exposed to the different issues and what other student activists are thinking and doing about them was really amazing. When I got back, I became a member of Students United for Racial Justice and Equity. Our goal is to raise awareness and create a safe space for honest discussion.”
“Older students are an especially great resource,” says Johnson. “They really know the ins and outs of Nobles, and their insights can really help you get the most out of this place.” Qu agrees: “I was kind of shy as a freshman, and one of the senior captains on the cross country team made a point of reaching out to me and making sure I felt included. Now that I’m a senior, I’m trying to repay his kindness and live up to the example he and the other upperclassmen leaders have shown me. I feel like I have an obligation to carry on the legacy.”
Talking to your classmates and teachers will help you keep things in perspective. And as Minor can tell you, perspective is important: “I play football, and I sing in several ensembles. Before every game, I’m nervous, really nervous, until I have my first tackle. Then suddenly, I’m fine. I’m having fun. I’m putting on a show. It’s the same thing with singing. I’m always nervous before a concert. Then I sing my first note, and I’m fine. Tests and papers are similar, in a weird way. They can be overwhelming when they’re in front of you. And while I can’t say tests and papers are fun, necessarily, none of them were as hard as I thought they were going to be. The worst that can happen is that you learn, and that’s what we’re here for anyway.”
There are a lot of reasons that people—students and teachers alike—are attracted to Nobles: our constantly evolving curriculum and the opportunities to learn new things; the academic, artistic and athletic facilities, which rival those of some of the nation’s best colleges and universities; the emphasis we place on travel and service learning though our EXCEL program and our commitment to inspiring leadership for the public good. But the reason they choose Nobles is for our community. Nobles is a place where you will know people and be known. Where your teachers, coaches and classmates will challenge you and support you. Where learning, growth and success come together in a deliberately, thoughtfully, joyfully shared experience.
“ Nobles attracts people who want to make a difference. Whether they’re teachers, administrators or students, everyone is here because they want to be here, and they want to be here because they want to achieve something. And being part of that environment makes you want to be here even more, and to push yourself to do well, to contribute.”
OWEN O’CONNOR, CLASS II Boys Varsity Hockey, Varsity Baseball, Prefect
COMMUNITY VOICES
“ I went into teaching with this mad passion for making sure my students saw all the things in literature that I thought it was important for them to see. But as I’ve grown in my profession, it’s become more important to help my students see that they have observations of their own, and that those observations are worthy of expression and have the potential to advance our shared understanding of ourselves in exciting ways. If I can teach them to literally see what they can see, to trust what they can see, and to communicate that perspective in a clear and compelling way, they’ll have a skill that will transcend the English classroom and carry them deep into a productive life.”
SHANNON CLARK English Department Chair, Cross Country Coach
“ The teachers at Nobles make an effort to connect with each individual student. They’re going to challenge you, but they’re also completely ready to help you. They’re in your corner. They want you to succeed.”
LIAM SMITH, CLASS I Assembly Booth Crew, Nobles Theatre Collective, Spectrum, Junior Classical League
COMMUNITY VOICES
Honors Physics was one of the most challenging classes I took at Nobles. There was definitely material that I just did not understand the first time I saw it. But the way the teacher taught the class made it okay that you didn’t just immediately get everything. Not knowing was kind of the point. She wanted us working at the edge of our comfort zone. She wanted us taking intellectual risks. And she was very patient and nurturing as we went through that process.�
MADELEINE CHARITY, CLASS I Students United for Racial Justice and Equity, Ultimate Team, Prefect, Peer Help Program, Students for Gender Awareness, Achieve Tutor, Camp Sunshine Volunteer
COMMUNITY VOICES
“ One of the things I love about teaching is that it’s an opportunity for me to learn more about a subject I love. Every year I might be teaching more or less the same subject matter, but the questions students ask are different. So at the same time I’m challenging them to think more broadly and be more curious, their questions—the very questions I’ve encouraged them to ask—challenge me to constantly reevaluate a subject I think I know and understand. It’s a wonderfully energizing dynamic.”
LOUIS BARASSI History and Social Science Faculty Member, Tennis Coach
“ I love morning assembly. I’m a prefect [Class I students who run morning assembly and meet regularly with the head of school], so I’m up there every couple of weeks just to run the show, then every other week to perform. There are 600 students and 100 teachers in the audience, and you never know what they’re going to think of the performance, but when it’s over, there’s always so much applause and support. It’s really Nobles in a nutshell. As long as you’re willing to put yourself out there, people are going to support you. It’s just what we do.”
DEVON MINOR, CLASS I Varsity Football, Nobles Theatre Collective, Track & Field, Nobles Heads Together, Prefect, Chamber Singers
COMMUNITY VOICES
Middle school kids are in an interesting place. They’re past the age where they just eat up everything you say and are starting to push back on the reality that you’re giving them. They want to know the why of things. Some of that’s digging deeper—they want to know why the principles and theorems you’re presenting to them work the way they do. Some of it’s justification—they want to know why what you’re teaching them is useful and important. And some of it’s exploring and testing limits—they want to know how they can use what they’re learning. For me, those are fun and important conversations to be having with kids.”
EFE OSIFO Mathematics and Diversity Initiatives Faculty Member, Brother 2 Brother Advisor
COMMUNITY VOICES
“ Nobles isn’t created for just one type of person. We’re a mixed group. It’s interesting to see how different our backgrounds are and how people work differently in class and how they are outside of class. It’s just a lot of new experiences with a whole new group of people. As a student of color, I’m glad there’s a lot of support at Nobles. We have our own affinity lunch and a siblings program where you get paired with an upper school student of color. And there are faculty of color, too, so you always have someone to talk to and you always feel like you’re heard.”
VALERIE GUALDRON, CLASS VI Soccer, Crew, Middle School Play
Of course, the whole point of the Nobles experience is the life that it prepares you for. That’s why we make the experience as literally “lifelike” as we can. You explore your options, pique your curiosity, hone your skills, and deepen your understanding. Most of all, you learn to set and pursue goals, you learn to work in teams and build communities, and you learn to succeed in a way that contributes to the greater good. The stories that happen after Nobles are as diverse and inspiring as the stories that happen at Nobles. We’re sure your Nobles stories—and your after-Nobles stories—will be just as unique and just as successful.
MAX MANKIN ’07 PhD, Harvard University, Physical Chemistry; Co-Founder and CTO, Modern Electron
No offense to grad school, but… …most of what I learned, I learned at Nobles. First of all, Nobles pushed me way out of my comfort zone— intellectually, physically, socially—and that taught me to be somewhat fearless and ask the question, “What’s the worst that can happen?” You need that fearlessness when you’re founding a startup, which is kind of like jumping off a cliff and building the glider on the way down. You need that fearlessness to do anything worthwhile. Another thing I learned at Nobles that I still apply seven days a week is the value of a good mentor. Today, I’m lucky to have a lot of really, really fantastic mentors who are other CTOs, business leaders, senior engineers. A lot of the people who work for me, I would consider my mentors because they have a lot more experience than me. But my appreciation of mentorship started with my advisor at Nobles and with the chemistry and other 56 Noble and Greenough School
science teachers who, by sharing their passion for their subjects, helped me discover what I was excited about. But the coolest thing for me, even though I sometimes hated it, was that Nobles forced me to think about being a citizen of some larger community, whether that’s my class, or the country, or the planet. And I’ll confess, it took me a while to get it. I’d gone to public school my freshman year, and in public school, you show up, you go to class, you go home, do your homework, and you’re done. At Nobles, there’s a much more tight-knit structure. A lot of it is morning assembly and just literally being in a room with the entire rest of the school while your classmates shared things that were important to them. But we also did service trips and volunteered locally. And our classes were always connecting us to something in the real world. So today, I run an energy startup that’s developing technology to make the boilers and furnaces that people use to heat their homes more efficient. And some of that’s me. I’ve always been somebody who derives energy from building things and from having an impact. But some of that is Nobles’ encouraging me to think about things like the causes and effects of inequality. And as I grew to understand energy better, which is my “academic” interest, I also grew in my understanding of the role that energy plays in inequality. And that’s how I discovered something I want to do something about.
MARIEL NOVAS ’06 M.Ed., Harvard University; Rappaport Public Policy Fellow, Mayor’s Office, City of Boston
Speaking Out, I Found My Voice When my family first moved to the U.S. from the Dominican Republic, my father spent the first 12 years cleaning independent schools—Nobles was one of them. He told me he had always dreamed of sending us to a school like this. Coming to Nobles was like the stars aligning, some form of destiny. I entered Nobles through Steppingstone Academy, an academic enrichment program for motivated, underserved middle school students from Greater Boston. I was academically prepared, but the trantran sition was hard. I spent my first few years trying to blend in—almost to the exclusion of seeing myself as valid and valuable. I knew I was holding back. Then I had a threshold moment. During a National Coming Out Day announcement by our gay-straight
alliance student group in assembly, people were laughing under their breath, slow clapping. It was one of the few moments I felt embarrassed to be a student at Nobles. I always felt strongly about injustice; what made it extra painful was that my own brother had just come out to our family. Would he be laughed at? Not clapped for? I felt a sense of being complicit. I was so angry. When I went to my history teacher, rather than simply comforting me, she encourencour aged me by asking: “So what are you going to do about it?” I felt such deep conviction that I needed to say something—that’s the feeling I’ve had ever since. Silence is not an option, even if an issue’s not impacting me or those I care about; it’s impacting people. I have a voice, so I have to speak.
GRADUATES IN THE WORLD
Onstage at the next assembly, I was so nervous, but I felt like my family was by my side. I was advocating for them, too. I focused on my relationship with my brother and his experience of coming out to us—the courage it took. When I got a standing ovation, I was floored. I received incredible support from peers, teachers, even parents. It taught me to speak up even if it’s uncomfortable, especially if it’s uncomfortable. I felt that even more when I started working for Upward Bound, an academic enrichment program for first-generation college-bound high school students hosted at Nobles. Surrounded by kids close to my age—smart, funny, super-diverse kids from Boston and Lawrence—I began to think, “How could kids like me, who have been plucked out of their communities, still be part of peer groups that affirm their identities and pathways? How do you maintain that connection to home and still achieve your dreams?” I’m still tackling those questions. After graduating from Yale in 2010, I joined Teach for America, and got my M.Ed. from Boston University. It seemed like fate when I got a teaching placement in Dorchester with middle-schoolers new to the U.S., most of them Dominican, like me. It meant so much to know I would be the first teacher for these students arriving at the same age my siblings had—to ensure their trajectory and play a small part in helping them to maximize their potential and explore their possibilities so they wouldn’t fall through the cracks. Now I’m working toward my doctorate in education leadership and I’m still committed to Teach for America and Upward Bound. In 2018, I became the Rappaport Public Policy Fellow for the Mayor’s Office for Immigrant Advancement, where I helped strengthen partnerships with community organizations, Boston Public Schools, and legal and medical professionals to improve support for undocumented students and their families. I joined the Education Trust, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy organization, where I’m helping to lead an equity coalition in Massachusetts, to champion issues for people of color and immigrant families to effect policy changes on the Hill. I joined Ayanna Pressley’s campaign for Congress and also supported Juana Matias’ run. Matias is also Dominican-born, and we’re about the same age. I have this overwhelming feeling that this is our time, and we are not alone. Women of color are stepping into their light and showing everybody what we are capable of doing when we are allowed to lead, and when we give ourselves permission to lead courageously.
58 Noble and Greenough School
JUSTIN JIMÉNEZ ’14 BA, Sociology and Creative Writing, Oberlin College; Enrollment Coordinator at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Massachusetts Bay
I Believe in the Power of Mentorship I’m a year out of Oberlin, where I majored in sociology and creative writing, and much of my life now and much of what I did at Oberlin is an extension of a life I began to establish at Nobles. My first exposure to Nobles was as a “little” in Nobles’ Achieve program, which brings students from underresourced Boston schools to Nobles during the summer and on weekends for academic support and mentorship. Most Achieve students go on to some of the best high schools in the region, and I chose to go to Nobles, and eventually became a mentor in the program. I went back to Nobles while I was at Oberlin to work as a counselor for Upward Bound, which is a summer program that helps low-income and first-generation high school students prepare for college.
“Much of my life now, and much of my life at Oberlin, is an extension of the life I established at Nobles.”
So I’m totally at home with my current job at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Massachusetts Bay. My role is to do in-home assessments of the families and kids who want to enter the program and to identify and interview qualified volunteer mentors. The goal is to create long-lasting mentoring relationships between the volunteers and the kids, which can be challenging. You want the needs of the mentee to match up with the skills and interests of the mentor. Some kids mostly need academic support, others need more social skills support. Lots of kids need both. So you need to find volunteers who meet those needs. Ideally, you also want volunteers and kids to have similar social, economic and family backgrounds, because it’s easier to trust someone when you feel like they understand where you’re coming from. The other big part of my life that Nobles helped cultivate is my love of music and writing and storytelling. As a Nobles student, I was blown away by the resources we had access to. The rehearsal and performance spaces, the instruments and equipment—it was all pro level. And Nobles’ arts faculty is amazing. Not only are they talented artists in their own right, but they go out of their way to create opportunities for students to
express themselves creatively. They also made it clear to us that you don’t have to be a professional actor or musician or writer to be an “artist.” Creative expression can and should be a meaningful part of your life, no matter what your career might be. In addition to doing my own writing and music, I’ve interned at The Moth, which sponsors storytelling events across the country. I helped plan events around their 20th anniversary. And I was a program assistant at Songmasters in New York City, where I managed the American Road Project, which uses music to reframe American history and increase civic engagement among high school students. Now I’m back in Boston trying to do exactly the thing Nobles helped prepare me to do—building community through the arts, education and organizing. And I’m figuring out my next steps in a very Nobles way—by talking to people. I’m talking to former teachers about how they negotiated this stage in their lives. I’m talking to former classmates and older Nobles alums and tapping into their networks and their advice. You find your passion, you find people who share your passion, and you do things…usually together. And that’s not just how Nobles works, it’s how life works. Noble and Greenough School 59
GRADUATES IN THE WORLD
I’ve Always Had a Desire to Serve My family had a tradition of military service, and I was brought up by my parents and the communities in which I grew up—including Nobles—to have a strong sense of giving back. The talents we’re born with and the opportunities we’re given to develop them, those are gifts, and we should use those gifts for the benefit of others. But Nobles did more than deepen the values I’d grown up with; it also fed my sense of adventure. Everything about the place—the curriculum, the advising system, the way students and faculty interact—is geared to help you find ways to push your limits and see what you can do. It doesn’t matter if it’s a lifelong passion or an idle curiosity; they want you to explore as many things as you can as enthusiastically as you can.
I think my biggest Nobles adventure was Class Afloat, a Canadian semester-at-sea program, my junior year. I was part of a student crew on a tall ship. We stood watch. We did sailing maneuvers. We went to class. And we saw the world. We did 17 port visits. Each one was different and amazing in its own way. I was really struck by how similar people are. Our economic circumstances might be different. Our food and our faith and our language might be different. But our basic humanity is shared. And teamwork is a huge aspect of being part of a tall ship crew. If a storm is coming and you need to get the sails down, you need to respond as a unit. It’s a massive team undertaking. And that teamwork builds your sense of trust. If you’re asleep in the middle of the South Atlantic, you know your crew is taking care of you. So I had this desire to serve, a passion for the sea and exploration, and a fascination with history and politics that all the great history teachers I had at Nobles helped cultivate. Entering the Navy’s Judge Advocate General Command seemed a good way to combine the three. As a JAG, I’m not just a civilian lawyer working for the military; I’m a full naval officer. I wear a uniform, I’m stationed on a ship. I get deployed. And I get to advocate for others. To broaden my skills beyond my J.D., I just earned an LL.M. degree with a specialization in national security law. That credential will allow me to take on a new role: providing a ship’s commander with legal counsel on the full spectrum of issues the ship and its crew must negotiate while they’re deployed.
JESSICA KONINGISOR ’01 J.D., Boston College Law School; LL.M., UC Berkeley School of Law; Lieutenant Commander, United States Navy, JAGC
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YASMIN CRUZ ’02 MBA, Boston College Carroll School of Management; Senior Business Strategist, Brown Advisory, Boston
For Me, Nobles Hasn’t Ended It’s easy—especially 15 or 20 years after graduation— to think of high school as “back then.” But in a lot of ways, Nobles is still a part of my everyday personal and professional life. First, my classmates and I were profoundly supportive of each other, and many of them are still active parts of my social life and professional network. We call and text all the time. We’re in each other’s weddings. We refer each other to career opportunities. These are smart, talented, passionate, good people who will stick with me for a lifetime. Second, you learn the importance of relationships. Especially in the later grades, the teachers work with you as intellectual peers. That kind of relationship comes with an enormous amount of trust and expectation. It teaches you to push yourself. It teaches you to believe in yourself. And it teaches you to be resilient. If things aren’t going well, you know that you should say something, you know who you should say it to, and you know how to be direct and frank about it. The other thing I learned at Nobles is a combination of humility and intellectual curiosity, in that order. I’m a
senior business strategist at Brown Advisory, a $7 billion investment management firm. One of the things I focus on is helping our endowment and foundation clients pursue sustainable investment strategies. Basically, I help them find investment opportunities that have a positive social or environmental impact. I’m also on the boards of several Boston nonprofit organizations, including the Lenny Zakim Fund, ArtsBoston and the Social Innovation Forum. Humility and intellectual curiosity are important in both of these venues. I need the intellectual curiosity to understand the issues we’re trying to remedy and the theoretical framework for those remedies. But more importantly—and this is where the humility comes in—I need to understand the needs and perspectives of the people being served. What do they want? What do they care about? And I also need to constantly check my own assumptions. What am I missing because I already think I know what’s going on? And while all of these things—relationship building, humility, intellectual curiosity—were part of the fabric of my Nobles experience, they really came together during my senior spring experience working with Maurice Coleman. Mr. Coleman was a former Nobles teacher who “went corporate” and wound up running the community investment practice at Fleet Bank, which became part of Bank of America. It opened up a whole new world to me and set me on the path I’ve been following ever since. Noble and Greenough School 61
JEFF RAIDER ’99 MBA, The Wharton School; Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Harry’s; Co-Founder, Warby Parker
You say ‘classmate.’ I say ‘business partner.’ As the co-founder of two successful companies, I get asked a lot about entrepreneurship. And the first thing I usually think of is, abandon the myth that you shouldn’t start businesses with your friends. I started Warby Parker with one of my closest friends from business school. I started Harry’s with a colleague from Warby Parker. The reason those partnerships worked was because those guys were my friends. We had a really strong level of trust. We were able to communicate clearly and empathize with each other really well, which is incredibly important in co-founding relationships. We had experience working with each other, so we understood each other’s working styles. That comfort and familiarity let us work together 62 Noble and Greenough School
efficiently and effectively, and trust and effectiveness are very important when you’re doing the heavy lifting of starting a business. One of the things I think Nobles does well is it puts you in situations where you do have to work together and you do have to know the people you’re working with. So many of the classes are discussionor project- or problem-based, and it really gives you insights into your own strengths and what the strengths of your classmates and teammates are. And success usually requires you to find an effective way to harness all of those strengths to solve a problem or answer a question. Some of the most talented people I’ve ever met were at Nobles, and the environment at Nobles gave me a lot of insight into what they’d be like to work with when starting a business. In addition to partners you know and trust well enough to call friends, it also helps to have an idea you’re so excited about, you literally can’t do anything else. And it’s crucial to get lots of input on your idea, so when you decide to invest in it—or ask others to invest in it—you’re investing in an idea that’s been tested pretty heavily. Nobles was a great laboratory for that kind of thinking, too. In a lot of ways, the whole purpose of Nobles is to help you pursue—or help you discover and pursue—subjects and ideas you’re really passionate about, and then to test their limits. And yours.
KYLIE ATWOOD ’07 BA, Middlebury College, International Studies; National Security Reporter for CNN
I wouldn’t change a thing I don’t think I would do any part of my Nobles experience differently. I’m so happy with where I am right now, and changing anything would change that. Did I do it all perfectly? No. But that’s the beauty of life—and high school. It’s figuring out what you love and finding the experiences that lead you down that path.
GRADUATES IN THE WORLD
My love for all things journalism started with photography at Nobles. I had always loved taking photos. I was a photographer for the Nobleman, and my photos became a storytelling tool. I continued that visual storytelling at Middlebury, starting as a photographer for the paper, but I quickly realized I also wanted to write. I would write anything they needed. It was a great way to learn. In my senior year, an internship at the NBC affiliate in Burlington, Vermont, introduced me to broadcast, and that’s when everything came together. With broadcast, I get to write, take pictures, and shoot video. I love it. I interned with Bob Schieffer on Face the Nation. I covered the 2016 presidential elections for CBS. Now I’m a national security reporter for CNN. My work puts me at the convergence of foreign policy and diplomacy within national security, so it’s very much where the NSC, the State Department, the Department of Defense, the Hill and foreign governments intersect. When there’s breaking news in another country, I have to figure out how the U.S. is reacting to it, what information we are getting about it, and what we can report out that we know. And then on the administration or the Hill side of things, I’m tracking down who the decision makers are, what factors they’re considering, and what the options are on the table, that kind of thing. I have to pinch myself sometimes because I majored in international studies at Middlebury and wrote a thesis about U.S.-Somali relations in the Cold War era. Basically, I was studying the work of journalists and diplomats at the State Department. And I never thought that one day I would be the reporter writing the stories that a student would be looking back at as a reflection of the policymaking at that time. I don’t know how much people realize this, but journalism is all about relationships. My job is to talk to people, to get to know them, to get them to trust me. And also to figure out whom I can trust. I think that the best journalists are personable. People want to talk to them. Whether it’s breaking news or you’re diving into the weeds on some policy issue, you’ve got to love people, and you’ve got to love talking to them. Also, as a journalist, you have to have a natural curiosity. You have to want to get deeper, to learn more. You can go about that in different ways—you can be aggressive or more laidback. But you have to have that thirst for wanting to know more. I think the fearlessness with which Nobles encourages students to explore and take on challenges really encourages that kind of curiosity. There are so many inspiring teachers, and they really try to teach you not to be insecure about what you don’t know and to embrace the process of “figuring out how to find out.” And that has been essential to me as a journalist. It doesn’t really matter if I don’t know about something. If I have to report on it, then I have to figure it out. That’s . . . kind of my life.
64 Noble and Greenough School
“That’s the beauty of life— and high school. It’s figuring out what you love and finding the experiences that lead you down that path.”
COLLEGE COUNSELING
Trusting the Process COLLEGE COUNSELING ABOUT SELF-REFLECTION AND DEVELOPING LIFE SKILLS
The college admission process is a rite of passage. Just search Google for “getting into college” memes, and you’ll get the idea. Nobles takes the process very seriously—but we also help families to maintain perspective by breaking it down into manageable, approachable steps. When you begin the college process, you’re planning where you want to spend four years of your life, for sure; you’re also developing life skills. You get to think about who you are, what you love and who you might want to become someday. As a Nobles student, you’ll begin to write your story by getting involved in the community, building relationships with teachers and classmates, and taking advantage of all that we offer in and out of the classroom. Then, your college counselor will help you tell your story in a way that is authentic, honors who you are, and resonates with the colleges you’re applying to. “All of our students should emerge from the process with greater self-knowledge, the ability to self-advocate, to be resilient, and to see themselves as positive and impactful citizens in the Nobles community and beyond,” Director of College Counseling Kate Ramsdell said. Through conversations with Ramsdell and other members of the Nobles community, including parents, recent graduates and current students, we invite you to begin to experience the care and deep expertise that characterize our college counseling team.
COLLEGE COUNSELING
Building Relationships
“Our office is staffed with a team of five college counselors who love our work and value the trust we build with students and families. At the core of our team’s philosophy is Nobles’ mission and commitment to relational pedagogy,” Ramsdell said. “We work closely with students so that we can guide them through a thoughtful college search and application process.” “I think that the most significant advantage that the Nobles college counseling office offers families is one shared by many independent schools—the luxuries of time and contact,” said Alden Mauck, parent of two recent Nobles graduates. “Does this mean that every family will be easily satisfied? Probably not, as the college process is definitely a results-driven part of the educational landscape. But every student gets a lot of time and attention with a college counselor, and the investment in getting to know each student is paramount in how our college counselors approach their work with families.” “The Nobles college counseling office has been a huge help already in guiding me through the college process,” said Devon Tyrie, a Nobles senior whose process is ramping up. “Going into my junior year, I had very little knowledge about the process and individual colleges. My college counselor was a great source of support for me through the process of visiting schools and currently with interviews, essays and the Common App. I trust her as a source of knowledge as she has helped both of my siblings and so many students through the process effectively. “Whenever I need help scheduling a visit, or with my essay, or figuring out what kind of school might be right for me, I can always talk with someone who knows a lot about colleges and the entire process,” Tyrie added. Recent graduate Vikram Aldykiewicz is attending Georgetown University where he will also enter the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) program. During his college process, he remembered, “Deciding between the lifestyle of a service academy and a more traditional college experience was the largest question I had
to consider. The college counseling office was helpful in answering that question by simply having conversations with me and pulling in different faculty members to discuss the benefits and differences of my options.” “During my first two or three meetings with my college counselor, we hardly talked about college,” said graduate Jill Radley, who attends Northwestern University. “I talked about my family, my friends, the sports I played, the places I had traveled, and what classes I liked. I think that this get-to-know-you period made me feel a lot more confident and comfortable going forward with the college process because my counselor really knew who I was and what was important to me. “I was reminded of this support recently when I visited Nobles during winter break of my freshman year of college. During my visit, I sat in the college office for almost an hour just to catch up with a few of the counselors. They wanted to know all about my transition, especially the hard parts. They were there to tell me that struggling during such a period of change was completely normal, and they gave me great advice for approaching the second quarter of school. It was extremely comforting to see that their primary concern was with my overall experience after Nobles, not just my enrollment in a university and the process for getting there,” Radley added.
Telling Your Story
“We help students tap into their wealth of experiences and to shape their narratives to become the strongest college applicants they can be,” said Ramsdell of the essay-writing segment of the app. “Perhaps most importantly, we are advocates for our students as they navigate the college application and decision-making process.” “Nobles does a good job with keeping us organized and on top of our work,” said Aldykiewicz. “This really minimizes the stress everybody talks about. Stress can’t be eliminated from the process entirely, but the counselors do a wonderful job of mitigating it.” Mauck noted that with both of his children, “The guidance that
Nobles College Counseling Team: KATE BOYLE RAMSDELL, who has been director of the team since 2014, joined Nobles in 1998. A graduate of Williams College, she also earned a master’s from Tufts University. An avid road-tripper, Ramsdell aims to tour all 50 flagship state universities; so far, she has visited almost two dozen.
MEGHAN HAMILTON joined the Nobles college counseling team in 2005. She earned a bachelor’s from Williams College and an Ed.M. from Boston College’s Lynch School of Education. A two-sport collegiate athlete, Hamilton now enjoys running after her young children, container gardening, and spending time on the beaches of Cape Cod and Maine.
KIMYA CHARLES joined Nobles in 2010. A graduate of Amherst College, she earned an Ed.M. in human development and psychology from Harvard University and an Ed.M. in school counseling from Boston University. When not at Nobles, she enjoys Bikram yoga, traveling and completing the New York Times crossword puzzle.
JENNIE KIM worked in college counseling in both Hawaii and South Korea prior to her arrival at Nobles in 2017. Kim earned a bachelor’s degree from New York University and an M.S.Ed. from the University of Pennsylvania. She spends her free time doing yoga at home, baking and traveling.
we received was specific, clear and timely. Most importantly, the counselors’ work with them was thoughtful and considerate of their interests, attributes and personalities.” “After many college tours and information sessions, I decided that I did not want to apply Early Decision in the fall of my senior year because I was not ready to commit to one school at that time,” Radley said. “My college counselor, my advisor and my parents supported me in that decision and helped me develop a plan to apply to some schools Early Action and, for the rest, Regular Decision. I felt confident in this approach largely because of the mutual trust I had with my college counselor.” Tyrie adds, “The college counseling office has been a huge help, especially since I studied away at The Island School during my junior spring. Nobles really helped me navigate that in a way that didn’t impact my falling behind in college process work. It is clear that the college counselors truly care about each student and want to help them through the college process as smoothly as possible.”
Finding Your Fit
“We believe that most Nobles students would thrive in a variety of colleges, universities and programs. Our office provides resources and guidance to help students determine the qualities of an institution that they value most,” said Ramsdell. “We suggest schools to consider, visit and eventually apply to based on the criteria that individual students are looking for. This part of the college process often allows students to learn a lot about themselves and how they have grown at Nobles. “They tackle challenging questions—How do I learn best? What subjects are my strongest? Do those match my interests and passions? How far am I comfortable living away from home?—and often learn that it is okay to not have all the answers immediately. Our goal is that when it comes time to submit applications, students will feel excited and confident about the schools on their lists,” said Ramsdell.
TOM RESOR has guided students and families through the college process since 1986. Resor has also coached girls varsity hockey since 2000; his teams have won 18 ISL and nine NEPSAC titles. As a coach, he has surpassed 700 wins. An enthusiastic traveler, he has visited 49 countries toward his initial goal of 52. He is a graduate of Williams College.
Interviewing 101: Tips for Mastering the Interview THE BEST INTERVIEWS FEEL LIKE A CONVERSATION:
Confidently (and humbly) let the college rep know who you are, what you love to do, and why you think the school would be a great fit. A COLLEGE WILL WANT TO KNOW:
Will you be a good friend and roommate? Will you be a fun, interesting and curious student to teach and to have in class? Will you contribute to the cocurricular life of the campus? Will you embrace and help advance the school’s mission? In short—are you a good match? COME PREPARED!
The interviewer will usually ask you if you have any questions. This is a great opportunity for you to showcase your maturity, seriousness of purpose, priorities and preparation. But don’t feel like you need to memorize your questions. Bring them to the interview on a notepad or index card. Most interviewers will love to see evidence of the preparation and will appreciate the fact that you honored their time by arriving prepared. SHARE YOUR STORIES.
Interviewers have their own styles and techniques for obtaining information from you. However, many interviewers will start out by asking, in one way or another: “Who are you and why are you here?” This is your opportunity to set the tone and establish an agenda of sorts. It is good to think about your reasons for wanting to be at the school and then to offer a story—that will allow them to see why the match is a good one!
COLLEGE COUNSELING
“I believe finding my ‘fit’ was the result of my intuition. That was my college counselor’s primary advice during the process—to go with your gut—and is among the most valuable lessons Nobles has taught me,” Aldykiewicz added. Tyrie explained, “My college counselor recently made me a rough list of schools, but it is not set in stone as I am still pretty uncertain about what I am looking for. I am meeting with her soon to think about it more. The list does help me visualize which schools might be possible, and which are more of a reach, which is really useful. The college counseling office provides us with documents and resources that walk students through figuring out what kind of school they are looking for, which helps make this part of the process go much more smoothly.” “With some guidance and a lot of research, I decided that I wanted a medium-sized school with spirit, community and a breadth of strong academic programs,” Radley recalled. “I was unsure if I wanted an urban, suburban or rural setting, or even how far I wanted to be from home. Based on that criteria, my college counselor helped me compile a list of schools to visit, and eventually, to apply to.” Mauck said that the Nobles college counseling office involves parents and guardians during this part of the process “actively, and with attention to the student, whom the counselor gets to know very well. Our children got to know their college counselors before they embarked on the great Nobles college hunt, and they each had a great time with them, received excellent advice and applied Early Decision II because they were not immediately sure where they wanted to go by November 15—but they knew by January 1 what looked like the right college to spend four years. “They were guided in the process, and our parent questions and concerns about the process were handled with professional advice and personal care, which is what all parents should request and require. The process is as important as the product, and parents as well as students need to learn this and to appreciate the journey,” he said.
What It All Comes Down To
The Nobles college process unfolds differently for each student, but the college counseling office works to help every student find a way to carry out Nobles’ mission of leadership for the public good into the rest of their lives. “We think a good year is one in which all our graduates feel comfortable that they fully considered what options would be best for them after high school—either in terms of college, a gap year, military service or other avenues of pursuit—and had good guidance and support in moving forward with those options and decisions,” Ramsdell said. “While most years all of our graduates do go on directly to higher education, and at a wide range of schools, what matters to us is that each individual student and their families felt fully supported in making a good decision that was right for them. For those who do choose to go on to college, typically more than 80 percent are admitted to their first, or second-choice school. We want our graduates to be excited about their next step and proud of what they have accomplished to get there. We believe that where you attend college, or even if you attend college, for those who elect not to, is only one measure of the lifelong value of a Nobles education.”
Five-year Matriculation List A five-year matriculation list—this one current as of fall 2019—gives families an idea of the broad range of excellent institutions where our students pursue their education after Nobles. 50 Harvard University 39 Boston College 35 Dartmouth College 29 Middlebury College 24 Brown University 24 Williams College 18 University of Virginia 14 Bowdoin College 14 Colby College 13 Cornell University 13 Georgetown University 13 Tufts University 13 University of Chicago 12 Boston University 12 Washington University in St. Louis 12 Trinity College 11 Yale University 10 New York University 10 Northeastern University 10 University of Pennsylvania 9 Princeton University 9 University of Michigan 9 Wake Forest University 9 University of Massachusetts-Amherst 8 Amherst College 8 Colgate University 8 Wesleyan University 7 Bates College 7 Hobart and William Smith Colleges 7 Vanderbilt University 6 Babson College 6 Columbia University 6 Northwestern University 6 Skidmore College 6 Syracuse University 6 University of Wisconsin-Madison 5 Colorado College 5 Stanford University 5 Tulane University 5 University of Richmond 4 Johns Hopkins University 4 Wellesley College 3 College of the Holy Cross 3 Davidson College
3 Georgia Institute of Technology 2 Barnard College 2 Bentley University 2 Claremont McKenna College 2 Dickinson College 2 Elon University 2 Lafayette College 2 Phillips Andover Academy 2 Providence College 2 Purdue University 2 Rice University 2 Santa Clara University 2 St. Lawrence University 2 University of California-Berkeley 2 University of Colorado at Boulder 1 American University 1 Bard College 1 Bryn Mawr College 1 Bucknell University 1 Cleveland Institute of Music 1 College of William & Mary 1 Greater Boston Joint Apprentice Training Center/International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 103 1 Emory University 1 High Point University 1 Indiana University at Bloomington 1 Lake Forest College 1 Le Moyne College 1 Lehigh University 1 Macalester College 1 Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1 Miami University-Oxford 1 Oberlin College
1 Pitzer College 1 Rhodes College 1 Roger Williams University 1 Royal Conservatoire of Scotland 1 Saint Anselm College 1 School of the Art Institute of Chicago 1 Scripps College 1 Sewanee: The University of the South 1 Siena College 1 Smith College 1 Spring Hill College 1 Temple University 1 Union College 1 United States Coast Guard Academy 1 United States Naval Academy 1 University of Connecticut 1 University of Dayton 1 University of Denver 1 University of Edinburgh (Scotland) 1 University of Exeter (England) 1 University of Maryland 1 University of Massachusetts-Lowell 1 University of Notre Dame 1 University of Rochester 1 University of St. Andrews 1 University of Texas - Austin 1 University of Toronto 1 Villanova University 1 Washington and Lee University 1 Wheaton College (Massachusetts) 1 Whitman College 1 Worcester Polytechnic Institute
ADMISSION ADMISSIONPROCESS PROCESS To To apply apply to to Noble Noble andand Greenough Greenough School, School, youyou willwill needneed to to complete complete several several steps. steps. Follow Follow thisthis checklist checklist to to ensure ensure thatthat youyou fulfill fulfill all requirements. all requirements.
STEP STEP 1 1
CREATE CREATE ANAN ACCOUNT ACCOUNT TOTO START START YOUR YOUR APPLICATION. APPLICATION. CreateCreate an account an account in Ravenna in Ravenna at ravenna-hub.com. at ravenna-hub.com. SearchSearch for Noble for Noble and Greenough and Greenough School School and click and click “Explore” “Explore” to to express express youryour interest interest and learn and learn moremore aboutabout the application the application process. process. WhenWhen you you are ready, are ready, click click “Apply” “Apply” to begin to begin completing completing the application the application stepssteps and requirements. and requirements.
STEP STEP 3 3 (OPTIONAL) (OPTIONAL)
STEP STEP 2 2
SCHEDULE SCHEDULE A CAMPUS A CAMPUS VISIT. VISIT. Use your Use your Ravenna Ravenna account account to schedule to schedule a visit. a visit.
UPPER UPPER SCHOOL SCHOOL APPLICANTS: APPLICANTS:
The campus The campus visit visit includes includes a tour a tour and an andinterview. an interview.
MIDDLE MIDDLE SCHOOL SCHOOL APPLICANTS: APPLICANTS:
The campus The campus visit visit includes includes a group a group activity activity session session and aand campus a campus tour.tour.
STEP STEP 4 4
SCHEDULE SCHEDULE AND AND TAKE TAKE STANDARDIZED STANDARDIZED TEST. TEST. UPPER UPPER SCHOOL SCHOOL APPLICANTS: APPLICANTS:
We accept We accept scoresscores for the forSecondary the Secondary School School Admission Admission Test, Test, also also known known as theasSSAT. the SSAT. To read To read moremore about about the SSAT, the SSAT, visitvisit ssat.org. ssat.org.
MIDDLE MIDDLE SCHOOL SCHOOL APPLICANTS: APPLICANTS: We accept We accept scoresscores for the forIndependent the Independent School School Entrance Entrance Exam,Exam, also also known known as as the ISEE. the ISEE.
ATTEND ATTEND ANAN OPEN OPEN HOUSE HOUSE
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To read To read moremore about about the the ISEE,ISEE, visitvisit erblearn.org/isee. erblearn.org/isee.
STEP STEP 5 5
REQUEST REQUEST YOUR YOUR TRANSCRIPT TRANSCRIPT AND AND LETTERS LETTERS OFOF RECOMMENDATION. RECOMMENDATION.
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STEP STEP 6 6 (OPTIONAL) (OPTIONAL)
COMPLETE COMPLETE FINANCIAL FINANCIAL AIDAID FORMS. FORMS.
TAXES
If applying If applying for financial for financial aid, complete aid, complete the Parents’ the Parents’ Financial Financial Statement Statement formform onlineonline by January by January 15. Submit 15. Submit additional additional documentation, documentation, including including W-2 W-2 formsforms and the andcurrent-year the current-year tax return, tax return, by March by March 1. 1.
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COMPLETE COMPLETE THETHE ONLINE ONLINE APPLICATION. APPLICATION.
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Submit Submit additional additional documentation documentation via Ravenna via Ravenna by January by January 15. 15.
ADMISSION ADMISSION DECISIONS DECISIONS
A RAER RE ERL E LAESAESDE D TH TH MARCH MARCH1010
LETTER FROM THE HEAD
Welcome to Noble and Greenough School! We are thrilled to share the joy, passion and hard work that help define Nobles, and we invite you to learn more about what makes our school an academic community where students thrive in the classroom, on stages and fields, and as part of a deeply supportive community. Nobles students are uniquely and diversely talented. They are inspiringly creative and enormously kind in demonstrating empathy and care for one another on campus and far beyond. To walk the hallways at Nobles is to witness a vibrant and textured community of students and teachers, each of whom contributes different experiences, perspectives and interests. Nobles students live out our mission of “leadership for the public good” throughout their time at school and in the years
that follow. They seek ways to grow, learn and lead both locally and globally. Through our rigorous and supportive academic program, our afternoon program—which includes athletic, theatre, music and more—and service-learning trips and experiential learning, Nobles students find their voices and define what leadership for the public good means to them. Along the way, remarkable faculty members are there to inspire, challenge and support them. I hope that you will visit Nobles to learn more about our extraordinary community and explore the ways in which you might thrive here with us. Warmly, —CATHERINE J. HALL, PH.D., HEAD OF SCHOOL
NOBLES BY THE NUMBERS
106
1922
81%
the year Nobles moved to Dedham and started classes in the Castle, after 56 years in Boston
29%
of students receive financial aid
40%
of students participate in instrumental or vocal music groups
10K+ total pages of personal, structured feedback for students written by faculty members each year 76 Noble and Greenough School
elective courses offered
5
of students will have traveled and/or studied away before graduating from Nobles
theatre productions per year, ranging from The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time to Les MisĂŠrables
48
boarding students live on campus five days a week
4,412 books checked out during the 2018-2019 school year in the Putnam Library. Pictured are titles among the top 10.
8
international service or language/cultural immersion trips per year through our Experiential and Community Engaged Learning (EXCEL) program
16,200
photos taken each year by students in photography classes
12.5 32% students in the average class
71
Independent School League Championships and
23
New England Championships in the last decade
250 sites where students have performed community service
of students self-identify as people of color
Noble and Greenough School 10 Campus Drive Dedham, MA 02026-4099
CREATIVE DIRECTION AND DESIGN: 2COMMUNIQUÄ– COPYWRITING: MARK SHEEHY, NOBLES COMMUNICATIONS TEAM PHOTOGRAPHY: ADAM DETOUR, KATHLEEN DOOHER, CHRISTIAN FLEURY, EMILY GREEN, BEN HEIDER, GABRIELA HERMAN, TIRA KAHN, LEAH LARICCIA, JARED LEEDS, KIM NEAL, BETH MICKALONIS, THE SNAPBAR ILLUSTRATION: SHAW NIELSEN