Hello, Middle School Students and Families! Today students heard about the various ways they can be involved and lead in the Middle School! Before we jump into the details, we want to highlight a few upcoming deadlines we don’t want you to miss:
- 8th Grade applications for Student Council President are due Friday, September 15.
- The first meeting for the Lego League Club is on Tuesday, September 19 from 4 to 5:30 p.m., students who are interested should sign up here.
- The first Hiatt Leadership Institute is on Monday, September 18 at 8 a.m. Students who are interested in attending can email the Hiatt Center or sign up via a form that was sent via email.
Charlotte Abramowitz ’29 and Sabrina Feinberg ’29 ran today’s meeting. You can check out the slides from this week’s meeting here.
Head of School Kim Samson joined us today to talk about who she is as a person, her journey as an educator and leader, and she encouraged Middle School students to get involved in the BVR community.
Leadership Opportunities
Andrew Adamic ’27, last year’s Student Council president, spoke about reasons to run for Student Council.
It gives you the opportunity to represent your grade, develop leadership skills, and build Beaver spirit.
8th graders who want to run for president apply by Friday (9/15)
Ms. Garayua, Associate Director of the Hiatt Center announced this year’s Middle School BVR Leadership Institutes.
These one-hour-long sessions on Monday mornings cover a range of topics from leadership and identity to building professional skills. The first institute is Monday, September 18 at 8 a.m. on the D-Level. A form from the Hiatt Center was emailed to all Middle School students to sign up.
Lunchtime, Recess, and After School Programming
Charlie Schaffer ’28 introduced Graham Dam, small group lunches with our Middle School Counselor, Ms. Graham. They have pizza, a special dessert, and play games. All students participate in Graham Dam about three times a year, and students will be invited to attend.
RISE, a Tuesday recess option led by Middle School counselor Ms. Graham. Through fun activities, students learn how to deal with stress and worry. Today’s activity was backpack keychains.
William Mortimer ’28 announced the First Lego League club. The club is dedicated to building Legos and robotics. Students build a robot to complete a specific challenge and compete against other teams in the area. This club meets Tuesdays from 4 to 5:30 p.m. starting next week, September 18. Mr. Rohn is the faculty advisor for the group. Students received an email with the form to sign up.
Quinn Burke ’28 announced Dungeons and Dragons (D&D). D&D is a club where students get to create a character that they incorporate into an interactive story told by the group. They meet on Mondays on the D-Level during lunch/recess starting next week.
Rafay Desautels ’29, Jasper Ingenthron ’29, and Rishaan Chowdhury ’29 announced The Times of Boston, an online newspaper. Mr. Greenberg is their faculty advisor. They invited any student who is interested in being on the newspaper staff to join them on Mondays during lunch/recess. Any student can also submit articles (even if they don’t attend the weekly meetings).
Nate Guevin, Design Level instructor, announced the CREATE which takes place on Tuesdays and Thursdays during recess. Students can go to the D Level to work on personal or school projects with help from the R+D staff.
Affinity Groups
Ms. Smith talked about affinity spaces. In the Middle School, we have time for affinity groups to meet to discuss their experiences, talk about issues important to them, and bond. They are led by faculty of color and meet on Fridays.
Lawrence Rosembert ’28 invited students to attend the Students of Color Affinity Group, which will meet this Friday.
Students of Color is an affinity group where we gather to socialize and to talk about racial issues with students and faculty of color. I go because it’s fun to talk to other students of color and eat pizza.
–Lawrence Rosembert ’28
Adyana Gresham ’28 invited students to attend the Multiracial Affinity Group.
Last year I attended the multiracial affinity groups because I wanted to meet people who share the same experience as me and learn new things about other people. I wanted to take a chance to help our community.
-Adyana Gresham ’28
Sam Singer ’28 invited students to attend the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Affinity Group.
We talk about our experiences and share our culture. Sometimes we bring in food our family has made. It’s fun to associate with people with similar backgrounds to you.
-Sam Singer ’28
Announcements and reminders
Lee Jacobs ’29 announced the beginning of Wellness Classes. In wellness class, students talk about friendships, social pressure, mental health, drug and alcohol education, and human sexuality.
All Middle School students will be guided through a 9-session wellness series that will include classes with Tammy Graham, Middle School Counselor, Whitney Koch ISEE Educator & RYT 200, Middle School Science Teacher, and Will Slotnick from Wellness Collaborative.
Maggie Whitney ’28 announced this week’s advisory agenda: Creating Advisory Mission Statements to set the culture that includes all of our voices and helps hold us accountable to make good choices so we can build a strong community.
Quinn Burke ’28 and Adyana Gresham ’28 announced the year’s theater season. The Fall Play is Alibis and the Winter Musical is Newsies.
To wrap up the meeting I had a few reminders for students.
Fire Alarm Procedures. Students should listen to their teacher’s directions for exiting the building and gathering by grade in alphabetical order by last name on the Bloomberg Plaza. (And then we had our first Fire Alarm Drill today!)
And finally, students should let me know if they want to run a MS meeting.