Academics - ��Ƶ

Finding the Funny

vanessa_dezorzi@concordacademy.org — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 14:40:20 +0000

��Ƶ students create a sitcom from scratch

Story by Vanessa De Zorzi
Portraits by Cole and Kiera Photography
Candid photo by Natalie Cherie Campbell

In ��Ƶ’s Centennial Arts Center (C.A.C.), a small soundstage has been transformed into a vintage diner. Café tables and chairs sit atop a checkered floor, and rust-colored barstools are lined up along a counter whose chrome edge gleams in the warm glow from overhead lights.

One student crouches behind a camera, adjusting focus. Another lifts a boom mic into place. An actor runs a few last lines at the counter. Then the student director calls out, “Rolling!”

“In case you haven’t noticed, business hasn’t exactly been booming lately,” the actor deadpans.

A beat. Then, on cue, a tumbleweed drifts across the floor.

Chuckles, snorts, and full-throated laughter erupt from the audience, and also from the crew behind the cameras. It doesn’t take long for the boundary between spectator and participant to dissolve in a flurry of rolling takes. To the side, a monitor plays a live feed of the action. Tension builds as a crew member flashes cue cards—“laugh,” “aww,” “gasp!”—every few seconds.

“Cut!” the director yells.

The crew resets for a second take. Chatter ripples across the audience. A curated playlist kicks in—managed, like everything else about this production, by students. “I love this song,” an audience member exclaims as a Billy Joel track blares through the speakers. At the diner counter, an actor grabs a spatula and, for a moment, turns it into a microphone, crooning along.

“Quiet on set,” the director calls, and the next take rolls, the scene now familiar but still funny.

This is Cackleberries, a sitcom ��Ƶ students wrote, acted in, directed, and filmed this year, following a process modeled on professional TV production. A collaborative effort through and through, the series involved more than 30 student artists.

From Premise to Pitch

In fall 2025, ��Ƶ launched the new class the Sitcom Project: Writing and Acting for Television. Teaching a section each, film teacher Justin Bull P’25 ’28 and theater teacher Shelley Bolman P’27 guided students through the process of writing episodic stories. This winter and spring, a group of students, including many from the class, brought several of those scripts to fruition on screen.

The Sitcom Project builds upon the Feature Film Project, a course ��Ƶ offers every other year in which students create a feature-length film. The resulting films have spanned multiple genres, and Bull, who teaches the class, saw sitcoms as a natural next step given their popularity on streaming platforms.

As the C.A.C. was under construction, Bull’s idea was likewise taking shape. The new facility’s Spencer and Colton P3 (Process, Presentation, and Production) Lab introduced a setting ideal for filmmaking, with grid lighting, dedicated space for a standing set, and the Rasmussen Digital Production Lab.

When the film program moved from the Math and Arts Center to the C.A.C. this academic year, Bull also saw an opportunity for interdisciplinary collaboration. “The sitcom is an interesting Venn diagram of film and theater,” he says. “There’s a traditional rehearsal process, a live audience, and it’s shot chronologically.”

To bridge these programs, Bull turned to Bolman for his expertise in acting and directing. The two aligned closely on curriculum and execution, drawing from a course on writing for television that Bull and English teacher Andrew Stevens offered several years ago and incorporating lesson plans from Bolman’s playwriting class. The 24 students enrolled in the 15-week course began by learning the fundamentals of sitcom writing. They analyzed scripts from popular sitcoms, including Seinfeld, Freaks and Geeks, and Black-ish, to identify plot structure, character archetypes, and objectives.

Early in the semester, both sections met together during a daylong symposium to develop a story. Bolman led acting exercises that emphasized the importance of ensemble work, giving students the beginning and end of a scene, for example, and asking them to improvise the middle.

“That physical approach to acting really sparks ideas, while giving people the freedom to be playful, take risks, and fully embrace the fun,” Bolman says.

The students generated hundreds of ideas, which they organized on a digital whiteboard before narrowing them down. After much debate and several rounds of voting, they determined a tone, a cast of characters, and the setting: Cackleberries, a struggling diner in a New Hampshire resort town.

After the symposium, Bull and Bolman compiled a “show bible” that outlines each character’s defining traits: Nina, an MIT grad, channels her passion for science into concocting elaborate coffee drinks. Blair, the hostess, is more interested in cultivating her Instagram following than serving customers. Trent, a delivery driver, adds oddball energy that unites the crew. Unemployed Ray, a regular customer, practically lives at Cackleberries. And Jo, the fiery short-order cook, keeps the operation running with tough love and her catchphrase: “Get the hell out of my diner!”

Back in class, each student brainstormed an “engine,” or premise, for an episode, which they pitched to their peers. They wrote “cold opens,” the short scenes that hook the viewer before the opening credits, then drafted a full script of about 30 pages, or around 15 minutes.

The Punch-Up

The 12 members of Bull’s class flip to the first scene of a script they will discuss today. “Terminally Online” is an episode about Danny, a waiter and aspiring writer, whose growing fixation on online criticism is driving him into a spiral of self-doubt. The conversation heats up quickly:

“What if the whole situation escalates into something totally absurd?” one student asks.

“What if the person he mistakes for the internet troll at the diner is a child?”

“What if he tries to confront the little kid and it turns into a full-blown showdown?”

This revision process, known as a “punch-up,” is where the story comes to life—outside the brain of a solitary writer, with input from the entire team.

“The writers’ room requires that you work with everybody, that you trust everybody, and that you are willing to put yourself in somebody else’s shoes.” — Shelley Bolman P’27, theater teacher

The students’ approaches to humor went far beyond superficial jokes, he adds: “They brought their personal experiences to bear through the medium of comedy. One of the things comedy does is disarm us; it makes us more open to what we’re hearing.”

Students crafted storylines around timely issues in ways both funny and relevant. In one episode, when the diner faces a corporate takeover, the colleagues turn against one another, competing to keep their jobs. Other episodes tackle the threats of artificial intelligence and social media addiction through the lens of absurdity.

Grace Goodman ’27, who played Jo, the cook, wrote “Terminally Online,” drawing from her experience leading ��Ƶ’s No Social Media November student movement. She says the writers’ room format challenged her, but made her a better writer: “It forced me to consider all angles. I had to take a big-picture idea and condense it into a short episode that could carry a message and connect with people. ”

Bull and Bolman say all 24 completed scripts were strong; based on cast size and set limitations, they selected the eight best suited for filming.

Places, Everyone

Beginning in winter 2026, the Cackleberries cast and crew of around 30 students plunged into a demanding after-school production schedule, filming an episode every week for two months. Mondays and Tuesdays were devoted to rehearsals, Wednesdays and Thursdays to three-camera-format taping, and Fridays to table readings for the next week’s episode.

Actors largely self-directed their rehearsals, receiving periodic feedback on blocking and delivery from Bull and Bolman. Many of them, used to performing on stage, faced a new challenge in acting for film as well as a live audience. They had to adjust their approach for the camera, delivering more nuanced performances.

It took a team to create a cohesive set, with guidance from faculty members, including sound advisor Nate Tucker, technical director James Williston P’28, and set designer Jessica Cloutier-Plasse. Wesleyan University student Micah St. George ’25 designed the lighting that gave the show its distinctive mood.

China Santos ’27 designed props and costumes. In the wardrobe, she worked closely with actors to align outfits with each character’s personality. To determine which props were needed, China carefully analyzed scripts, then sourced or crafted the set pieces. The most complex object she created was a retrofuturistic A.I. robot fashioned from a torn-apart tape editor, tubes, an old keyboard, and an LED-lit screen.

“The experience gave me a lot of confidence in my creative decisions,” China says. “It was really fun to make things and find solutions to the problems we had.”

Bull served as the showrunner, the lead creative and production manager who ensures consistency across episodes. He began the process by organizing a weeklong “sitcom bootcamp,” helping students learn to use the cameras and sound equipment through mock tapings.

Olivia Kim ’26, who wrote the episode “Running out of Steam,” served as a technical director. From the control room, she operated the video switcher, selecting camera shots, graphics, and video feeds to shape the story in real time as the taping took place. “I had a lot of fun working with Justin, who’s been in the professional film industry, and just seeing how everything works on set,” she says. “I thought it was incredibly impressive how we were able to put each episode together in a week.”

Sometimes the schedule was even tighter than that. Weather-related delays and illnesses created compressed timelines within an already tight academic calendar. After back-to-back snow day cancellations, the team shot the final two episodes in a single week.

They had the equipment to pull it off. The crew used sound-canceling headsets to communicate, and they adjusted camera angles on the fly. “The process taught me that so much depends on collaboration,” says camera operator Daniel Peregudov ’27, who also co-wrote the final episode. “Even when it seems like it’s mostly about technical skills, that’s not the whole picture. Everyone has to work together seamlessly.”

Over the eight weeks of filming, ��Ƶ students, faculty, staff, and alums joined the audience. Some also made cameo appearances in various episodes.

Each week, after taping wrapped, Bull led post-production, the final stage of filmmaking. Working from a rough cut assembled by the technical director, he selected the best takes and created a complex sound mix, then handled the credits and color grading, polishing each episode for its debut.

Greenlit

��Ƶ released Cackleberries episodes weekly on YouTube from January 23 to March 27. By the end of the school year, the series premiere alone had been viewed nearly 1,000 times.

“We’re so proud of the tremendous amount of expertise and dedication our students and faculty across departments have put into this experience,” says Sarah Yeh P’24 ’27, associate head for teaching, learning, and faculty. “It’s been stunning to see students operating cameras like professionals.”

This spring, the school greenlit the Sitcom Project as a staple of ��Ƶ’s film program, to be offered, in alternate years, along with the Feature Film Project. The feature-length filmmaking experience, spearheaded by Bull and fellow film teacher Ben Stumpf ’88 is open to juniors and seniors, as is the Sitcom Project. Interspersing feature-length and serialized comedy formats will allow older students to take part in both, increase their opportunities to get involved in film during their time at ��Ƶ.

Bull is eager to evolve the Sitcom Project. In the future, he plans to begin the semester by providing students with a complete story bible to ensure consistency and maximize their writing time. He also sees opportunities to involve students in the musical score and film editing.

“I find great joy in making art with others, and that’s why I love filmmaking,” he says. “I hope students step away from this process realizing that when collaboration, communication, and creativity come together, you can bring even the most impossible ideas to life.”

WATCH THE SERIES

concordacademy.org/sitcom

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��Ƶ Students Examine the Psychology of the Self and the Neurobiology of Consciousness

vanessa_dezorzi@concordacademy.org — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 19:16:47 +0000

She organized this new advanced biology course, Psychology of Self, around three central questions: What is the biological basis of selfhood? How do our brains perceive ourselves in the world? And what happens when our behavior conflicts with our sense of self? This last question particularly interests Kopelman, who also supports students in ��Ƶ’s Academic Support Center as they strengthen executive functioning skills.

“My mission is to get kids to be independent learners,” she says. “I want to put them into situations where they have to figure out how they learn and communicate their understanding.”

Students took part in discussions, hands-on activities, and experiments. They analyzed brain studies and gave presentations. Each week, one student would prepare a slideshow on a scientific article about the brain and a topic such as personality, perception, brain injury, coma, or sleep.

Kopelman enjoyed seeing the way her students responded to each other’s presentations. “I’m so impressed with the beautiful, thoughtful questions that they asked each other, the grace they’ve given each other, and how deeply they listened,” she says.

She wanted to ground the course in philosophical frameworks of self-perception, but she acknowledged this would be a learning experience for her as well. After a coincidental meeting, she invited Ollie Longo ’21, who earned his bachelor’s in philosophy from Wesleyan University in 2025, to join her in her classroom. Drawing on his experience tutoring, he came on several days to guide discussions with students, exploring and contrasting the mind-body dualism of René Descartes, the skeptical empiricism of David Hume, and the concept of stream of consciousness coined by William James.

Longo says the students’ engagement impressed him: “All of the things they were interrogating were really central ideas. Exploring complicated issues can be disorienting, frankly, but I think that disorientation is one of the values of philosophy.” He credits his ��Ƶ education, particularly his English classes, with cultivating his interdisciplinary intellectual interests and says he’s interested in teaching, “potentially at the high school level, where I was most influenced.”

The class included a neuroanatomy practical exam—dissecting a sheep’s brain. Longo returned afterward to talk with students about animal ethics and the moral worth humans assign other animals based on our perceptions of degrees of sentience.

Seeing the structures of the brain during this dissection made a big impression on Luke Schumacher ’26, who plans on a premed track in college and says this course made him consider majoring in psychology. The final project for the class was a self-directed research paper. Luke chose to study how antihistamines and decongestants can alter consciousness. First-generation antihistamines, such as Benadryl, he explains, cross the blood-brain barrier and can produce sedative effects and, in some cases, hallucinations.

The topics other students chose for their final projects varied widely. Zuri Gonzalez ’26 researched how the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder can interrupt self-awareness. She wanted to know: Are you still conscious if you’re experiencing a symptom of PTSD? She was initially interested in a study that showed playing puzzle games can prevent the development of PTSD, and she broadened her lens as she learned about the condition’s many manifestations in mood changes, flashbacks, and emotional repression, eventually focusing on studies of women who had experienced repeated childhood abuse and dissociative symptoms. She learned that patients benefit most from individually tailored treatment modalities. “Even if two people go through the same thing, the way they respond is going to be different,” she says.

She enjoyed the interweaving of philosophy and experimentation in the course. “It was so fun and free,” she says. “I liked that I could have my own ideas and that the topics were so broad, I could find my own way of exploring consciousness.”

For her final paper, Emilia Deng ’27 compared human consciousness with artificial intelligence, animal consciousness, and plant consciousness. She was struck by studies demonstrating that plants learn, changing their behaviour in response to repeated experience. “I think that part of what makes us such a great species is our ability to have empathy,” she says, “but when we don’t extend that empathy outside of our own species, it gets really difficult to ascertain where the line is between right and wrong.”

For a presentation, she researched predictive processing and the predictive global neuronal workspace theory. “Every time you encounter something, your brain is firing the neurons that fired when you had a similar experience,” she explains. “Learning about the way my brain is functioning in every moment has led me to see that everything is literally physically interconnected.”

She also researched the therapeutic uses of AI, which she personally avoids as detrimental to her learning. She learned about a specific AI application that showed some benefit for patients with schizophrenia through generating images of internal demons patients design as avatars, to externalize what they are seeing and hearing. “I still think it is harmful when you place AI in the role of a human, for example, the therapist,” Emilia says.

She remains skeptical about the technology’s effects on human consciousness more broadly. “The language we use for AI is so much more blunt than what we would use with humans, and that kind of change in language can carry over to human-to-human interactions,” she says.

Emilia says this course made her more aware of how she engages with others. “I’ve been more intentional with the way I treat language and my interactions, understanding that we can’t ever know everything that’s happening, just use what we can intentionally and take in the world around us in a more empathetic way.”

For Celeste Bogan ’27, the combination of science and philosophy in the course helped her feel OK with not knowing while considering a range of theories. She appreciated how receptive Kopelman was when she chose an out-of-the-ordinary topic for her final paper: accounts from scientific journals of young children reporting memories of past lives. Celeste was struck by the sheer number of cases from different cultures around the world, their similarities, and how many involved verifiable evidence. “I felt like I was going to get some funny looks,” she says, “and the fact that Kim just reviewed the foundational science and gave me this leeway to get hypothetical and still be taken seriously—that was so big.”

Celeste also presented on quantum consciousness research. To understand it, she had to give herself a crash course in quantum mechanics, a fundamental principle of which is superposition, or the concept that at a subatomic scale, quantum particles exist in multiple states of potential at once, but at the moment of observation settle into one reality.

“New research is coming out that the collapse of multiple realities into one may be what causes consciousness,” she says. “It requires a different mindset than the materialistic worldview the scientific community relies on now, but through a quantum lens, consciousness comes before the physical world, exists outside of our brains and bodies, which brings me full circle to my past life memories research. The implications are mindboggling.”

Celeste says the course has fundamentally shifted her understanding of consciousness, and that the most rewarding part has been simply the encouragement to pursue her own questions. “I’ve learned a lot about myself and my worldview, my thoughts, emotions, and experiences,” she says, “and that’s very special to get in a class.”

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��Ƶ Celebrates the Class of 2026 and the Value of Community with Commencement Speaker Amy Rosenfeld ’84

vanessa_dezorzi@concordacademy.org — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 16:27:46 +0000

��Ƶ’s Commencement Exercises for the class of 2026 unfolded beautifully in the Academy Garden on May 29. The morning was bright and breezy as 101 seniors processed in to the strains of a Bach concerto played by student chamber musicians. On the Senior Steps, they sang their class song, the Beatles’ “In My Life,” before taking their seats in front of families, faculty, staff, and friends who had gathered to celebrate them as individuals as well as the spirit of community they had cultivated as a class.

Beginning the speaking program, Jennifer Pline P’13 ’15, co-president of the Board of Trustees, recalled this year’s “deeply reflective, introspective, and self-aware senior chapels” that demonstrated “a level of maturity that feels beyond your years.” She said her favorite way she’s heard this class characterized was as “graceful disruptors,” adding, “I can’t think of a better phrase to describe ��Ƶ grads.” She urged them to return home to ��Ƶ and never lose their commitment to making the world a better place.

Head of School Henry D. Fairfax shared a unique aspect of ��Ƶ’s Commencement, a tradition dating back more than 70 years, of bestowing no awards, prizes, or diplomas with distinction, in recognition of the love of learning the entire student body shares. He advised the seniors, “Run, don’t hurry. This means: Engage in everything you do with a sense of purpose, and have integrity in your effort. Explore and take calculated risks, but don’t rush into anything.” Fairfax also acknowledged the shadow cast this year by the loss of their classmate Louis Montagut ‘26, whose “magnetic spirit revealed a deep sense of community, honor, and love at ��Ƶ.”

Learning through loss was the theme of the remarks by May Zheng ’26, student head of school, who spoke next. From the countless small items lost and returned—pens, water bottles, hoodies—that reflect care for fellow students to irreparable, larger losses, she said, “somehow, for everything I’ve lost, it seems that experiencing it with my class has made it bearable and meaningful.”

Preparing to leave ��Ƶ, she addressed the fear of leaving behind “the person we’ve had the space, privilege, and community to become here … that we have grown into, and used to, and proud of.” Yet she imagined recognizing in others some “undeniable, unapologetic” characteristics her classmates embody today. In this way, “losing is learning,” she said, “To lose this place, this home, is to see it appear again a million times in a million different places. … To ‘commence’ now, we are really saying, ‘I will see you again, because I have known you now.’ That within every absence we experience, there is a celebration of what was once there, what we have lived.”

Following a ��Ƶ Chorus performance of Adele’s “When We Were Young,” Veerawit Sirikantraporn ’26, senior class president, introduced the commencement speaker, Amy Rosenfeld ’84. As the senior vice president of Olympics and Paralympics production at NBC Sports, she led efforts to expand visibility and accessibility at the 2024 and 2026 Games, after overseeing ESPN’s World Cup coverage. In addition to her extensive experience in sports broadcasting and production leadership, Veerawit said, it’s her reputation “as someone who leads with integrity, care, and unity” that embodies characteristics reflected in the ��Ƶ community.

Rosenfeld shared, with a zingy delivery and a knack for comic timing (she said she once wanted to be a late-night television writer) how honored, humbled, “and quite frankly, a bit shocked” she was to have been selected as this year’s commencement speaker. “Let’s just say I was not the model ��Ƶ student,” she said. To much laughter, she read a few illustrative comments she had saved from ��Ƶ teachers concerned about her ability to succeed. Despite those “scathing reviews,” she added, she always had the sense that the faculty was rooting for her, “that they believed that I had something that would resonate and have an impact.”

As a career sports television producer, she has a special place in her heart for global sporting events that can, for just a few weeks at a time, unite the world. She suggested she’d been asked to address this class in alignment with this year’s community life theme, “Building the We,” because community, and one’s ability to contribute to it, “can be one of the most rewarding aspects of life.”

Rosenfeld advised the class of 2026 that the relationships they formed at ��Ƶ will likely play important roles in any future endeavors—precisely how she landed her first sports broadcasting internship. She said she still wears her ��Ƶ ring every day; it reminds her of where she learned “how to have confidence, how to deal with success and, certainly, failure, how to work together as a collective group to get across any finish line … and to have the strength of my own convictions.”

Among other qualities instilled in her at ��Ƶ, Rosenfeld said, was a sense that “I could just be me, that I didn’t have to follow any particular group to fit in,” and that she could take her own path.

“Embracing individuality is what makes a true and honest community—that is what you have here at ��Ƶ,” Rosenfeld said.

She’s often asked what it’s like to be a woman in sports television. “My answer is always the same,” she said. “‘If you believe you belong, you belong.’ It never occurred to me that I shouldn’t be doing precisely what I was doing. ��Ƶ taught me that.”

Rosenfeld told about a time she “failed miserably” in a very public way. Producing a U.S. women’s soccer game, she was too focused on replays, and she missed showing a goal. Afraid her broadcast career was over, she talked herself down out in the parking lot. “I fiddled with my ��Ƶ ring and remembered all the mistakes I had made back then, and despite it all, how that community still believed in me,” she said. She didn’t get fired. She produced enough important soccer matches in the years that followed to be inducted into the U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame.

It’s in adversity that we recognize the value of community, Rosenfeld went on to say. As the members of the class of 2026 go their separate ways and begin new adventures, she advised them to continue leaning on one another and not to worry if they don’t have all the answers—or even if they don’t know what the questions are. While she certainly didn’t always know what decision to make, she says, because of ��Ƶ, she knew who she was and the value she could offer the next community she encountered: “Because of ��Ƶ, I promise you are ready for what’s next.”

In the final portion of the ceremony, diplomas were awarded in random order—a ��Ƶ tradition that both honors every individual and keeps the audience engaged. The final student to be called took home the coveted “commencement sock,” a tube sock filled with cash donations from the class, with a little extra thrown in by alums.

Afterward, the new graduates made their way through a receiving line, sharing parting hugs and handshakes with faculty and staff, before joining their families for a reception behind the Elizabeth B. Hall Chapel. The ceremony concluded the 2025–26 school year on a note of gratitude for the space to cultivate individual expression and, above all, the enduring bonds of community.

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��Ƶ Philosophy Students Discuss Higher Education Reform with Alum Advocate

vanessa_dezorzi@concordacademy.org — Wed, 27 May 2026 20:03:23 +0000

On May 13, ��Ƶ alum Jared Rhee ’22 returned to campus with fellow Yale University student Emily Hettinger to speak with students in the History of Philosophy: Justice classes taught by Topi Dasgupta P’22 ’25 about the role of universities in American democracy.

This November, Rhee and Hettinger helped organize Reimagining Elite Higher Education, a three-day conference in New Haven, Conn., that brought together around 300 students, alums, and faculty members from 68 colleges and organizations. The event examined how universities could rebuild public trust while addressing inequality. At ��Ƶ, the discussion connected directly to themes explored in Dasgupta’s class, including governance and political theory. Rhee, a chemistry major, said he felt disillusioned with the culture of corporate recruiting at college. He expressed a desire for more students to prioritize community impact over maximizing the return on their investment in their degrees.

After taking a gap year to organize for the 2024 election in rural Pennsylvania, he began thinking more critically about the relationship between elite universities and civic leadership. While canvassing far from his college campus, he realized how few residents had been contacted or engaged at all.

“It was really interesting to realize that people graduating from a lot of these Ivy League schools have a disproportionate amount of impact on this country, despite their limited interaction with their immediate communities,” he said. For Rhee, leading the conference became a way to push back against that dynamic and help reshape campus culture.

He collaborated with co-chair Hettinger, a senior from California studying psychology and education. As the first student from her public high school to attend Yale, she said perceptions of being an Ivy League student often felt polarized. Through co-leading the conference, she hoped to create space for more balanced discussion.

“It didn’t feel like there was this nuance to be critical of the universities and understand their role and responsibility in building a lot of distrust in higher education while also recognizing the value of these institutions as places of learning,” Hettinger said.

Throughout the conference, participants revised a draft document titled “An Academic Social Contract for Our Time,” proposing reforms such as ending legacy admissions, providing need-blind acceptance, encouraging investment in local communities, and preventing career funneling—where students are encouraged to be oriented towards certain types of careers from their first year of college.

Students in Dasgupta’s classroom raised questions about whether elite education increasingly determines social status in the United States. One student asked what happens to democratic life when educational prestige replaces other forms of status and belonging.

Dasgupta connected the conversation to Marx’s critiques of institutions that reinforce class inequality. Students and speakers debated whether universities today continue to function as engines of social mobility or instead reproduce existing social hierarchies.

The visit challenged students to think beyond higher education as a pathway to individual success and instead consider its broader role in shaping citizenship. Rhee and Hettinger represent a growing movement of student scholars advocating for greater societal accountability within collegiate learning environments.

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Senior Projects Spark Artistic and Scientific Innovation

vanessa_dezorzi@concordacademy.org — Wed, 27 May 2026 18:31:47 +0000

At the May 18 senior project showcase in the SHAC atrium, ��Ƶ students presented a wide range of independent research in areas ranging from literary analysis to aviation safety systems.

The annual senior project program allows selected students to spend their final semester pursuing experimental work. Students apply during their junior year and dedicate much of the senior spring to pursuing their academic passions.

Will Tucker, Science Department head and senior project coordinator, said the initiative encourages students to “pursue love of learning in a whole new venture and direction.” This year’s 32 senior projects required technical analysis and artistic exploration, with many projects combining multiple disciplines.

Aleksandra Zdraveski ’26 explored the neuroscience of visual art. Inspired by her longtime interest in painting, drawing, and ceramics, she researched how creative practices can support emotional healing. Aleksandra studied how the brain perceives color and art, and the neurological effects of anxiety, depression, and PTSD.

The project culminated in an independently conducted on-campus case study examining the effects of art therapy on stress levels. Twenty ��Ƶ student participants were divided into an art therapy group and a control group, with stress measured through heart and breath rates and self-reported anxiety scales over three weeks.

The art therapy group showed statistically significant decreases across all three measures, supporting Aleksandra’s hypothesis that creative activities can reduce stress responses. She also created an interactive ceramic sculpture of a human head containing removable brain structures, allowing viewers to engage directly with the concepts behind the research.

William Frabizio ’26 developed and taught a course to ��Ƶ peers about robotics and autonomous systems, designed to introduce students to engineering through hands-on lessons. Driven by his own experience learning robotics independently through clubs, internships, and personal projects, William wanted to create a classroom environment where students could build technical skills.

The course began with lessons on robotic quadrupeds using the Unitree Go2 Pro AI robot dog.
Students learned about LiDAR mapping, obstacle avoidance, mobility systems, and the use of robotics as a social outreach tool.

The class later expanded to aerodynamics and remote control aircraft engineering. Students designed and tested paper airplanes using the principles of lift, drag, thrust, and gravity before progressing to using flight simulators and constructing a laser-cut foam remote-controlled airplane. Through the process, William gained experience in curriculum design and classroom instruction.

Eliya Ganot ’26 used fashion as a form of literary interpretation to deepen her understanding of William Wordsworth’s poem “Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey.” Inspired by a ��Ƶ course on British Romanticism, she expanded her exploration through independent research into the literary movement, which emphasized emotion, individualism, and reverence for nature.

Written during the Industrial Revolution, Wordsworth’s poem reflects on his personal development over five years, presenting the Wye Valley, between England and Wales, as a site of reflection and respite from urban life. Reflecting on the poem’s themes, Eliya created two garments representing Wordsworth’s youth and adulthood. She constructed the pieces by weaving together burlap and fabric to represent the narrator’s integration of past and present selves.

One garment features the quote “Flying from something that he dreads,” while the other includes the phrase “Who sought the thing he loved,” emphasizing the author’s transformation over time.

Rodolfo Wang ’26 researched how commercial aviation systems could be adapted for smaller aircraft such as drones. He designed a custom flight computer around an ESP32 microcontroller. Rodolfo integrated motion sensors, wireless communications systems, and advanced motor controls into the computer to create a more reliable system.

Rodolfo initially aimed to implement collision avoidance and stall protection. After encountering technical setbacks, including hardware incompatibility, he shifted his focus toward making the system more fault-tolerant—ensuring the aircraft could continue operating even if one component failed.

Inspired by the backup systems used in commercial airplanes, his final design employed three separate microcontrollers and sensor groups operating simultaneously. Each system verified the others’ data, allowing the remaining two to override incorrect readings if one failed, helping maintain flight stability.

Reflecting on the iterative problem-solving that shaped his project, he offered this advice to students looking ahead to crafting their final semester of self-directed study at ��Ƶ. “Don’t be afraid to fail,” he said. “Senior projects are really based on how much work you put in and what you learn, versus whether you accomplish the goals you originally set out to.”

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Playing the Long Game: Tory Adams ’23 Shares Her Sports Journey

vanessa_dezorzi@concordacademy.org — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 14:50:03 +0000

Collegiate athlete Tory Adams ’23 doesn’t measure success by scorecards, but rather by a genuine love of learning that began at ��Ƶ. “��Ƶ prepared me very well for managing both rigorous academics and athletics,” she says.

During her senior year at ��Ƶ, Adams served as captain of the varsity ski and soccer teams. Throughout high school, she earned four overall individual Central Massachusetts Ski League championships and three individual New England Preparatory School Athletic Council championships, two in slalom and one in giant slalom. Now a junior at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, she is a biochemistry major with a minor in German, and she has emerged as an integral player on Bates’ women’s golf team.

This past fall, Adams captured the individual New England Intercollegiate Golf Association championship and supported her team in securing the overall title. Though the victory was rewarding, she found the most validation in the training process itself. During the golf competition, she avoided comparing herself to other players—a focus on personal growth rather than formal awards familiar from her ��Ƶ days. “I match my own progress against myself,” she says.

An aptitude for golf runs in Adams’ family. Her sister, Mandy Adams ’24, plays golf for Dartmouth College, and their mother, Tracy Welch ’89, P’23 ’24, who also played at the collegiate level, introduced them to the sport as a way to bond. Adams’ commitment to golf grew during the COVID-19 pandemic, which gave her time to practice outdoors. College recruitment then presented a natural opportunity to refine her technique.

At Bates, Adams’ commitment to sports hasn’t overshadowed academics. She shares that when Henry D. Fairfax became ��Ƶ’s head of school during her senior year, his emphasis on integrating academics, arts, and athletics inspired her to pursue all of her passions. She has carried that mentality into college, balancing advanced STEM and language courses with a demanding practice schedule.

Adams credits the communication skills she learned through close relationships with faculty and mentors at ��Ƶ, including her ski coaches John McGarry P’22 ’23 and Peter Jennings P’20 ’21 ’25, with helping her succeed. “At ��Ƶ, you interact with teachers so often that you learn how to have a conversation with an adult,” she says. “ Moving into college, especially at a liberal arts school, it’s easy now to talk with professors, ask questions, and go to office hours for support.”

At ��Ƶ, Adams took an exercise physiology course taught by her former advisor, Andrea Yanes P’22 ’24 ’27, that deepened her engagement in science. The final was an intensive, long-form research paper. She notes that the experience taught her how to locate credible sources, read primary literature, and take and measure data, abilities she uses daily in college.

The course led her to become a pre-med student. She plans to attend graduate school to become a doctor and build a career in sports medicine. Her direction is also personal: After two recent knee surgeries, she hopes to help other athletes stay healthy and strong. Though she still loves skiing and soccer, she has increasingly turned to golf because it’s easier on her joints.

Adams has earned an emergency medical technician (EMT) certification and hopes to gain clinical or research experience during a planned gap year before medical school. Despite her achievements, she resists defining herself by any single accomplishment. “I’m most proud of how I throw myself into everything I do 100%,” she said. “Sometimes that leads to results, sometimes it doesn’t, but I know I’ve done the best work I can.”

She has some advice for ��Ƶ students: “Take advantage of the opportunities that ��Ƶ provides. Try something new, because it may end up surprising you.” Whether on the golf course, in the lab, or in the classroom, Adams embraces each opportunity to the fullest.

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9th Grade Students Experience a New Adaptation of The Odyssey

vanessa_dezorzi@concordacademy.org — Fri, 17 Apr 2026 19:35:33 +0000

On February 26, 2026, the 9th-grade class traveled to Boston to see Penelope, a new musical inspired by The Odyssey at Lyric Stage Company. The production features music, lyrics, and arrangements by Alex Bechtel and a book by Bechtel, Grace McLean, and Eva Steinmetz.

The one-woman show, starring actress Aimee Doherty, centers on Odysseus’ wife during the 20 years she waits for his return, first from the Trojan War, then a decade lost at sea. Set on a patio in Greece, the one-act production offers an intimate, character-driven perspective on an epic story.

While ��Ƶ has taught The Odyssey for decades, seeing an adaptation performed live gave students a new way to engage with the text. Attendance for all 9th graders was funded by an anonymous Boundless Campus gift, giving this year’s newest ��Ƶ students an experience similar to last year’s class trip to see Kate Hamill’s The Odyssey at the American Repertory Theater.

In the original epic, Penelope appears in only a limited number of the 24 books. This musical reframes her role, emphasizing her governance of Ithaca during Odysseus’ absence. English teacher and one of the trip coordinators Laurence Vanleynseele P’22 ’28 explains, “The production shifts the focus entirely to her, making her unmistakably central, visible, and giving her a voice and point of view that students who read the poem must tease out and imaginatively reconstruct from fragments.”

The performance resonated with students. “Seeing Penelope live on stage gave me an understanding of who Penelope was and not just what role she fills in the story,” Zeke Fine ’29 says. “In the book, Penelope almost never speaks, let alone speaks about her emotions and her experience. When I saw Penelope, it enabled a sense of empathy that I did not have previously.”

In both the play and poem, Penelope manages the royal household while fending off suitors who assume Odysseus is dead. She delays remarriage by weaving and secretly unraveling a burial shroud, buying time for his return. The musical expands on this act, giving her character space to construct and deconstruct narratives and developing her humor and emotional depth through song.

“Given the origins of the story—oral culture, epics sung and performed at festivals—this choice to make the production a musical was interesting to our class,” Vanleynseele says. “The venue also created a real intimacy between the audience and the actress and the musicians behind her. It felt more like an internal, psychological portrait and not a reimagining of a set of adventures.”

The show positions Penelope as a foil to Odysseus, inviting the audience to compare their struggles and forms of heroism. “The music brought the drama that Odysseus’ adventure had to the everyday life of Penelope,” Zeke says. “Penelope is not fighting monsters and outsmarting gods, but she fights smaller battles. Because these battles are not scenes that involve a lot of action, the music creates suspense and tension.”

From witty pop songs such as “Lose My Mind” to powerful ballads such as “Us,” the score deepened the audience’s understanding of Penelope’s inner life. “The music only further enhanced my perception of Penelope as a character,” Hazel McWhinney ’29 says. “I viewed the music as the emotions she wasn’t explicitly conveying. The musicians felt like an extension of her as a character—someone playing the tune of her mind.”

For ��Ƶ’s 9th-grade class, the experience of seeing Penelope underscored how classic texts evolve through interpretation, with each generation of readers bringing new voices to the fore. “Going to a performance that is an adaptation of a text brings home the notion that reading is creative,” Vanleynseele says. “You can try to understand a text in its historical context, figure out the value system it upholds or challenges, but you can also speak back to the text, enter into a dialogue with it across time and culture.”

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2025 In Review

vanessa_dezorzi@concordacademy.org — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 16:14:00 +0000

��Ƶ is celebrating another remarkable year filled with memorable achievements and meaningful moments. Across classrooms and campus gatherings, 2025 highlighted the strength of our community and the impact of working together. We’re excited to build on this energy as we head into the New Year!

Community

��Ƶ community members reaffirmed our shared commitment to common trust.

April 19 marked the 250th anniversary of the battles of Concord and Lexington. ��Ƶ sponsored the special occasion, and ��Ƶ students celebrated by doing original artwork and historical research commemorating the event.
In May, construction of the new 37,000 square foot Centennial Arts Center (C.A.C.) was completed. The innovative space has provided ample new opportunities for student creativity and collaboration.
Commencement on May 30 celebrated the accomplishments of graduating students. Former ��Ƶ science faculty member Max Hall served as the Commencement speaker and encouraged students to “delight in the hard work of becoming.”
June 6–8, Reunion and Alum Weekend brought together over 200 alums for three days of celebration and connection in the C.A.C., around campus, and around town.
The new school year began on September 2 with Convocation, where this year’s convocation speaker, counselor Jeff Desjarlais, spoke about the importance of togetherness.
More than 400 families joined us for Family Weekend, experiencing student classes and performances firsthand.

Love of Learning

A love of learning drives every part of life at ��Ƶ.

Last winter, students in science teacher Brad Moriarty’s Topics in Engineering course constructed cantilevers that demonstrated their understanding of structural integrity.
In late February and early March, all ninth grade ��Ƶ English classes traveled to see a new adaptation of The Odyssey at the American Repertory Theater, comparing and contrasting the performance with their reading of the classic text.
In November, history teacher Topi Dasgupta P’22 ’25 and her Making of Modern India class participated in a documentary film screening about Mahatma Gandhi as part of the United Nations’ Second World Summit for Social Development. Students provided feedback that was included in the U.N.’s official documentation.
Doreen Young English Department Chair Sabrina Sadique’s British Romantic Poetry Class created inventive original artworks inspired by their close reading of poetry by Keats and Coleridge.
Throughout the year, ��Ƶ’s Strive workshop series provided space for student- and staff-led conversations about culture and identity.

Arts and Athletics

��Ƶ student-athletes and artists honed their craft.

February 20–22, ��Ƶ Performing Arts presented the winter mainstage musical Chicago, a timeless story that first graced ��Ƶ’s stage in 2010.
��Ƶ Athletics celebrated successful winter and spring seasons, highlighted by a victory over Bancroft School in the fourth annual Spring Cup rivalry event.
November 7–9, ��Ƶ debuted its first mainstage musical, The Prom, in the Hammett Ory Theater, performing to sold-out audiences.
Fall was another dynamic season for Athletics, culminating in a Chandler Bowl victory and a strong showing in the Eastern Independent League and New England Preparatory School Athletic Council competitions.

Heard on Campus

Assembly speakers inspired curiosity and expanded our thinking.

On February 28, Hall Fellow Adam Geer ’99 took the stage in the P.A.C. to share his work as Philadelphia’s first chief public safety officer and his collaborations with community partners to strengthen neighborhoods. “Organizations that are more diverse, in all the ways you can think of diversity, perform better,” he shared.
On April 28, Leslie Taylor Davol ’87 and Sam Davol ’88 were awarded the Joan Shaw Herman Award for distinguished service for their nonprofit Street Lab, which transforms city streets through inventive pop-up spaces.
On October 15, the Prison Justice Project hosted its annual Wrongful Conviction Day assembly featuring presenters Lisa Kavanaugh P’22 ’25, director of the CPCS Innocence Program for the Massachusetts Public Defenders Office, and exonerees Sean Graham and Steven Pina, who shared their stories and called for criminal justice reform.
On December 5, the 2025–26 Hall Fellow Rayner Ramirez ’88 visited campus. The Emmy Award–winning journalist and co-founder of Tilt Shift Media shared his passion for documentary filmmaking.

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Environmental Science Class Connects with Concord Watershed Protectors

vanessa_dezorzi@concordacademy.org — Fri, 05 Dec 2025 14:17:07 +0000

On November 13, two staff members from , a local nonprofit watershed organization, visited both sections of science teacher and environmental sustainability lead Chris Labosier’s Water Resources course at ��Ƶ. In this upper-level environmental science elective, students have been exploring waterways through ecological, historical, social, political, and economic lenses. They’ve learned about the physical processes that shape streamflow and landscape formation, the chemical and biological factors that influence water quality, and the influence of climate change on the hydrologic cycle and ecosystems. Getting to talk with professionals who steward the Sudbury, Assabet, and Concord rivers and their tributaries helped Labosier’s classes understand the interconnectedness of human development and watershed health in practical terms—right here in ��Ƶ’s backyard.

“Not every watershed has an organization,” said Heather Conkerton, OARS’s ecological restoration manager. “We’re lucky to have one here.” OARS started, she explained, as a clean-up effort in 1986 for the Assabet River, which was then so highly polluted it was known as “the cesspool of Massachusetts.” In 2011, OARS expanded its mission to protect all the rivers within the local watershed, adding the Subury and Concord rivers, for the benefit of both people and wildlife. According to the organization’s “Rivers Report Card,” which it produces every five years, all three rivers have made tremendous progress across multiple water quality parameters. Nearly 30 miles of river within the watershed have federal designation of “wild and scenic”—able to be explored and enjoyed today for much of the same unspoiled beauty Henry David Thoreau and Nathaniel Hawthorne once celebrated.

Conkerton’s work focuses on ecosystem restoration and climate resilience. She monitors invasive aquatic species, runs plant identification workshops, and conducts other educational outreach. She also assesses the human-made structures that allow and prohibit water flow and supervises their replacement or removal.

Culverts, the channels that run beneath roadways, raise flood risks when they’re undersized and can cause sinkholes when they’re in disrepair; they can also impede the passage of fish. But their repair is expensive, costing communities on average more than $1 million per culvert. Many don’t have the funds to maintain them.

Dams can also pose a catastrophic risk to humans when they fail, which is why OARS maintains a guide prioritizing dam maintenance based on hazard assessment. Conkerton said only 3% of the 162 dams mapped in the Concord watershed have a function; most simply impede the flow of tributaries. The class had been examining case studies from around the United States, including dam removal in the Pacific Northwest, and wrestling with the interdisciplinary challenges of understanding their impact. In contrast to those large public works, many dams in eastern Massachusetts are small and on private property. She stumbles across uncharted ones often.

Conkerton helped the students visualize the way animals navigate the watershed as well. “We don’t just work on the rivers, we also work on these smaller streams, because they actually provide an incredible amount of habitat for rearing and spawning,” she said. “We need these smaller streams. So in my line of work, that’s why we want the dams to come down; that’s why we want to make sure these culverts are the right size so they can get through.”

Water conditions matter too, as Conkerton’s colleague Abby McCarthy, OARS’s water quality program manager, emphasized in her presentation, drawing on the organization’s three decades of monitoring and reporting. “We want the water clean, cold, and connected,” she said. In shallow rivers such as these, water height can fluctuate greatly, and of particular concern have been levels of phosphorus and dissolved oxygen, which put sensitive fish such as cold brook trout at risk of being extirpated, or dying out within their native environment.

McCarthy oversees a team of 32 volunteers who collect data monthly during the summer season at more than 30 sites across the three rivers. Their measurements of factors including water flow, temperature, conductivity, chemical composition, and eutrophication (excessive plant growth) help McCarthy monitor pollution and the impact of human activities and facilities, such as wastewater treatment plants. Some have been volunteering regularly since OARS’s founding. “They’re so enthusiastic,” McCarthy said. “They remind me of why I do this.”

OARS also organizes events such as water chestnut pulls and river cleanups to remove trash. For a small nonprofit with only six employees and two interns, its effect on the Concord watershed has been outsized, largely thanks to sustained community investment. While OARS requires volunteers to be 18 or older, McCarthy suggested that underage teens might consider supporting the organization’s educational mission by mentoring elementary school students through its Water Wise workshops, which empower kids to understand their role in protecting local rivers. “You can’t care about something if you don’t know about it,” she said.

Labossier says the visit was a great opportunity for students, who have explored dams and water quality issues in other geographic locales, to see and hear these topics made local from professionals working in the field: “I think this helps bring the course home, and now they see the watersheds in their home communities in a different way.”

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��Ƶ’s 2025 Family Weekend Ushers in Season of Gratitude

vanessa_dezorzi@concordacademy.org — Thu, 04 Dec 2025 16:26:09 +0000

Falling this year shortly before Thanksgiving, ��Ƶ’s Family Weekend was an occasion for many expressions of gratitude for the partnership between school and families in support of ��Ƶ students. Parents and guardians had opportunities to sample the teaching and learning that takes place every day at ��Ƶ, meet their students’ mentors, and connect with other families. Though the weather was cold, the warmth of the ��Ƶ community was palpable throughout the two-day event.

Programming began in the afternoon on Thursday, November 20, with athletic practices, a Dance Project open rehearsal, and a double-overtime set of boys and girls varsity basketball games. That evening, the ��Ƶ Parents Social in the new Centennial Arts Center Hammett Ory Theater gave families a chance to chat with one another and with faculty and staff—nourishing the bonds that set ��Ƶ apart as a distinctly relational school.

The next morning, parents gathered in the Student Health and Athletic Center for breakfast and opening remarks. ��Ƶ Parents President Maggie Yuan P’27 described Family Weekend as an anchoring tradition, one that gives families a rhythm to return to over their students’ years at ��Ƶ. “What I love most about ��Ƶ—and Family Weekend, today—is that even just one day on campus can spark so much: new conversations, new connections that carry us through the year ahead,” she said. “And these small moments ripple out, influencing how we engage in the ��Ƶ community long after Family Weekend is over.”

Noting that more than 400 families had registered, Head of School Henry Fairfax called the full tables throughout the gym “evidence of a fully engaged community.” He particularly thanked families of international students who traveled great distances to attend. “��Ƶ is blessed to have some of the finest faculty, staff, and administrators I have ever worked with; I sense that they are a key ingredient and part of what drew you and your children to ��Ƶ,” he said. “And in turn, your children, who are talented and intellectually committed, will attract the next generation of inspiring educators. As you spend the day with us, I am confident that you will be inspired by our special sauce.”

Families went to class with their students, following a full academic day’s schedule of shortened periods, with options for parents of LGBTQ+ students, families of color, and international families to attend affinity gatherings. In the afternoon, families were invited to musical rehearsals in the C.A.C., where Chorus and ��Ƶ Singers, Orchestra, Jazz Workshop and the Vocal Jazz and Pop Ensemble, and Percussion Ensemble were practicing for concerts in December. Boarding parents also had an opportunity to visit their students’ houses before the program concluded and families departed with their students for the Thanksgiving break.

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