Academics - ��Ƶ

��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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��Ƶ History Class Brings Gandhi’s Legacy to the Global Stage

vanessa_dezorzi@concordacademy.org — Thu, 04 Dec 2025 16:03:36 +0000

On November 3, ��Ƶ’s The Making of Modern India class, created and led by history teacher Topi Dasgupta P’22 ’25, participated in the United Nations’ Second World Summit for Social Development. They joined a global audience for the premiere screening of the documentary film Ahimsa – Gandhi: The Power of the Powerless, and offered feedback that was included in the UN’s official report.

The summit, held in Doha, Qatar, and attended virtually by ��Ƶ students, marked the 30th anniversary of the landmark 1995 Copenhagen gathering. World leaders and educational institutions addressed urgent challenges, including inequality, technological change, and social inclusion.

For Dasgupta, the connection between the summit’s aims and the course’s focus made participation a seamless extension of classroom learning. “Much of what we examine in my course is how the British East India Company and later the British Raj exploited India,” she says. “All of the objectives for social progress in the UN’s World Summit coincide with the objectives that Indians had for their own political freedom and societal development in the colonial era. So, it was a natural fit.”

The documentary screening deepened the class’s study of Mahatma Gandhi and the Indian independence movement. The film explores the impact of Gandhi’s advocacy and how his legacy of nonviolence inspired leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela, as well as peace movements worldwide. “The theme of the film is how to mobilize and resist unjust political power,” Dasgupta says. “The global impact of his strategy of nonviolent protest and its continuing relevance allow students to relate the history we are studying to urgent issues in today’s larger political and economic landscape.”

Student Parker Daniel ’26 said the course has pushed him to think about India’s history as an ongoing moral and political conversation. “My favorite part of the course has been exploring how political history connects with deeper questions of identity and morality,” Parker says. “I really enjoy how Topi encourages us to engage with primary sources and intellectual traditions rather than just memorizing dates and facts.”

For Parker, the film’s portrayal of nonviolence left a powerful impression. “The documentary helped me understand nonviolence not just as a strategy but as a moral discipline,” he says. “This film left a lasting impression on me, one that will force me to consider the ethical responsibilities of modern politics and how ahimsa continues to shape movements today,” referring to the ethical principle of non-harming.

After the screening, students submitted feedback on how the film resonated with them. Organizers of the summit’s virtual session praised the ��Ƶ students for their contribution. In a letter to Dasgupta, Gandhi Worldwide Education Institute President Lynnea M. Bylund wrote, “It was wonderful to have ��Ƶ represented at this global event, where the film’s message of truth, courage, and compassion reached students and educators across many countries.” She noted that ��Ƶ students offered heartfelt and perceptive responses and granted permission for their reflections to be included in the UN’s final documentation.

“As the world looks toward redefining strategies for social progress,” Bylud wrote, “the students’ thoughtful engagement shows that Gandhi’s message remains profoundly relevant.”

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A True Romantic Response

heidi_koelz@concordacademy.org — Fri, 25 Jul 2025 19:51:00 +0000

Through collective projects, ��Ƶ students connect imagination, the sublime, and their own inimitable experiences

Story by Heidi Koelz

To say that English Department Head Sabrina Sadique gives her students creative license would be putting it mildly. Her British Romantic Poetry class calls for degrees of creativity and collaboration that are exceptional even at ��Ƶ.

For their final project, she assigned her two fall 2024 sections a “collective and co-creative vision” based on Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan” and John Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn.” Just as Coleridge looked back to a 1613 travelogue, Purchas his Pilgrimage, and Keats to the ancient Greek Elgin Marbles, which he viewed in the British Museum, Sadique asked her students to use the two poems as anchoring points and synthesize the core themes and concerns of Romanticism artistically—and to do it together as a class. Installation or anthology, musical score or short film: The choice of form was theirs.

What they produced in one week exceeded her expectations. Grading each section as a whole, Sadique also assessed students’ individual artist statements. She says her ability to evaluate this way testifies to “the experiential rigor and possibility in our classrooms.”

Close reading forms the backbone of the course, and students also wrote more typical analytical essays earlier in the semester. But Sadique says to fully engage the concepts of Romanticism they needed to create something together—not merely discuss Keats’ notion of negative capability and Coleridge’s theories of imagination, but give them form.

“I knew they actually wouldn’t understand the concepts until they delved into this experimentally,” she says.

A vase made by Isaac Chan ’25; the vase at the moment of shattering, photographed by Libby Brown ’25; the broken pieces that reveal Isaac’s fractured signature, in another of Libby’s photos. Inset: Isaac holds a fragment of the vase, which he both created and destroyed; as part of a triptych Libby created, she explores this as an image of negative capability, in which Isaac’s face, his identity, is inseparable from his art.

The infinite imagination

Sadique calls the first section’s project, a website interlinking a source-derivative chain of creative works, a “graduate-level accomplishment.” We begin with de-creation: A ceramic vase shatters against a rock. Photographs and video of the fracture influence collages and a drum solo. Paintings on the pottery fragments inspire poems, a wire-and-ribbon sculpture, a projection-mapping display, and a burial quilt. The hyperlinks between these creations map processes of derivation and inspiration, much like Keats’ ode calls to mind his tracing of a 19th-century engraving of the Sosibios Vase, a marble urn a Greek artisan made around 50 B.C.E. in the Roman style.

The project, “” invokes the Ouroboros, a snake devouring its tail—an ancient symbol Coleridge used to describe the infinitely cyclical nature of narratives. As Noelle Obenshain ’26 and Gabe Silverman ’25 explained in their curators’ statement, “Much like the original urn before its transformation, the website serves as a vessel for memories and imagination … an ouroboric loop of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis.” As Noelle and Gabe identified themes, facilitated discussions, and integrated their 13 classmates’ creative works into a cohesive final piece, they discovered their “web of connections transcended simply tracing who inspired whom; it also revealed links between works through shared themes and ideas.”

“If anyone hadn’t done their part, it would have all fallen apart,” says Kefan Cui ’25, who made an experimental 30-second film about the vase, which Isaac Chan ’25 both created and destroyed. Kefan threw himself into editing. Learning about negative capability—what Keats described as the capacity of “being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason,” and which Kefan interpreted as a state of deep unity with the object of attention—helped him name “an experience I’d already had but had just thought of as being in the zone.” His film incorporates elements of haunting, defamiliarizing the moon and clouds and nighttime woods in a play of images of the vase.

Kefan worked with Jack Ehlinger ’26, who recorded a drum piece, merging straight time and swung time for a jazzy, multilayered film score that incorporated an audio clip of the urn breaking. “What was unique about it was that they overlapped,” Kefan says. “It was like a palimpsest. We layered a lot of different styles and rhythms.”

Initially stymied by the assignment, Jack saw when he began experimenting on his drum set that he didn’t need to prove he understood the material. “I realized this was secondary imagination and negative capability in their purest form,” he wrote in his artist statement. “I didn’t have to think about any movement I had to make—I was in such a frenzied, transcendental state that I could hold the contradicting ringing of the cymbals, booming of the kick drum, and snapping of the snare in balance without any proprioception or even a sense of identity.”

Jack’s piece inspired Gitanjali Belleau-Bhowmik ’25 to paint a river on a fragment of the urn—one of many pieces she painted that became part of other artworks. She says she couldn’t have imagined in advance how the collaborative project would take form. “We were definitely skeptical at first—like, there are going to be kids who aren’t going to do anything!” she says. “Sabrina kept telling us, ‘You’re going to have to trust people to the fullest,’ and after a while, we realized we were trusting each other, just trusting no matter what, and it actually worked very well. I feel like it’s common trust in its best form in the classroom.”

Gitanjali says she loved using her hands in an English course. “This showed us that your hobbies can be useful in mastering a concept,” she says. “Making the project hands-on was a more effective way to learn these super-complex concepts than just writing a paper or giving a presentation.”

“I keep teaching this course because of the long echoes.”

— Sabrina Sadique

Coalescence

Sadique’s other section also played with cycles of creation and destruction. Those students used a human knot—a shape-shifting chain of hands—to enact the formation and dissolution of a tree, with allusions to “Kubla Khan.” In the short Charlotte Goltra ’26 edited, shapes form and come undone, fingers and arms intertwine like vines, hands brace across a gap. As curators Drew Michaeli ’25 and Leo Cunningham ’25 wrote, superimposing images of branches and bridges creates a “chain reaction,” “digesting” and “refracting” landscapes and architectural elements.

The project’s emotional heart is by Sophia Peng ’25 and Abbie Deng ’25. The music introduces competing creators who repeat a cycle of imitation that leads to a melodious fall. “We wanted to play with the concept of overstepping—a Khan, a human, trying to assume the place of a creator,” Sophia says.

Her bawu, a Chinese wooden flute, leads, its assertive tone assuming the decreeing voice of Kubla Khan, the emperor. Then Abbie’s piano overtakes the melody, the right hand reproducing it while the left hand harmonizes with its exact opposite, a sort of aural mirror image. Abbie had the idea to reverse the harmony and melody.

The two instruments use different musical notations, so Sophia began writing in the Chinese style, laying down a line of numbers and, below, flipping their order. She played with fifths and thirds to create harmonies. “Then I consciously wrote a melody that would sound good with its opposite note,” she says. “It was a bit difficult, but it came more naturally than I thought it would.”

In addition to uniting aspects of Eastern and Western composition, the piece literalizes a dynamic of conscious competition and subconscious harmony. “Just as Romantic poets have documented their dream states in words, ‘Coalescence’ means to sing the imaginative and (re)creative force into music,” Sophia wrote in her artist statement.

She says the class changed her outlook on literature and her own life. “More than anything, it was just slowing down and taking things step by step, especially during senior fall,” she says. “I had a chance to spend an hour a day appreciating nature and reflecting on personal experiences (one of the assignments), connecting them to these century-old ideas.”

“Immersive” is what Sophia calls Sadique’s classes. “You’re affected by how passionate she is about what she teaches, and she gives you so much information so you can understand something to the fullest extent, then come up with your own interpretations,” she says. “I’ve told her her classes are spiritually exhausting—in a very good way.”

Sophia Peng ’25 and Abbie Deng ’25 wrote an original musical score for their collective class project reflecting on British Romantic poetry. Below: Sophia’s handwritten musical notation in the Chinese numbered style shows the mirroring of melody and harmony.

Taking the form of a burial site, this quilted work by Eliya Ganot ’26 surrounds a vase fragment painted
by Gitanjali Belleau-Bhowmik ’25.

How to read a poem

In 2016, when Sadique joined ��Ƶ and taught British Romantic Poetry for the first time, she offered it as a broader survey. But as she taught it every other year, she began narrowing her focus to fewer poets so that students could deepen their understanding of Romanticism as a philosophical ideal and more thoroughly explore these literary works as conceptual responses to the revolutions— technological, industrial, and political—that defined their historical context.

“I keep teaching this course because of the long echoes,” Sadique says. “We’re seeing the same thing now—the rise of environmental literature as a reaction to technological advancements, the exponential growth of AI, and the evolution of late-stage capitalism. This evolving course is a response to our collective burnout.”

All ��Ƶ students read Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in 9th grade, and British Romantic Poetry builds on ideas established in the core English curriculum. Sadique begins the course with the origins of Coleridge and William Wordsworth’s 1798 collection of poems, Lyrical Ballads.

“Wordsworth witnesses the French Revolution,” she says. “He sees all these democratizing ideals animating the political realm that are also animating social realms, and he translates that spirit and vision into his poetry. He brings the stories and passions of ordinary people from the margins to the center, reimagining poetry very spaciously as ‘the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.’” She helped her students understand the composite form as the melding of the emotion-charged lyric with the story-driven folk ballad—feelings and individuality take center stage in the poems.

The class also discussed the problems of idealization that come with the territory of Romanticism. “Within that infinite capacity of imagination Coleridge is so keen about, students also need to understand the possibility and paradox of exoticization,” Sadique says. Students read the romanticized “pleasure-dome” in “Kubla Khan” alongside the dome in the first creation account of Genesis that separates the waters above and below. And they compared Coleridge’s “Xanadu,” a reimagining of the Yuan dynasty emperor Kublai Khan’s garden in Shangdu, with an account of the biblical Garden of Eden (which means “delight”).

In her syllabus, Sadique prioritized juxtaposition with contemporary work. Students held Wordsworth’s notion of “a sense sublime/Of something far more deeply interfused” in “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey” alongside the Indigenous concept of the “grammar of animacy”—language that affirms human kinship with the natural world—described in Robin Wall Kimmerer’s book Braiding Sweetgrass. After they read Wordsworth’s “Strange Fits of Passion Have I Known,” they listened to Rhiannon Giddens’ “Little Margaret,” a reenvisioning of an Appalachian ballad, performed with the daf, a Middle Eastern frame drum. “The echoes are uncanny,” Sadique says.

“Sabrina’s classes always feel like an adventure. Her enthusiasm is energizing and contagious. You know you’re going to unravel a lot of deep ideas together, … but because she’s so keen on leaving nobody behind, anyone can go into her class without fear of difficult concepts.”

— Alex Zhu ’25

By combining original images with photos taken by Libby Brown ’25, Sophia Gruhl ’25 explores in her collage the liminal space of the “caverns measureless to man” in Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem “Kubla Khan,” shaped by her memories of the California coastline.

The class’s relatively narrow focus allows for a pace that enables all students to engage with the material at a high level, regardless of their previous literary exposure. How does Sadique ensure that? “I go extremely slowly for the first three weeks,” she says. “I refuse to compromise intellectual rigor, but I think intellectual rigor can actually be accomplished through incremental scaffolding work. You learn, very quickly, what the literary needs of each student are, and then you modulate instruction.”

In all her classes, Sadique distributes a practical guide she developed: “How to Read a Poem.” On one page, she outlines clear expectations—among them, numbering the lines, reading the poem aloud, and close-reading and annotating the title and first and last words before analyzing patterns, images, and literary devices. Some students say it has helped them understand themselves as literary critics and revolutionized how they approach studying poetry. Alex Zhu ’25 is one of them.

“Sabrina’s classes always feel like an adventure,” Alex says. “Her enthusiasm is energizing and contagious. You know you’re going to unravel a lot of deep ideas together, and Sabrina is like the explorer in the front, holding a torch and leading us through this labyrinth. But because she’s so keen on leaving nobody behind, anyone can go into her class without fear of difficult concepts.”

Alex’s contribution to his section’s website project dovetailed with a departmental study he was completing with ��Ƶ Latin teacher Benny Abraham. Sadique had asked her colleague if he knew of an English transliteration of the poem “On the Wretched Lot of the Slaves in the Isles of Western India,” which Coleridge wrote in Greek. Unaware of any, Abraham guided Alex as he painstakingly deciphered a scan of Coleridge’s handwritten manuscript to create a new transliteration, whose source-derivative provenance was deftly woven into the website.

“The act of transliteration preserves the poem’s original structure and sound—the ‘truth’ of its form—even as the end project becomes incomprehensible to an English reader,” Alex wrote in his artist statement. “The beauty lies in the paradoxical coexistence of familiarity and mystery, where the viewer confronts the poem as both an artifact of beauty and a fragment of unknowable truth, a sublimity.”

Through this project, Alex says, he realized that in translating, transliterating, or analyzing poetic texts, he is “actively participating in the same creative process that the Romantic poets championed.”

Sadique says it’s only fitting that the final assignment stems from the poets’ philosophical ideals. “Romanticism invites our gaze away from individual profit,” she says. “The way to make a true response to it—a Romantic response—is to look inward and co-create, engage in a way where there is no hierarchy of imagination and everybody’s creation depends on another person’s creation.”

A still from a collective video project, edited by Charlotte Goltra ’26, that overlays dance scenes with images of movement in nature.

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Academics - ������Ƶ

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