Your Impact: Report on Annual Giving 2020-2021

impact YOUR

REPORT ON ANNUAL GIVING 2020-2021

2020-2021

Volunteer Leadership HEAD OF SCHOOL ADVISORY BOARD Norman Blanchard P’16 Charles Desmond Gerry Fine P’08 Njeri Grevious ’13 Graham Healy-Day ’07, Co-chair Katie Kozin ‘00 Jennifer Johnson ‘00 Shaheen Lakhani P’22 Alex Maloney ’02 Barbara Rotger P’13, P’17 Elizabeth Saltonstall P’22 Esmeralda Swartz P’22, P’24, Co-chair Cristy Walsh P’22

PARENTS NETWORK LEADERSHIP Diane Gwin P’22 and Biju Mohan P’23 , Co-Chairs Jaren Landen P’21, Katherine Maslova P’21, and Gina Mourtzinou P’17, P’21 12th Grade Reps Lynne Chuang P’21, P’22 and Esmeralda Swartz P’22, P’24 11th Grade Reps Hongming Chen P’23, P’25, Vanessa Holroyd P‘23, and Wei Romualdo P’23 10th Grade Reps Samina Karim P’18, P’21, P’24, Ektaa Patel P’24, and John Quackenbush P’24 9th Grade Reps Lynne Chuang P’21, P’22 and Gina Mourtzinou P’17, P’21 12th Grade Annual Fund Class Captains Shaheen Lakhani P’22, Fiona Minney P’22, and Cristy Walsh P’22 11th Grade Annual Fund Class Captains Mark Holman P’23, Karen Smirnakis P’23, and Fiona Wang P’23 10th Grade Annual Fund Class Captains Bob and Jean Mulroy P’24, Ektaa Patel P’24, and Esmeralda Swartz P’22, P’24 9th Grade Annual Fund Class Captains Julia Volfson P’23 Communications Coordinator Myriam Cyr P’18, P’20, P’21 and Jade Hargrave P’24 PIN Reps Natalie Liu P’21 and Halle Zhang P’19, P’22 WeChat Liaisons Esmeralda Swartz P’22, P’24 and Barbi Woolf P’19, P’22, P’25 Multicultural Events Lynne Chuang P’21, P’22 Run/Walk Club Vidya Manda P’23 and Fiona Wang P’23 Faculty Appreciation

PARENT HEALTH ADVISORY GROUP Nidhi Lal P’23 Mark Poznansky P’20, P’24 John Quackenbush P’24

Girls Soccer skills and drills

Thank You! We are grateful to all the students and parents/guardians who donated their time, energy, and expertise to help our school community thrive.

A MESSAGE FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL

DEAR BUA COMMUNITY, I am inspired by how this community banded together last year so that our students could have the in-person, challenging, joyful experience they deserved — even as the pandemic swirled around us. Our teachers reinvented their curricula and leaned into new pedagogical modes. Students diligently wore masks, got tested, and helped one another with our protocols. Families offered expertise, postponed holiday gatherings, sacrificed vacations, and showed tremendous grace and patience as we worked together to prioritize the health and safety of our community. Parents, past parents, alumni, and friends of BUA all did their part, supporting this school by offering their time, sharing their knowledge, and making financial investments in BUA. Your generosity produced the most successful fundraising year in this school’s history. BUA set a record in Annual Fund giving, Giving Day donations, alumni giving, parent giving, and total giving — which topped $1 million for the first time and more than doubled last year’s total. Perhaps even more telling is the breadth of participation, with 86% of current parents and 30% of our graduates joining 100% of our faculty and staff in making BUA a philanthropic priority. We are so grateful.

We have put those funds to work. 30% of our students now attend BUA with some form of financial aid, which means we can bring together the kindest, most curious students from all backgrounds. We upgraded all of our classroom spaces with new modular furniture tailored to how our teachers teach and how our students learn best.

We continue to attract and retain a faculty that is second to none, and offer them the growth they are looking for. We have met — and continue to meet — the demands of the pandemic, keeping our doors open and our students safe.

All of that and so much more is possible with your help. In the following pages, you’ll learn about the impact of this community’s generosity on the lives of our students.

Gratefully,

Chris Kolovos Head of School

YOUR impact

A Record Year in Fundraising

BY THE NUMBERS

OVER $1M — A NEW BUA RECORD! $1 M

100%

OF FACULTY AND STAFF GAVE TO THE ANNUAL FUND

$800K

30%

$600K

OF ALUMNI PARTICIPATED IN GIVING

$400K $200K

2016-17

2017-18

2018-19

2019-20

Unrestricted Annual Fund Giving

2020-21

OF CURRENT PARENTS MADE A GIFT TO THE ANNUAL FUND

Total Giving

Charitable Giving

by Source and Purpose in 2020-2021

86%

• Gifts are recorded in only one category, even if a constituent has multiple affiliations.

• Total giving includes restricted gifts and capital gifts.

Unrestricted Annual Fund Giving

Total Giving

Current Parents

$383,429

$679,290

Past Parents

$116,504

$151,199

$7,774

$8,220

Alumni

$85,933

$90,504

Corporations and Foundations

$11,047

$37,691

Grandparents and Friends

$65,191

$71,457

$669,878

$1,038,361

Faculty and Staff

Grand Total

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Navigating COVID Together In the fall of 2020, BUA reopened its doors to students, faculty, and staff for in-person teaching and learning four days per week, with Wednesdays remote. Thanks in large part to our partnership with BU, BUA was able to implement robust health and safety protocols including daily attestation, free twice-weekly COVID testing, contact tracing, enhanced ventilation and cleaning, and more. Our pandemic protocols made BUA a model for safe in-person pandemic-era education for schools across the country.

While the resources available to us through Boston University provided the “hardware” of our COVID protocols, it was our school’s culture of collaboration that kept us going. Every individual in BUA’s extraordinary community understood that they had a critical part to play in keeping our doors open. Students, rightfully proud of being part of a school that was operating in person, went out of their way to remind one another to schedule their COVID test, pull their masks up, and follow directional signage in hallways. Families postponed trips and celebrations in order to keep their household bubbles intact. Teachers graciously embraced the challenge of adapting their curriculum on the fly. All so we could be together, safely and joyfully, in person.

We are fiercely proud of the fact that with the partnership of our students, families, faculty, and staff, we finished

the school year with two positive student tests out of the thousands of tests students took, no transmission on campus, the great majority of our students learning in person, and no school days lost to the pandemic. In that most unusual year, our students had a healthy, joyful educational experience that “felt like school.” That’s what they deserve.

16 14,400 100% NEGATIVE AIR MACHINES

ESTIMATED PCR TESTS

OF EMERGENCY FINANCIAL AID REQUESTS DUE TO COVID DISRUPTION GRANTED

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YOUR impact

Financial Aid Boston University Academy is committed to providing an exceptional and accessible education for talented and passionate students from all backgrounds. Economic diversity enriches BUA and is one of the many reasons we are such a vibrant and dynamic school environment.

The overwhelming generosity of our community translates directly to increased access and financial aid. In the 2020-2021 admission cycle, BUA was able to accept and meet the full demonstrated need of all of our strongest applicants regardless of the family’s ability to pay — which is rare in independent schools.

Philanthropy makes it possible for roughly a third of our families to attend BUA through tuition assistance.

NEARLY

$2.4 MILLION TOTAL AID GRANTED

1 3 IN

BUA STUDENTS receive financial aid

AVERAGE AID AWARD

$38,255 SUPPLEMENTAL GRANTS ARE AWARDED TO HELP DEFRAY THE COST OF INCIDENTAL CHARGES SUCH AS:

• TEXTBOOKS

• SCHOOL TRIPS

• LAPTOPS

• TUTORING

• LUNCH

• YEARBOOK

• MBTA PASS

• THE COLLEGE APPLICATION PROCESS

• SUPPLIES

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“

Thanks to BUA’s financial assistance program, a quality secondary education for our son was within reach.

Thank you BUA.

”

— Parent of a Class of 2021 Graduate

YOUNG-MAYER FUND FOR EXCELLENCE AND ACCESS This past year, BUA established the Young-Mayer Fund for Excellence & Access, a current-use fund that will support initiatives to enhance the excellence of BUA’s program, support teachers, and promote a diverse, vibrant student community, as determined by the Head of School. We are extraordinarily grateful to David Young and Michelle Mayer, P’21, for their generosity and commitment to BUA.

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YOUR impact

Thank You, Dr. Horn and Dr. Harvey!

One sign of a great school is long teacher tenure; many BUA teachers say that they would find it hard to teach anywhere else because of how much they love their students and value their colleagues. BUA is a place where great teachers long to be, stay for many years, and, eventually, retire. After 10 and 23 years respectively of wonderful service to BUA, two beloved teachers, Dr. Gordon Harvey and Dr. Richard Horn, retired at the end of the 2020-2021 academic year; visual art teacher Ms. Liz Celluci retired in June of 2020 following a remarkable 20-year tenure at BUA.

Great Teachers Fund The BUA Great Teachers Fund honors retired teachers by supporting current faculty members’ efforts to improve their teaching and their students’ experience. Income from the fund underwrites, inter alia, the cost of faculty professional development and stipends for curricular revision in ways that are aligned with BUA’s strategic priorities. Gifts to the Great Teachers Fund serve as tributes to Mr. Phil Gambone, Ms. Liz Cellucci, Dr. Rich Horn, and Dr. Gordon Harvey and the remarkable impact they have made on the school and its students over the years.

On April 29, 2021, over 200 BUA students, alumni, current and past parents, faculty, and staff celebrated BUA’s retiring great teachers via Zoom. It was an evening full of emotion and nostalgia, as generations of BUAers came together to share memories and honor these teachers, and to wish them well in their next adventures.

Here’s what some of their former students had to say about Dr. Harvey and Dr. Horn:

“

Dr. Horn was perhaps the most transformative and inspirational teacher I had at BUA. I even majored in American History in college! But even more important than sparking a passion for a specific subject, Dr. Horn taught me how to think. He transformed my view of history from a subject of rote memorization of dates and facts to a subject that enabled a deep understanding of humanity.

”

— Gen Izutsu ‘03

“

Dr. Harvey — your class has had such a profound impact on my path in life. I just finished an English thesis, and George Saunders and T.S. Eliot have had such a profound impact on me and on my writing, so thank you for introducing me to those. Thank you for the gentle authenticity you brought to every class. I felt authentically engaged in such a special way. Thank you for the kindness, the humor, and the books.

”

— Nelly Lin-Schweitzer ‘17

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Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion At BUA, we continue to prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), not as a reaction to events of the day but as a manifestation of our mission commitment to inclusion and excellence.

In the 2020-2021 academic year, we undertook a number of initiatives aimed at lifting up the diverse voices within our community and improving our practices around equity and inclusion:

·

Affinity groups for students and alumni of color

·

First annual “Be Together” event celebrating BUA community’s myriad voices and experiences through performances, stories, and family recipes

·

·

Celebration of Black History Month including curricular work in classes across all five disciplines and a student-run assembly with breakout conversations focused on myths in Black history in the United States

·

BUAPN book discussion on Dr. Ibram X. Kendi’s How to Be an Antiracist

·

Cultural competency in advising workshops with facilitator Erica Pernell

Workshops and professional development with DEI strategist Dr. Derrick Gay: Parent Education Series presentation; professional development on “problems of practice” — teaching texts with racial slurs; integrating diverse voices and cultural competency into the humanities curriculum and in STEM areas; addressing microaggressions as they arise; supporting students from underrepresented backgrounds without creating or reinforcing stigma

Community Partnerships Boston is the first word in our school’s name. It is important that BUA not just be in the city, but of it. We continue to explore mutually beneficial partnerships that enrich our BUA students’ experience while also serving the community around us. During the school year, two dozen BUA students tutored 13 students from Alexander Twilight Academy, an afternoon, weekend, and summer enrichment program for academically promising middle school students from under-resourced backgrounds, most of whom live in the City of Boston. This summer, we also inaugurated a free, virtual video game design camp for Boston middle school students co-taught by a BU professor and several BUA students.

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YOUR impact

Faculty Support BUA’s talented faculty are the heart and soul of our school community — and our greatest asset. While our faculty bring deep subject expertise to their courses, their commitment to every student’s intellectual and personal growth is what sets them apart.

Gifts to the Annual Fund enable BUA to recruit and retain exceptional teachers, and to provide growth opportunities through internal and external professional development.

“

The Classical Association of New England conference is always a great mix of scholarly talks and applicable workshops, and this year was no exception. I attended sessions on effective (and fun) teaching methods in a hybrid classroom, and on racial and social justice in classics. As usual, I came away with practical ideas to implement in my classroom right away, as well as a wider view of important discussions in our field and in teaching today.

— Dr. Kristin Jewell, Classics Instructor

”

Giving Day 2021 With 143 parent and grandparent gifts and 120 alumni gifts, we exceeded both our Faculty Appreciation Challenge AND our Alumni Challenge, unlocking a food truck celebration for the BUA faculty/staff and an additional $30,000 for BUA, respectively!

Faculty and staff enjoy the food truck celebration in June of 2021 8 Report on Annual Giving

Classroom Upgrade Project Thanks to the extraordinary support from a small group of current and past parents during the 2020-2021 year, BUA was able to make functional and aesthetic upgrades to the school building’s classroom spaces. We repainted all interior spaces, replaced all the window shades, and outfitted every classroom with modular seminar tables and chairs. The new furniture allows our teachers to adapt the classroom configuration to their pedagogical practices. These improvements have already made an enormous impact on the daily experience of BUA students and faculty.

78 176 18

CLASSROOM TABLES

STUDENT CHAIRS

SIT-TO-STAND TEACHER DESKS

28,002 SQ. FT. OF FRESH PAINT

65

WINDOW BLINDS

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YOUR impact

Academic Programs BUA’s first-rate academic experience is sustained by community support.

Whether it’s new physics lab equipment or new classics textbook samples, the Annual Fund allows school leadership to say “Yes!” when new program ideas and opportunities arise. Among other things, BUA acquired new whiteboards, microphones, computers, and related video conferencing technology to support hybrid learning last year.

BUA students were awarded two external grants in 2020-2021: ·

The student-led chemistry club won an American Chemical Society Hach grant, which allowed the club to purchase materials to explore modern research experiments using palladium-catalyzed crosscoupling, green fluorescent protein, and conductive polymers.

·

Abhi Lingareddy ‘22 won a BU Campus Climate Grant to support his senior thesis research. Abhi’s project used sensors to measure the impact of various surfaces — white roofs, green roofs, and landscaping — on temperatures in several campus locations. The research quantified the effectiveness of solutions for reducing the urban heat island effect, and this will be used to aid decision-making for converting existing campus surfaces into more sustainable ones.

Design thinking project in collaboration with the University: A cohort of BUA students teamed up with Professor of Practice and Director of the Engineering Product Innovation Center (EPIC) at Boston University Gerry Fine P’08 and his colleague Jeff Costello for a designthinking workshop. The group examined how BUA might improve student common spaces to better serve the students’ needs. They formed a problem statement, developed a survey, analyzed the data, researched possible solutions, developed a prototype, and sought out feedback from the community.

“

Class of 2021

Senior Thesis Projects

I learned many skills from the design thinking workshop, including how to think like a designer and use data from a survey to figure out the best way to solve a problem. I also learned skills that can be applied to other projects, like how to make a presentation and present a pitch. I had a lot of fun collaborating with my classmates, and I am so glad that I was able to participate in the workshop!

— Claire Hsu ‘23

”

buacademy.org/academics/senior-thesis

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Student Activities:

BY THE NUMBERS

22

SENIORS IN ATTENDANCE FOR HALE RESERVATION TEAM-BUILDING DAY

11

77 66

FAMILIES PARTICIPATED IN THE FIRST-EVER BE TOGETHER EVENT CELEBRATING THE BUA COMMUNITY’S VOICES AND STORIES STUDENT RESPONSES TO THE STUDENT COUNCIL-LED SURVEY ON DISCRIMINATION AND INCLUSION

200

STUDENTS

EARNED TOP TEN RESULTS AT THE MASSACHUSETTS SCIENCE OLYMPIAD

2

100

WATER GUNS PURCHASED FOR THE JUNIOR-SENIOR GARDEN PARTY

14

PAIRS OF SKIS RENTED FOR THE CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING OUTING AT WESTON SKI TRACK

ICE CREAM SANDWICHES AND POPSICLES CONSUMED AT THE END-OF-YEAR CELEBRATION

10

NEW PING PONG TABLES

“

PAINTINGS MADE BY STUDENTS AT THE ZOOM “PAINT NIGHT”

Despite the challenges of going to school during a pandemic, BUA students still found a way to maintain the tight-knit community feeling we all know and love. From ping pong tournaments in the gym to building a picnic table on the front lawn, the building continues to be full of life.

”

— Mell Aguiar ‘22, Student Council President

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YOUR impact

Athletics and P.E. BUA’s athletics and physical education programs were reimagined in the 2020-2021 year. While competitions with other schools were limited, students participated in intramural soccer, basketball, fencing, cross country, and tennis.

Badminton and ping pong were popular activities during the lunch period and after school.

Physical education offerings took place virtually and in-person and included hip hop dance, mindfulness, power yoga, vinyasa yoga, disc golf, and ultimate frisbee.

GIFTS TO BUA SUPPORTED: · Fencing gear and a fencing scoring machine · Cross country, soccer, and basketball uniforms · Soccer balls, basketballs, tennis balls, volleyballs, and cones · Badminton and disc golf gear · Volleyball net and protective post padding

Visual and Performing Arts Our visual and performing arts departments found new ways for students to collaborate and create art together, at home and at school, in the past academic year. Giving to BUA enabled the school to adjust to the virtual and socially distanced environments and to invest in infrastructure that will benefit the arts programs for years to come.

A few examples of how your giving made art at BUA possible during the 2020-2021 year include: · Visual art kits for fully remote students · USB mics for the Zoom production of “The Laramie Project” · Professional puppeteer to consult on a puppet version of “The Tempest” · Videographers to capture theater and music performances to share virtually with the BUA community · Additional teaching assistants to enable performing arts sections to be taught in smaller groups Infrastructure improvements include: · 16 Source Four PARNel stage lights and Color Force LED lights, which will dramatically improve the lighting of Black Box performances · 2 new speakers and an amplifier · Installation of microphone channels in recording studio · Costume supplies

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Alumni Impact

The BUA Alumni Association continues to grow both in size and impact. By attending events, volunteering, and giving generously, our alumni are investing in the community and making sure that future generations of students can access the incredible opportunity of a BUA education. Thank you to all the alumni, near and far, who continue to support BUA and each other.

• 162 alumni attended 26 virtual alumni events • 104 alumni volunteered for BUA as class reps, admission interviewers, panelists, speakers, affinity group mentors, college ambassadors, or career ambassadors • 30% of alumni participated in giving • Alumni giving increased 57% to an all-time high of $90,504!

Class of 2006 Virtual Reunion

Class of 2011 Virtual Reunion

Alumni Council

Ramesh Sen ’98 Kenny Bacow ’00 Katie Kozin ’00 Alex Maloney ’02 Rebecca Carr ’04 Abigail Walsh ’04, co-chair Dan Forward ’05, co-chair Marvel Ang ’06 Natan Magid ’06 Graham Healy-Day ’07 Samantha Cohen ’08 Ben Daus ’08 Josephine Massey ’11 Njeri Grevious ’13 Isabelle Bertolozzi ‘14 Hadassa Mikalixen ’14

Class of 2016 Virtual Reunion Boston University Academy 13

Your philanthropy accelerates our progress and extends our capacity to support the efforts of our students and faculty. When you make a gift, no matter the amount, you make a tangible impact at Boston University Academy.

To make a gift to the 2021-2022 Annual Fund, please visit

buacademy.org/give

In our caring high-school community, students who love learning are challenged to think critically and read deeply, and to explore adventurously the wider world of learning at Boston University.