Join Us at the Burr and Burton Academy’s Mountain Campus

For “Change Agency Project Presentations” on Wednesday, December 16, 5:30 pm, 3067 Haploid Pond Road, Peru
Theses are student presentations of their Final Projects, Personal Essays and semester experiences.

• The students will present and explain their Change Agency Projects for the first hour, followed by a short essay presentation, a video of the semester, and a closing ceremony.

• A Climate Action Plan for Burr and Burton

• A Sustainable Forest Management plan for education, cordwood and carbon storage

• Waste reduction and community resilience plans

• Gleaning, Tool Share, Sustainability Curriculum Design, Micro-Housing, and more!

Join us for an evening of inspiration and ideas in action. Our students, our future.

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Burr and Burton Academy’s own Jim Raposa, Director of Drama has been nominated for the 2015 Broadway World Vermont – Best Actor in a Musical for his portrayal of Benny Southstreet in the Weston Playhouse production of Guys and Dolls this past summer.

Votes are being tallied as we speak and if you would like to vote for Jim please go to: http://www.broadwayworld.com/vermont/vote2015region.cfm

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This half hour show features stories on the Heroin problem in Vermont, The propane leak in town, an update on Mountain Campus along with elevator confessions, Ben Beers Minute, Merle’s final International Question, a story on The Writing Center and Hanukkah. See it here.

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Burr and Burton Academy’s Media and Performing Arts Department is proud to present its Winter Showcase, A Festival of Dance, Drama and Film, Monday January 11, at 6 pm and 8 pm, on stage in the school’s Riley Center for the Arts. Don’t miss the chance to experience the wide range of talent from BBA’s curricular acting, dance and film classes. There is something for everyone in this tightly packed evening of performance.

Acting scenes range from Shakespeare, to Lillian Hellman, sketch comedy and original scenes and monologues by BBA students Emma Weinstein, Koben Pottala, Cece Devine and Alexandra Legrys.

The Fall Short Film project will be presented, a PSA written by Delainey Gillis and a scene from the film Reservoir Dogs.

The BBA Dance Company will perform six numbers, including “Our Favorite Son” from the Broadway musical, “The Will Rogers Follies”, a hip hop number choreographed by BBA alum Emily Owens entitled “Current State of Mind”, which received Top Honors at the Vermont State Dance Festival, and a contemporary number, “Breath of Life” choreographed by BBA seniors Tess Webber and Ashley Dahl. The evening will end with a dance celebration to the TV show Glee’s rendition of the high energy number “Proud Mary”.

This year’s Winter Showcase is dedicated to Jake Fifield, son of BBA Physical Education teacher and Department Chair Julie Fifield. Jake will take to the stage in the finale number. Tickets are $3 for students and $6 for adults and can be purchased online at: bbatickets.com.

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Burr and Burton Academy is pleased to announce Jennifer Brenner as our next Varsity Girls Lacrosse Coach. Jen Brenner has been a long time coach for Equinox Lacrosse Association. Coach Brenner played both Field Hockey and Lacrosse at Trenton State College. Her Field Hockey team made it to the NCAA Finals every year she played. They won the national championship in her senior year. Coach Brenner’s lacrosse team was undefeated the entire time she played, winning an impressive four consecutive NCAA Championship titles. Coach Brenner says she coaches to “stay connected to athletics and to inspire, challenge, and teach young people not only skills of the sport but about life lessons.”

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James Moore, a Burr and Burton Academy senior, was named a 2016 Vermont Presidential Scholar. The Presidential Scholars Program recognizes and honors high school seniors who demonstrate outstanding scholarship and service to their communities. Nominees are judged on involvement and service in school and community; leadership and character; and academic achievements. Vermont’s Secretary of Education Rebecca Holcombe announced the Vermont Presidential Scholars and those twenty students from the state of Vermont – ten female and ten male – are nominated to the U.S. Presidential Scholars Program.

Moore, who is a Student Ambassador, a Freshman Mentor and National Honor Society member, is a filmmaker, and has played an important role in the Cinematography Department at Burr and Burton. After winning the school’s Gawlik award for Best Picture in June 2015, James wrote, produced and and directed a feature length film during the summer. He is currently editing and scoring the film and plans to premiere it as a fundraiser for the Burr and Burton Cinematography Department.

The U.S. Presidential Scholars Program was established in 1964, by executive order of the President, to recognize and honor some of our nation’s most distinguished graduating high school seniors. Each year, up to 161 students are named as U.S. Presidential Scholars, one of the nation’s highest honors for high school students.

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Cynthia Gubb, Director of Advancement at Burr and Burton Academy, is pleased to announce that Gina Vickers and Pauline de Laszlo have joined the Advancement team. Gina and Pauline will be sharing the Advancement Coordinator position, Gina will support events and Pauline will be supporting fundraising. Both Gina and Pauline are very familiar with Burr and Burton Academy because they are current parents.

Gina is a 1983 graduate of Valparaiso University with a B.S. in Business Administration and earned her Master of Management degree in 1988 from Northwestern University. She has worked with the Midcoast Hunger Prevention Program in Brunswick, Maine, Cole Haan, and Lee Apparel Company in various marketing positions before she and her husband, Chris Vickers, and sons Wilson ’15 and Carter ’17, moved to Manchester in 2011. Gina is the current Parent Association president, and has volunteered her time with Burr and Burton on the Gala committee for the past 4 years, two of those years she was the Chair of the committee which raised significant dollars in support of the Annual Fund and the Student Success Program. Gina commented, “I am looking forward to working with such a great organization for the benefit of all our students from the community at large.”

Pauline earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Bucknell University in 1985, a Master of Arts degree from George Washington University in 1987 and completed a Sotheby’s American Arts Course in 1993. She moved from Manhattan to East Dorset in 2001 with her two sons Christopher ’16 and Henry ‘18 Kornaros. At The Dorset School, Pauline was an active member of the Dorset Parent Volunteers and became involved with youth sports boards including the Northshire Hockey Association and the Equinox Lacrosse Association, all of which required fundraising enthusiasm. Working on the Gala committee over the past several years, Pauline has enjoyed interacting with the Advancement Office to fundraise for Burr and Burton programs. In Pauline’s words, “I am looking forward to helping Burr and Burton achieve its educational mission and provide a great community of learning for all students as it has for my own children.”

“We are delighted to have Gina and Pauline join our staff”, commented Cynthia. “Both women have been involved in fundraising on a volunteer basis with the school for a number of years now, so those skills will transfer directly to the Advancement Coordinator positions.” Cynthia concluded, “Both Gina and Pauline understand the importance of fundraising and the direct correlation of our efforts to the exceptional educational experiences provided at Burr and Burton. In addition, they are both passionate about education and have a strong understanding of the Burr and Burton culture.”

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New and current Members of the Burr and Burton National Honor Society.

The Burr and Burton Academy National Honor Society inducted 50 new members on Tuesday, January 19 in the Riley Center for the Arts on the Burr and Burton Campus. The induction ceremony recognizes students who exhibit the “four pillars” of National Honor Society membership: Leadership, Service, Scholarship and Character.

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The 2016-17 Course of Study (COS)  is now available here: PDF version and on the BBA website under the Academics header in the Departments and Courses section. Students will be requesting courses by grade level beginning with Juniors on February 8. The sophomores will begin on February 29, and the freshmen will start a week later on March 7.  Juniors should  immediately begin reviewing course options.  Sophomores and freshmen should take time during vacation to review the Course of Study and begin thinking about classes to take next year.

Each grade level will have one week to request courses through the OnCampus application on their iPads. As OnCampus course requesting is new for all of us, students will receive an explanation of the process before they begin. Additionally, advisors and counselors will be assisting students through the process.

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In this installment we introduce BBA Food, BBA Politics, BBA Sports and we are taking the news up a notch!
See it here: https://vimeo.com/157223959

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HEADMASTER’S LIST, Class of 2016, Nicolas Avalle-Embree, Kristin Avison, Olivia Bellingham, Helena Bigelow, Agnes Bisselle, Ashley Bolton, Julia Breed, Catherine Burgess, Chloe Burkett, Junxing Chen, Xiaoshuang Chen, Kate Cottrell, Brendan Foery, Catharine Greenberg, Meghan Grip, Mengqi Han, Everett Hazelton, Jonathan Iris, Jonathan Jacob, Alison Kimball, Yezi Lin, Catherine Lochner, Sara Lochner, Lydia Maier, Paton Marion, Haley McGrath, James Moore, III, Lauren Mulroy, Bridgid Mulvey, Amelia Nick, Max Pagnucco, Zhenhuan Qiu, Adam Quinn, Natalie Rattee Johnson, Cody Roberts, Piotr Sowulewski, Clara Thorn, Raili Utiger, Justin Walla, Emma Weinstein, Emily Williams, Leah Wright, Class of 2017, Taber Ameden, Erin Cairns, Samuel Cochrane, Connor Dee, Ramsey Eyre, Ann Fisher, Ana Garay, Meiling Guo, Rebekah Hamblett, Aashna Kinkhabwala, Camille Kirby, Ivy Kirby, Olivia Kuk, Amanda Leili, Yishan Liu, Carley Lund, Kate Mori, Jennifer Mull, Nicole Schmid, Xiaotian Shen, Griffin Stalcup, Anwen Su, Jerry Thomas, Thea Vunk, Yifei Wang, Nanlan Yang, Haocheng Zheng, Class of 2018, Sara Avison, Annika Barden, Beatrice Bellington, Emily Bleakie, Grace Braddish, Sabina Buffa, Samantha Citron, Serena Dublois, Abigail Edholm, Cody Goebel, Jillian Grip, Hanna Gude, Colvin Hathaway, Ruoyang Hu, Claire Iannuzzi, Tyler Jager, Tobias Lepecki, Georgia Lord, Grace MacFadyen, Ian Macfarlane, Nina Marco, Paige Marion , Allie Nowicki, Natchanon Sittipongpittaya, Sophie Spiro, Thea Steeves-Boey, Cecilia Szkutak, Neil Thorley, John Sebastian Thorn, James Wachala, Han Weng, Nathaniel Williams, Zeyu Zhang, Class of 2019, Henry Ahlfeld, Raven Atsalis-Gogel, Azurah Booth-Gage, Olivia Brand, Raymond Chen, Yalu Chen, Riley Christy, Miranda Cully, Isabelle Desroches, Julia Fillion, Sam Freeman, Lauren French, Yuet Ming Fung, Ziaofan Ge, Jessica Grabher, Kristina Harmon, Madison Heaton, Rachel Kimball , Elizabeth Kopeck, Sage Lalor, Rebecca Leili, Kennedy Moore, Melissa Nolan, Hadley Perkins, Olivia Pitcher, Madeline Prouty, Emma Putney, Jonathan Saunders, Angelina Scarlotta, Alexia Smith, Emily Stewart, Brendan Van Ommem Kloeke, Aidan Vogel, Simon Vogel, Corynn Wasyliko, Caleb Weinstein, Ava Zilkha,

HIGH HONORS, Class of 2016, Sarah Amatruto, Trajan Artt, Jacob Bazyk, Elsa Bean, Arianna Blanchard, Stephanie Boucher, Ginger Brown, Carter Chila, Amelia Cummings, Jiexin Ding, Chaston Finaldi, Nathan Gourd, Julia Hansen, Elizabeth Hernandez, Jia Hong, Samantha Kopeck, Tristan Lalor, Jessica Linton, Davit Mirzoyan, Morgan Novak, Madison Oliva, Shivang Patel, Tessa Roberts, Preston Stachelek, Theresa Webber, Cassidy Yrsha, Class of 2017, Alexander Bocech, Margaret Cowles, Tess Finley, Sophie Fleming, Carly Gayda, Miles Glazer, Riho Kamada, James Reilly, Bridget Ring, Makayla Stannard, Bryn Tufts, Carter Vickers, Alexander Weinstein, Jesse White, Yingyuan Zhang, Class of 2018, Alessa Adelsbach, Kendra Beavin, Jenna Cogins, Marie Freudenberg, Olivia Hoos, Isabella Lugo Shapero, Jay McCoy, Koben Pottala, Garrett Sands, Colin Sullivan, Victoria Wilbert, Nicholas Williams, Ruiqi Xue, Class of 2019, John Baker, Samuel Barrows, Allura Cameron, Samuel Charette, Sarah Crosier, Julia Dapron, Cecilia Devine, Aiden Francomb, William Frank, Anna Freebern, Nathan Lalor, Phoebe Leighton, Brianna Mayne, Evangeline Morrison, Cassie Pearce, Atrau Roberts, Buhmmanat Sittipongpittaya, Elizabeth Spencer, Justin Sweeney, Nicole Voitechonok, Aedan Walsh, Olivia Watanabe,

HONOR ROLL, Class of 2016, Rembert Albert, Jack Ams, William Baker, Ryan Battease, Hunter Bovey, Jake Cassese, Jessica Casey, Ashley Dahl, Christine Duke, Bridgette Eichhorn, Anna Ewens, Shea Flanagan, Katelyn Gaiotti, Olivia Gardner, Kevin Gormley, Raymond Gormley, Taylor Gould, Jordan Heingartner, Michael Hollingshead, Meaghan Houle, Connor Johnston, Christopher Kornaros, Alison Leiter, Julia McBride, Ashley Morse, Hannah Parker, Taylor Patrick, Alexa Ritchie, Pearl Salo, Nikolai Sands, Mikayla Schaffer, Aidan Shaw-Pigeon, Timothy Stewart, Scot Straley, William Swinarton, Gannon Teunissen, Rebecca Tharu, Kyle Thayer, Natalia Thorsson, Scott Trudel, William Tucker, Gabrielle Vella, Amber Whittemore, Mason Winslow, Madeline Zeif, Class of 2017, Haley Abbott, Dalton Bailey, Trace Beyer, Alexander Charette, Caitlin D’Olivo, Alaina DeMauro, Bridget Egbert, Thomas Grabher, Amanda Jackson, Michael James, Jia Zhu Kang, Steven Kapusta, Evan Lackey, Shea Lincourt, Alison McCostis, Mikaela McMahon, Nerina Muminovic, Liam O’Brien, William Palmer, Carlos Bicalho Ritzkat, Will Sambrook, Rudyard Senecal, Kevin Souls, Nicholas Stefanak, Jiacheng Sun, Colby Wimley, Ella Workman, Class of 2018, Lily Audy, Lauren Drasher, Lueder Flathman, Ethan Foery, Spencer Fowler, William French, Delainey Gillis, Margo Grapshi, Joseph Hancock, Hannah Hedberg, Daniel Jackson, Jennifer Keen, Soeren Klische, Manuel Lira, Ian Maier, Octavio Muro, Grace Petty, Hannah Pinkus, Cara Pouk, Nicholas Price, Evan Rawson, Claire Reid, Anthony Santoro, Yu Sasaki, Connor Simonds, Lorenz Uhl, Eric Vaughn, Beckett Weir, Levi Wetherald, Wren Young, Class of 2019, Leah Amazon, Ian Anglum, Jack Armbruster, Lillie Berkhout, Charleigh Carthy, Jordan Cassese, Bailey Chapman, Matea Cusack, Karl Dooling, Katrina Ewens, Ethan Felion, Trevor Finaldi, Carrie Gaiotti, Avery Gilgallon, Kaitlyn Haskins, Daniel Hatheway, Rachel Jones, Aleaser Joseph, Amelia Kennedy, Matthew Kleckowski, Colby Leary, Alexandra Legrys, Chloe MacDonald, Ava Marshall, Fiona McMahon, Jake Nicholson, Iasbella Nick, Kaitlyn North, Ashley Poddick, Amber Rachele, Emily Samuelson, Logan Sands, Olivia Saunders, Jarrett Slade, Edward Thompson, Emma Tschaikowsky, Sadlyn Weston, Abby Wimer, Sean Young.

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Join Burr and Burton Academy’s Mountain Campus, Equinox Preservation Trust,  Hildene: The Lincoln Family Home, Merck Forest and Farmland Center, Smokey House Center, Someday Farm and the Vermont Land Trust at the Manchester Community Library on Saturday, March 19 from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. for a facilitated “Fishbowl” conversation about the natural assets and resources that our community possesses and the education programs that shape and steward them. The Northshire’s ecological environs are incredibly beautiful. What makes up its “sense of place?” How can we leverage our working landscape to spur increased community vitality and a stronger investment “in home?” Come be a part of this community conversation and learn about how area educators are leading the way! At noon, enjoy social time with a light localvore lunch; participate in the Fishbowl conversation from 1 until 2:30 pm; and screen A PLACE IN THE LAND at 3 p.m. A PLACE IN THE LAND considers the history of conservation stewardship in America as reflected in the property of Billings Farm, an operating dairy farm first established in 1871, and the 555-acre Mount Tom, as well as through the work of George Perkins Marsh, Frederick Billings, and Laurance Rockefeller who were successive residents of the estate. This film, a short documentary directed by Charles Guggenheim, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short in 1998. Please register for the event here.   Bring family, friends and neighbors! “Our Working Landscape” is presented by Northshire Grows and Manchester Community Library.  A $5 Suggested Donation is requested to support Northshire Grows and subsidize the cost of the luncheon. For more information, contact Liz Ruffa @ liz@northshiregrows.org. Manchester Community Library is located at 138 Cemetery Ave. in Manchester Center, Vermont.  For more info, call the Library at 802-362-2607.

Visit our website at northshiregrows.org

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If you missed the earlier meeting this meeting must be attended by the student and at least one parent or legal guardian. BBA offers a free driver’s education program tentatively starting on Monday, June 20, 2016 and running until the end of July. For the first 3 weeks, classes run from 8 am until 10 am, Monday through Friday. Under Vermont law a student is required to have 30 hours of classroom instruction therefore if a student misses any classroom time they will be dropped from the class, no exceptions. In addition to classroom instruction a student must have 6 hours behind the wheel and 6 hours of in-car observation. For the first 3 weeks of class driving times will run from 10 am until 2:15 pm, for the remainder of the class driving times run from 7 am until 2:15 pm. Signups for in-car instruction are on a rotating basis. Your student must be 15 years of age, have their driver’s permit and have driven at least 8 hours before they will be accepted into the course. Upper classman will be given priority. If you have any questions you may contact Dennis Filippi at 802.549.8213 or dfilippi@burrburton.org.

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BBA Senior Aggie Bisselle was named Miss Hockey for this season. Here is the link to the story by Burlington Free Press staff writer Lauren Reed: http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/sports/high-school/2016/04/04/miss-hockey-burr-burtons-aggie-bisselle/82633610/.

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Cast members of Burr and Burton Academy’s spring musical Avenue Q: School Edition, being presented May 10, 11, 12, 13 14, 2016 at 6:30pm in the Riley Center for the Arts, got schooled in the art of puppetry. During a three day intensive workshop with Rick Lyon, an award winning puppeteer, puppet designer and original cast member of Avenue Q, the TONY® “TRIPLE CROWN” for BEST MUSICAL, BEST SCORE and BEST BOOK,  the cast was introduced to the intricacies of creating a living and breathing character out of an inanimate object of foam, rods and felt.

Jim Raposa, Director of Theater at BBA, collaborated with Rick Lyon on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III, when Jim was cast as Donatello and Rick as the puppeteer in 1992. Jim worked inside a sixty pound foam rubber suit, with a large computer hidden in the shell, along with multiple servos inches from his face, which were being manipulated by Rick using a complicated hands on device. They communicated through a two way system, and at times when Jim was unable to see due to closeups, Rick supplied directions for his movement. In one case, he kept Jim from walking off a wall, 20 feet above the ground. It is no wonder a close working relationship blossomed into a life long friendship. In Raposa’s words, “It was a no brainer to reach out to Rick and see if he would come up.”

Rick did indeed come up. The cast started their puppet bootcamp by getting a rare glimpse into Avenue Q’s genesis and the process of creating the show puppets “which cost about $10,000 each,” said designer and builder Lyon. The students then worked on wrist, arm and body warmups, were introduced to puppet lip sync techniques and body and puppet placement. Each days’ workshop built upon the previous days’ techniques and soon it became evident that the students were experiencing a new form of movement, a dance so to speak, entirely new to them. Shepherded by Lyon’s intimate knowledge of the show, as he was part of the original concept team, students delved into not only more advanced puppetry techniques but a deeper understanding and meaning of the show and their characters back story.

Originally conceived as a TV show in 2002, Avenue Q found its way to the Broadway stage in June 2003. It is a timeless story about young adults searching for their purpose in life and dealing with the uncertainty that face them. Drawing its inspiration from Sesame Street, many adults in the audience will find direct and recognizable parodies of the popular characters they grew up with. Director Jim Raposa, chose this piece because he found the theme of the musical inspiring and wanted to challenge his young  cast to acquire new skills. “Puppets and puppeteering have been around since 1000 years BC.  Various cultures from India, to Japan, to Europe have used puppets to act out morality plays and comment upon society, in ways that actors could not.”  BBA is presenting Avenue Q: School Edition, which differs slightly from the original Broadway version, so that it is more accessible to everyone in the community. Don’t miss this hilariously funny new breed of musical. Tickets go on sale on April 22 at: bbatickets.com.

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On April 9, French students from Maple Street School, Flood Brook School and Burr and Burton Academy competed in the second annual Poetry Slam held at the Manchester Community Library. They read works by Jacques Prévert, Robert Desnos and other Francophone poets while their performance was judged on fluency, pronunciation, intonation and body language.  Guest judges were native French speakers Peggy Floume of Londonderry, Noelle Rouxel-Cubberly, Natalie Emerson, and Kadidia Kamate, student at Bennington College.

BBA participants: Claire Ianuzzi, Emma Tschaikowsky, Sophie Neidhold From Floodbrook: Maggie Brown and Louisa Hausslein From Maple Street: Ellie Ruffa, Paige Samuelson, Grace McDonald, Annette Zilkha, and Spencer North.

First place winners the group of Paige Samuelson, Grace McDonald, and Ellie Ruffa in the Novice category and Claire Ianuzzi in the Intermediate category each got to take home a “picnic basket” of French goodies and all received certificates for their participation. Runners-up were Raven Atselis-Gogel in Novice and Emma Tschaikowsky in Intermediate.  “We have quite a large French speaking population in our communities so this was a great way to celebrate that!” said FBS French Teacher Jennifer Bowen who planned the event along with Lizzy Lindenberg of Maple Street and Michelle Emery of Burr and Burton Academy.

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The Bennington County Sheriff’s Office sent Staff Sergeant Joel Howard to Burr and Burton for a lesson in texting and driving. Sergeant Howard also brought BAC alcohol impaired goggles to see what driving under the influence is like.

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