Upper SchooL
Students design their own experience, fueled by their interests and emerging passions. While students have the freedom to choose activities to complete their final trimester, the structure provided by the four SSP pillars allows every senior to create a program that shares the same central values: Intellectual Engagement, Community Engagement, Wellness, and a New Experience.
Through planning and experiencing these projects, students learn how to set goals, structure their time, and manage their growth. SSP allows seniors to take risks, learn from any missteps, express creativity, practice autonomy, and find joy. As our seniors demonstrate principled engagement in their communities and the world, we all witness the BB&N mission in action. Some examples of seminars offered are: Beyond Our Echo Chambers: Understanding the Other, Cosmology & Quantum Mechanics, Esperanto, Joycean Explorations, and Logic Puzzles & Games.
senior spring project
“I’ve been a competitive figure skater for over ten years, excelling in both singles and team skating. In April, during my SSP, I represented Team USA in France for the Nations Cup competition, winning my third World Gold title. Through skating, I’ve learned the power of passion to fuel dedication and the importance of resilience, which taught me to always get up, no matter how bad the fall.“
– Richelle ’24
senior spring project
“For one of my activities during SSP, I worked on creating short videos every week using music I produced. For each video, I used a variety of filming, editing, and production techniques to experiment with and expand my abilities and to make every video unique in the overall collection. It was a great opportunity to try out tons of different things creatively that I hadn’t had the chance to do before, and it was especially fulfilling being able to share my work and interests with others and have people respond positively to what I’ve made.”
– Ethan ’24
senior spring project
“Our senior jazz ensemble has been playing together since freshman year, and in the last four years, we’ve formed family-like bonds. Going into SSP, we knew we wanted to continue playing together by taking our passion for jazz beyond the bounds of our Upper School jazz ensemble. We chose to perform at local nursing homes because we wanted to form connections with the folks for whom we played—weekly hour-long gigs at two nursing homes, Neville Center at Fresh Pond and Chestnut Park at Cleveland Circle in Brighton, seemed like the perfect opportunity.“
– Seniors of Jazz Ensemble ’24