Earlier this week, we hosted our BU-BUA Connections event – a fun evening gathering of BUA current parents, parents of alumni, and prospective BUA families who teach and work at the University. The evening gave me a chance to thank this cohort for all the ways they enrich our students’ experience. Many of them teach BUA students in their University classes. One professor told me that his first impression of BUA came from teaching a BUA student in a master’s level economics course. He was puzzled that a 16-year-old was the strongest contributor in the bunch and felt like he just had to learn more about BUA! We hear stories like that all the time.
These families help out in so many other ways. They hire BUA students as researchers in their labs. They advise senior theses. They speak at our school meetings and suggest other great colleagues to do the same. They open the doors for our kids to engage with departments and interdisciplinary institutes up and down Commonwealth Avenue – like the Software & Application Innovation Lab and EPIC (BU’s 15,000 square-foot makerspace), both of which are now part of our 10th-grade seminar program. And they spread the word about BUA with colleagues across the University. We are a much stronger school for their partnership.