2024

  • July

    Dalinda Ifill-Pressat ’05: Pursuing Her Own Path

    Dalinda Ifill-Pressat ’05 isn’t one to wait for an opportunity to find her. Early in her career, stymied by the obstacles that kept her from advancing in the corporate world, she chose a new path that led her to a career she loves. Or, as she puts it, “If there's no seat at the table, you bring your own table.” We took a moment to connect with Ifill-Pressat this spring on her career journey and her pathway since graduating from Rivers.
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  • The summer science internships send students into a variety of STEM fields.

    Summer Science Internships: A Firsthand Immersion in Science Careers

    The Summer Science Internship Program, a signature Rivers program for rising seniors, sends students into a variety of settings—medical, engineering, software, biosciences, robotics, and more—to gain substantive experience in those fields and see firsthand what a career in sciences can look like. 
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  • Leo Alarcon, Caleaf Sellars, and Liza Sellars talked about their backgrounds and how each of them found community within the embrace of house music.

    Love is the Message: Interpreting History through Dance Culture Elective

    It’s 10:30 a.m. on a Tuesday in May at The Rivers School, and the Black Box Theater is filled with the thumping beats of nightclub dance music, curated by a guest DJ. The energetic scene was part of a class session from the new history elective “Love is the Message: A History of Dance Culture,” led by Matt Heck, director of The Conservatory Program at Rivers. Students and professional community members were invited to visit the class to hear from three guests, Leo Alarcon, Liza Sellars (aka Luna del Flor), and Caleaf Sellars (aka Big Leaf), all experienced artists and performers of house music, who shared stories about the genre, dance music culture, and the influence of those art forms on the community and on their lives. 
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  • June

    Javier Caballero is taking on the role of executive director of performing arts.

    Javier Caballero Named Executive Director of Performing Arts at The Rivers School

    Head of School Ryan S. Dahlem announced this week that, following a national search that drew a robust pool of candidates from across the country, Javier Caballero has been named executive director of performing arts at Rivers, beginning on August 1. In this newly created role, Caballero will be responsible for strategic vision and administrative oversight of The Rivers School Conservatory (RSC) and the Performing Arts Department at The Rivers School, including its signature Conservatory Program. This overarching leadership model will strengthen the relationship between RSC and The Rivers School to create a unified vision of performing arts on the Rivers campus.
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  • A team of academic administrators, including John Bower (left) and Chris Dalton (right), attended an NAIS Strategy Lab workshop in Washington, D.C. earlier this month.

    Rivers Team Inspired and Energized by NAIS Strategy Lab Workshop

    School may be out for students, but a group of Rivers academic administrators jumped back into the classroom earlier this month for an opportunity to strategize, learn from peers, and imagine the pedagogic future at Rivers.
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  • Grade 8 Portfolio Night: The Class of 2028 is Ready to Take on Upper School

    The evening of Tuesday, June 4, marked a milestone for the Rivers Class of 2028. While not a formal graduation, Grade 8 Portfolio Night is an annual rite of passage for students poised to move on from Middle School and enter Upper School. It is a moment to reflect on accomplishments, challenges, future goals, and—most visibly—skateboards.
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  • May

    Grade 6 Students Present Capstone Water Projects

    Water, famously, is everywhere—and so, too, are issues that threaten freshwater sources around the globe. Throughout the year, Grade 6 students have studied humanities through the lens of water, and last week, the students gathered in Benson Gymnasium to present their culminating projects. Each student had chosen a body of freshwater somewhere in the world and spent the final weeks of the year delving deeply into the ways that water is affected by a range of environmental, economic, and social factors.
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  • Student body presidents Leila Saponaro and Jack Renaud led the processional.

    Graduation 2024: Celebrating a Class with Heart, Spirit, and Talent

    On a perfect spring day, diplomas were awarded to Rivers’ newest 93 alumni, the Class of 2024. The school’s 101st graduation unfolded under the tent on the Lank Quadrangle on Friday, May 24, amid the usual measure of pomp, circumstance, cheers, and good wishes for the class, a group that distinguished itself in the academic, athletic, musical, and artistic arenas.
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  • The Class of 2024 was honored with a variety of prizes at this year's Prize Day ceremony.

    Prize Day: Recognizing and Celebrating Outstanding Achievement

    The annual Prize Day ceremony was held this morning under the tent on the Lank Quadrangle. Guests enjoyed a pleasantly warm day and were safely sheltered from some mid-morning showers as they enjoyed the yearly ceremony. Well-earned accolades were met with cheers and applause, and the morning served as a fitting prelude to tomorrow’s graduation ceremony for the Class of 2024. 
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  • Rivers Celebrates Diverse Cultures at Annual Global Fair

    Food, fun, friends, families: This year’s Global Fair, held on Monday evening, was all that and more. As Head of School Ryan S. Dahlem said in his opening remarks, kicking off the festivities, “This is Excellence with Humanity come to life,” adding that the annual event created a sense of belonging and community for all members of the Rivers family.
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  • Favreau illustrated his approach to tackling history in his writing in a diagram for one class section.

    Crowdsourcing the Next Young Adult Nonfiction: Grade 8 Hears from Author Marc Favreau

    Students in Grade 8 at Rivers had an opportunity to peek inside the world of book publishing and writing in early May, with a special visit from writer and editor Marc Favreau. The class read Favreau’s book Unequal earlier in the semester. As an author of nonfiction, Favreau has focused on weaving history into compelling narratives for the young adult audience. Visiting humanities classes on Friday, May 3, and speaking before a special homeroom, Favreau (who is the brother of Middle School Latin faculty member Cathy Favreau) spoke candidly about his journey as a writer, fielded questions from students, and actively solicited ideas from the crowd on what his next book topic should be.
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  • The Class of 2019 celebrated their 5th reunion this year.

    Rivers Reunion 2024: Alums Return to Reminisce, Meet Rivers of Today

    Alums from the class of 1959 to 2019 returned to Rivers to celebrate and reminisce, popping in and out of events on Saturday, May 18, for the annual Rivers Reunion 2024. Despite unseasonably chilly weather, alums returned to campus to reconnect with each other and with Rivers. 
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  • Middle School Musical Finding Nemo Jr.: A Fish Story with Heart and Humor

    Even before the opening curtain, it was clear that the Middle School musical, Finding Nemo Jr., would transport viewers to an undersea world. The Black Box theater had been transformed into a colorful coral reef, and Beach Boys tunes filled the air as the audience took their seats.
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  • Last Friday, Rivers Givers presented checks to the nonprofits they had chosen to support this year.

    Rivers Givers Announces Latest Grant Recipients

    What Rivers program is celebrating its 19th year, has taught hundreds of students about the power of philanthropy, and has given $200,000 in donations to more than 50 local nonprofit organizations? That could only be Rivers Givers, the longstanding group that helps fill the needs of the community and, not incidentally, gives students a comprehensive look at how fundraising really works.
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  • Parents and members of the professional community celebrated spring in MacDowell Arena.

    Spring Fling: Celebrating the Season

    Hundreds of parents and members of the Rivers professional community gathered on the turf in MacDowell Arena on Friday to enjoy music, delicious food, cornhole, and—most of all—one another’s company. A spring party celebrating the completion of another successful school year is a Rivers tradition; it has taken different forms over the years, but the throughline is always the joy of community and coming together. Friday’s party was no exception. Guests mingled and chatted late into the evening at the casual get-together while nibbling on lobster rolls, burgers, fries, and Cobb salad.
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  • Alumni Connect During the 22nd Annual Rivers Community Golf Tournament

    The 22nd annual Rivers School Community Golf Tournament, held May 6, 2024, brought together more than 100 golfers at the Charter Oak Country Club in Hudson, MA, on a perfect spring day. Rivers alumni, parents/caregivers, grandfriends, and members of the professional community reconnected with one another on the links and celebrated a first-ever hole-in-one for this event. Congratulations to James Kieyah P’30 for this amazing accomplishment!
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  • Holocaust Remembrance Day speaker Kati Preston delivered a powerful message.

    Holocaust Remembrance Day Speaker Offers Message of Hope

    As a Jewish child growing up in Nazi-occupied Hungary during World War II, Kati Preston experienced horrors almost beyond description. But her message to the Rivers community, delivered during Preston’s Monday appearance at an all-school meeting marking Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom Hashoah), was not one of despair but rather of resilience, forgiveness, and hope. Despite all she has undergone, the 85-year-old Preston remains, in her own description, a “happy person” who believes that today’s youth have the means and desire to “save the world.”
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  • The cohort of five juniors presented their research to their peers at an Upper School assembly.

    Rivers Bioethics Juniors Present Research to Community

    What are the ethics of pursuing a new medicine or treatment that could mean a life-changing breakthrough for a patient? What are the social and legal challenges that arise to prevent certain populations from receiving adequate care? Five Rivers juniors, participants in the Special Program in Bioethics, attempted to answer these and similar questions in a recent Upper School meeting in late April, presenting a summary of their year-long research and offering their own contributions to the field of bioethics. 
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  • Head of School Ryan S. Dahlem touched on numerous topics at Monday's assembly. Here, he shares photos from his days spent shadowing students.

    HOS Ryan S. Dahlem Inspires Students to Finish Strong

    With campus in full bloom, The Rivers School held one of the last all-school meetings of the 2023-2024 academic year on Monday, April 29. Head of School Ryan S. Dahlem challenged and inspired students to finish the year strong by asking: What will you make of May?
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  • Spring Athletics Recap 2024

    The shortest of the three athletic seasons, the spring has flown by this year, with only a few weeks left to go. As the teams near the ISL and NEPSAC championships, let’s check in on how our Red Wings are doing.
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  • Chrismary Gonzalez '18 came to campus Tuesday as part of the Alum Speaker Series.

    Alum Speaker Chrismary Gonzalez ’18: Following Her Passion

    Chrismary Gonzalez ’18 says she cultivated a certain reputation at Rivers. “I was known as the person who was always going to say something”—something about racism, social justice, identity, or other issues that are often ignored or side-stepped. Today, in Gonzalez’s role as assistant director of intake for the equity department of Boston Public Schools, addressing thorny and fraught issues is all in a day’s work.
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  • April

    Rivers Closes the 2023–24 Admission Season, Setting New Records

    The Rivers School admission season has come to a successful close, reaching milestones unprecedented in the school’s 115-year history. The office of admission and financial aid reported record-breaking yield rates, lower admission rates, and unparalleled growth and diversity in Rivers’ incoming student body.
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  • Mason Klein ’24 and Zoë Powell-McCroey ’24 led a workshop about mass incarceration.

    Student-Led Workshops: DEI From Many Angles

    There are numerous lenses through which to view the work of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Last Friday at Rivers, there were at least 24 such lenses as students took the reins and led a series of workshops designed to augment, amplify, and support this year’s DEI theme, “Engaging Across Differences.”
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  • MFA curator Nonie Gadsden spoke with Rivers students about Toshiko Takaezu and her work, as well as the process of mounting the exhibition.

    Ceramics in the Round: Rivers Advanced Students Visit MFA Exhibition

    “Abstract ceramic art” might sound like a contradiction in terms, but students in Tim Clark’s Advanced Ceramics class at Rivers recently visited an exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston that perfectly reconciled the concrete and the abstract. The students also had a rare opportunity to meet with the curator of the show, which features the work of 20th-century ceramicist Toshiko Takaezu. Showcasing the breadth of Takaezu’s art, the exhibition presents ceramic works as abstract paintings in three dimensions. 
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  • At a morning assembly, student speakers highlighted both progress and challenges.

    Day of Silence: So That All May Be Heard

    For nearly 30 years, the Day of Silence, observed on the second Friday in April, has served as a way for members of the LGBTQ+ community to draw attention to their historical silencing—and to declare that that silencing is no longer acceptable. Participants refrain from speaking for the day, reflecting the many ways in which the voices of community members go unheard.
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  • The Rivers community gathered to witness the solar eclipse together this week.

    Going Dark: Rivers Community Gathers to Experience the Eclipse

    As much of the U.S. experienced a solar eclipse earlier this week, students, faculty, and other members of the Rivers community gathered on the Lank Family Quadrangle to witness this phenomenon. With eyes safely protected by special eclipse-viewing glasses, attendees were able to take in the sight of the sun gradually slipping out of sight—or 93 percent of the way there, at least. The eerie pall and the sudden drop in temperature lasted just long enough to remind everyone present of the beauty and power of this rare natural occurrence.
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  • Members of the championship boys' basketball team, including Coach Keith Zalaski (center), were among those garnering athletics honors this winter.

    Winter Athletics Awards Announced

    Spring is in the air, which means it’s time for winter sports awards to be announced. The Independent School League and NEPSAC awards, along with other forms of seasonal athletic recognition, were recently announced, and 31 Rivers athletes were honored. Coming on top of a great showing in the playoffs, including a finals appearance for boys’ hockey and a boys’ basketball championship, it was a successful season for Red Wings. Here’s a complete list of individual awards, and congratulations to all the winners!
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  • Student Work Recognized in Scholastic Art & Writing Awards

    Visual art and writing have always been serious pursuits at The Rivers School. Under the guidance of dedicated faculty members, students have the opportunity to express themselves creatively in a range of media throughout their years at Rivers. That creativity was recognized recently when the Massachusetts results of the annual Scholastic Art & Writing Awards competition were announced. Forty-three works of visual art by Rivers students were honored, and 12 works garnered awards in the writing categories.
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  • Students queued up to enter the dystopian world of The Handmaid's Tale at Monday's Living Library event.

    Grade 9 Honors Seminar Project Brings Books Alive

    English faculty member Mary Mertsch describes the Grade 9 Honors English Seminar’s Living Library event as “a sort of haunted house experience, but with books.” It’s an apt description: On Monday, as this year’s event unfolded, Haynes classrooms were converted into environments that ranged from spooky to gothic to dystopian to fantastical and beyond, each evoking a book that the students had read and analyzed in class.
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  • March

    Author Michael Delman gave a presentation on executive function skills..

    Connection and Learning Abound During Rivers’ Professional Development Day

    After March break, the professional community came back for a full day of connection and learning. Gathering in Kraft Dining Hall on Monday, March 25, colleagues happily greeted one another and shared stories of their adventures away. For some, the break was a chance to reconnect with families and friends, while others accompanied students on trips to Italy, Greece, and Cuba. For many members of the professional community, work continued on campus and served as a time to prepare for the final stretch of the year.
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  •  The combined Rivers and Nobles Big Bands perform their first concert in the National Museum of Arts in Havana.

    Rivers Jazz Ensembles Tour Cuba: International Partnerships through Music

    The Rivers Big Band, joined by members of Honors Big Band and Select 2 Combo, recently returned from a whirlwind cultural, historical, and musical tour of Cuba. While Rivers has offered travel programs with a music focus in the past, this is the first year a Rivers group has traveled to Cuba, with 21 students from the Rivers Honors Big Band participating in the trip, along with around 15 students from the Noble and Greenough School’s jazz band. Students took in the vibrant arts scene of music and art, playing and recording Cuban music with local conservatory students, learning and playing with master teachers and recording artists, visiting important cultural sites, and creating lasting intercultural friendships and partnerships.
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  • Ethan Kasparian Weisman taking an improvised clarinet solo at the National School of Arts in Havana, Cuba.

    Portrait of an Artist: Ethan Kasparian Weisman ’24 Nominated for Presidential Scholar in the Arts

    If you’ve been to a performance of one of The Rivers School’s jazz ensembles in the last few years, it’s likely you’ve seen Ethan Kasparian Weisman ’24. A multi-instrumentalist from a young age, he has participated in the National YoungArts Competition twice—once for saxophone and most recently for clarinet, for which he was invited to National YoungArts Week in January with peers throughout the country. As a senior, his performance qualified him to be nominated as a 2024 US Presidential Scholar in the Arts, one of 60 nominees to earn this prestigious distinction, and one of the nation’s highest honors for high school students who exemplify artistic and academic excellence. We recently sat down with Kasparian Weisman to talk about his musical journey and recent successes.
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  • The Equity and Engagement team includes, from left, Director of Community Engagement Lucas Malo, Associate Director of DEI Katie Henderson, Global Education Director Andrea Villagrán, and Director Jenny Jun-lei Kravitz.

    Rivers’ Equity and Engagement Team: Innovation in Action

    This is the first year that the Equity and Engagement Department has been reorganized and expanded to oversee DEI, community engagement, and global education under new director Jenny Jun-lei Kravitz, but the impact is already being felt throughout the school, with enhanced programming, a sweeping vision, and an emphasis on the kind of environment and community Rivers values.
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  • Attendees gathered in the Lewis common area for a brief introduction.

    Grade 7 Sustainability Night: Students Address the Challenges of Climate Change

    Climate change can seem like an intractable challenge—but not to Grade 7 students at Rivers. For Sustainability Night, which took place just before spring break, the focus is on solutions, and the students dove in with aplomb, coming up with creative suggestions ranging from rooftop gardens to 3D-printed devices to air-filter drones to stratospheric aerosol injection planes.
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  • Brain Beats volunteers frequently visit with hand-held instruments such as tambourines and maracas.

    In Brain Beats, One of Rivers’ Newest Clubs, Students Connect with Memory Patients Through Music

    At Rivers, students take the lead everywhere, and that is especially true of the many clubs available during club block. Each year a handful of clubs are new to Rivers, the fruits of student innovation and a successful proposal process. Ella Patti ’25 took such an avenue last year when she proposed Brain Beats, a club whose mission is to bring music to communities of elders dealing with memory issues, such as Alzheimer’s, through intergenerational music therapy. Club members meet weekly and visit a community once or twice a month.
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  • Evan Coleman '05 walked students through an employment case as part of his presentation.

    Evan Coleman ’05: Merging Law and Public Service

    Evan Coleman ’05 says he was so quiet and shy while at Rivers that his yearbook superlative jokingly suggested that he’d be most likely to become a motivational speaker. So, he told a group of students and professional community members in a Revers classroom on Tuesday, there was a bit of irony in finding himself back on campus in something like that very role.
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  • Sonia Nazario, this year's Hall Family Speaker, addressed the community at Monday's all-school assembly.

    Hall Family Speaker Series Brings Award-Winning Journalist to Campus

    Sonia Nazario, this year’s Hall Family Speaker, says she was “born a rabble-rouser.” Her childhood nickname was “the troublemaker,” and the award-winning journalist, author, and activist still has a nose for trouble—good trouble.
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  • The Rivers Edge, Vol. 2 has arrived!

    Volume 2 of The Rivers Edge has hit shelves

    This year’s second issue of The Rivers Edge has hit the stands this week, just ahead of March break. Overseen by co-editors Megan Sweatt ’24 and Jason Glick ’24, along with faculty advisor Stephanie Kay ’12, the latest issue covers topics such as highlights from National Shakespeare, Mingus, and Senior Districts competitions, athletics highlights (including Rivers exhibition games played at TD Garden in January), insights into the senior speeches tradition with a spotlight on Ale Paez Peñaloza ’24, and student opinions on the advent of AI in the classroom. 
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  • The boys' basketball team won its third straight championship.

    NEPSAC Tournament: Strong Efforts, Solid Results

    It was a busy week for the Red Wings, as Rivers was one of only two schools in New England to have all four teams (boys’ and girls’ hockey and basketball) qualify for NEPSAC postseason play.
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  • February

    Rivers Celebrates Year of the Dragon with Community and Lion Dance

    Last night’s Lunar New Year celebration at The Rivers School was a vibrant event, full of dragons, dancing lions, traditional crafts, and great food. Rivers welcomed Gund Kwok, the nation’s first female Lion and Dragon Dance troupe, as well as members of the AAPI affinity groups from the Noble and Greenough and Buckingham Browne & Nichols schools. Nobles had hosted Rivers at a joint AAPI affinity space recently for all three schools. More than 200 attendees of all ages came together to celebrate the Year of the Dragon.
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  • Rivers seniors have had notable success in the early rounds of college admissions.

    Seniors Find Success in College Admissions

    Senior year can be a stressful time, but Rivers seniors can feel good about their recent accomplishments: 100% of the school’s 93 seniors have received an offer of college admission, and, with ED2 now in, 65% are enrolled. These results, said Director of College Counseling Dave Lyons ’99, P’30, reinforce the college office’s approach of preparing students to engage with early admission rounds whenever these practices align with the colleges on their lists.
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  • Nonesuch Players Deliver Showbiz, Acceptance, and a Lot of Heart in Winter Musical, The Prom

    Four Broadway stars walk into a tense PTA meeting at a high school in Indiana, where a gay teen has been excluded from attending her prom by the town’s small-minded PTA leadership. The stars are in desperate need of a cause and some rebranding, and the student—well, she just wants to attend her prom with her girlfriend like any other student, yet finds herself in a crossfire of egos, town values, social pressure, and media coverage. Thus the scene is set for Rivers’ winter musical, The Prom, performed by the Nonesuch Players. The large ensemble cast, production team, and pit orchestra delighted the audience with the magic of show business, delivering big choreographed numbers, comedic timing, talented acting and singing, and a powerful, uplifting story of love and acceptance (and many, many sequins!).
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  • Ale Paez Peñaloza ’24 (far left) and Arianna Martinez Cavero ’24 (far right) moderated a panel that included Victoria Mizzi, Andrea Villagrán, Jenny Jun-lei Kravitz, Julian Willard, and Yassine Talhaoui.

    US Assembly Turns a Personal Lens on Immigration

    Behind every immigrant, there’s a story. At last Friday’s Upper School assembly—the second session of programming created around this year’s DEI theme, Engaging Across Differences—attendees had a chance to hear immigration stories from a perhaps-unexpected quarter: Members of Rivers’ professional community who are themselves immigrants or who have close ties to the immigrant experience.
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  • The Rivers Select 1 Combo won the Mingus Spirit Award for best embodying the spirit of Charles Mingus.

    Outstanding Spirit and Lots of Passion: Rivers Combo Earns Success at Annual Mingus Festival

    The Rivers School Select Combo 1 earned great honors at the 16th annual Charles Mingus High School Competition and Festival, held February 16–18 at the New School in NYC. Created to uphold the legacy of legendary jazz composer and musician Charles Mingus, one of the most important figures in 20th-century American music, the festival brings together top high school bands from across the country. Under the leadership of director Philippe Crettien, Rivers’ Select Combo 1 won several distinctions, coming away with the Mingus Spirit Award, Outstanding Front Line Award (for the front line team of Arianna Martinez Cavero ’24, Ethan Kasparian Weisman ’24, and Jack Benson ’24, and an Outstanding Soloist award, given to Kasparian Weisman. 
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  • Boys' Varsity Basketball clinched the ISL Championship outright on Wednesday, giving the team the first outright championship since 2014.

    Winter Sports: Red Wings Earn Championships as Varsity Teams Head to the Playoffs

    The season is wrapping up for Rivers’ winter athletics teams, and the Red Wings are soaring! Varsity teams are hopeful to head to the playoffs next week, with Middle School and Junior Varsity teams ending the season tomorrow, February 23. 
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  • Students in the Bioethics program watched a virtual visit from bioethicist Lori Bruce of the Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics at Yale.

    Yale Researcher Visits Rivers Bioethics Program

    “Whose ethics matters?”

    The question posed by the woman on a Zoom in a Revers classroom this week wasn’t simply rhetorical. The students—all participants in the Special Program in Bioethics—had been grappling with that and similar issues all year, and the virtual visitor, Lori Bruce of the Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics at Yale, was one of several guest speakers who have addressed the group as they try to find clarity around the complicated issues facing bioethicists.
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  • Associate Head of School for Development and External Relations Krissie Kelleher P'22, '25; Head of Upper School Melissa Anderson P'25, '25; Head of School Ryan S. Dahlem; Head of Middle School John Bower; and Board President Alan D. Rose, Jr. '87 spoke at last week's State of the School event.

    An Evening of Community and Connection: Charting the Path Forward at Rivers

    The Rivers School held an evening event for parents and caregivers, “Community and Connection: A State of the School Update,” on Wednesday, February 7, providing an overview through a range of lenses: strategy, governance, finance, development, academics, and more. The speakers painted a picture of an institution on an upward trajectory, building on the momentum of Head of School Ryan S. Dahlem’s first six months at the helm.
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  • Katherine Shaw ’26 will advance to Lincoln Center in April to compete in the national finals.

    The Play’s the Thing: Katherine Shaw ’26 Advances to National Finals in Shakespeare Competition

    Last Saturday, Katherine Shaw ’26 took first place in the Massachusetts state finals of the National Shakespeare Competition. Katherine will compete in the national finals at Lincoln Center on April 15, 2024. 
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  • Rivers students cheered on the visiting athletes from the sidelines.

    Grade 10 Hosts Special Olympics Event

    This past Sunday, February 11, Grade 10 students had a chance to learn just what makes Special Olympics so special. As it has for many years, the grade hosted a Special Olympics of Massachusetts basketball tournament on the Rivers campus, with athletes from all over the state taking to the floor in Benson Gymnasium.
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  • Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

    Frederick Wiseman ’47 Ventures into Culinary Arts with New Film

    Acclaimed documentarian Frederick Wiseman ’47 has been making films for over 50 years, and was once hailed by the New York Times as “One of the most important and original filmmakers working today.” This month, he adds a new film to his portfolio—the French-made documentary Menus-Plaisirs—Les Troisgros, following in depth three restaurants that are owned by the same family. 
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  • Tera Kull '03 spoke at an Alum Speaker Series event on Tuesday.

    Alum Speaker Series: Tera Kull ’03 Helps Support Pediatric Cancer Patients and Their Families

    Tera Kull ’03 is no stranger to the lemonade-from-lemons process. Kull, who has a long track record of turning challenges into opportunities, shared her story on Tuesday, February 6, at this year’s inaugural Alum Speaker Series event. The lunchtime event showcases the efforts and accomplishments of Rivers graduates who are actively engaged in their communities and working to uplift social justice values.
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  • The Rivers Coffeehouse welcomes performers of all kinds.

    The Rivers Coffeehouse: Led by Students, Enjoyed by All

    More wide-ranging than a talent show, more inclusive than a polished concert, more improvisatory than a play or musical, the Rivers Coffeehouse is a place where anyone can take to the stage and receive a warm response. From first-timers to old hands, from nervous ninth graders to fun-loving faculty members, everyone in the Rivers community is welcome in the Black Box theater three times a year, and while the event itself can be freewheeling and unpredictable, a supportive audience cheering for every performer is guaranteed.
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  • Boy's hockey notched a victory against Nobles for the first Friday Night Lights game of the season.

    Winter Sports: Report from the Rink, the Court, and the Mountain

    Late January was a great time to be a Red Wing! We’ve passed the halfway point in the winter season, and Rivers athletes are going strong.
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  • January

    Brad Belin '03 returned to campus last spring to receive the Young Alumni Achievement Award.

    Brad Belin ’03: The Accidental Educator

    No one seems more surprised about Brad Belin ’03’s career trajectory than Belin himself. Looking back on his years at Rivers, Belin—the most recent recipient of the school’s Young Alumni Achievement Award—says, “I wasn’t a model student or necessarily someone who thought of school as a place for education. School was a convenient place to play sports and hang out with friends.”
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  • Lucas Malo envisions a robust community engagement program for Rivers students serving the community.

    Meet Lucas Malo, New Director of Community Engagement

    By Sarah DuBard ’25
    Lucas Malo joined the Rivers community at the beginning of the 2023–24 school year as the director of community engagement. Associate Editor of The Rivers Edge Sarah DuBard ’25 sat down with Malo to talk about his passion for serving the community and his pathway to Rivers. 
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  • The McCartney Scholars recently traveled to Gillette Stadium to meet with members of the Kraft Analytics Group.

    McCartney Scholars: Creating a Legacy Through Math

    There are countless places the study of math might lead. On a recent rainy Wednesday morning, it led a group of Rivers students to Gillette Stadium, where the current cohort of McCartney Scholars met with members of the Kraft Analytics Group (KAGR) to learn about the use of data science in the sports and entertainment industries.
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  • The Rivers delegation visited the Spanish mission to the United Nations as part of the conference.

    Rivers Model UN Tackles Crises and Diplomacy at CMUNCE conference

    Eight delegates from Rivers Model UN, along with faculty advisor Arturo Bagley and faculty member Robin Sallie, traveled to New York City last weekend to attend the CMUNCE conference at Columbia University, which ran from Thursday through Sunday. In addition to spending many hours in committee sessions as part of the conference, participants also visited the Spanish mission to the United Nations and attended symposia featuring panels and interviews with UN personnel on Columbia’s campus, taking full advantage of its proximity to the UN Headquarters in midtown Manhattan.
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  • Both varsity basketball teams had a chance to play at TD Garden on Sunday.

    Rivers Basketball Teams Play at TD Garden

    As Carnegie Hall is to music, Boston’s TD Garden—with its fabled parquet floor—is to basketball. And on Sunday, January 14, Rivers basketball players lived out a dream by participating in the Andrew James Lawson Foundation Invitational at the Garden.
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  • Strategy, Access, and Fun: A Q&A with Director of Enrollment Management Yassine Talhaoui

    Ask Director of Enrollment Management Yassine Talhaoui about his role, and you’ll certainly hear the word “strategic”—along with the words “magical” and “fun.” Since joining Rivers in July of 2022, Talhaoui, a native of Germany who speaks five languages, has taken up the challenge of strengthening the school’s position in an ever-evolving admission landscape. But, he says, it’s the joy of seeing students thrive at Rivers that keeps the work fresh and exciting. We recently caught up with Talhaoui to ask a few questions about enrollment management at Rivers.
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  • Visiting artist Joan Hall spoke with students in an Intermediate Printmaking class.

    Visiting Artist Joan Hall: Inspired by the Sea

    Joan Hall, this year’s visiting artist at The Rivers School, grew up in Ohio and never saw the ocean until she was in graduate school. But, as she shared with students at an Upper School assembly on Tuesday, the ocean—its beauty, its fragility, and the environmental threats it faces—has been the subject of her art for decades.
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  • jamele adams visited Rivers on Monday for an MLK Day presentation.

    MLK Day Speaker: “At Our Best, We Are One Family”

    The national holiday that commemorates the birthday of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. falls on the third Monday in January. But at Rivers, it is observed on the second Monday of the month, in an all-school assembly that serves to inspire the community and remind them of King’s legacy.
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  • Head of School Ryan Dahlem, left, scaled Antarctica's highest peak with his father, John.

    Cold Comfort: A Head of School’s Lessons from an Antarctic Adventure

    Climbing Antarctica’s highest peak—where average temperatures hover around -20F and base camp is reached by taking two unusual flights from Punta Arenas, Chile’s southernmost point—might not be everyone’s idea of a good time. But for Head of School Ryan Dahlem, who scaled the Vinson Massif years ago with a team that included his father, John, the challenges of the climb were part of what made it a life-changing experience for him.
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  • Students in Sarah Cohen's Grade 6 Humanities class use water as a lens through which to view the world.

    Grade 6 Humanities Views the World Through Water

    It’s not unusual for middle school students to learn about the water cycle: Evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and so on. But at Rivers, students in Grade 6 Humanities go way beyond that to a broader “water cycle” that studies humanity’s relationship to water, both past and present, and looks at the role of water in global conflicts, power struggles, and opportunities.
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  • AI in the Classroom: Challenges and Opportunities

    ChatGPT appeared on Michael Schlenker’s radar last November, when it first became available to the public. The Rivers science faculty member reports, “A student who had taken my AP computer science course the year before said, ‘Hey, Mr. Schlenker, have you checked out ChatGPT yet?’ And I said, ‘No. Have you?’ And she said, ‘Yeah, I just asked it to write my video game project from last year.’”
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  • Student Newspaper The Rivers Edge Is Here

    This year’s first issue of The Rivers Edge, Rivers’ student-run newspaper, is now in circulation. The 14-page edition includes a broad range of Rivers news: interviews with new members of the professional community (such as history faculty member Stephanie Kay ’12, who also serves as the faculty advisor for the Edge), fall sports, performing arts highlights, and more.
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