Departments News & Features Contact Us Advertising Rates

Week of 11 June 1999 Vol. II, No. 35 Feature Article BU Academy seen as educational model By Brian Fitzgerald "You who have gone together on this journey, by now you know a thing about adversity and challenges," said BU Academy senior Daniel Bellot -- in Latin. It was fitting for him to read aloud an excerpt from the epic Aeneid in Virgil's native language, because Latin is an important part of the high school's accelerated humanities, science, and mathematics curriculum. Daniel Bellot Photo by Vernon Doucette The passage read by Bellot, which was about enduring difficult moments -- such as Aeneas' avoiding "boulders flung by the Cyclops" -- was also an appropriate one for BU Academy's graduation exercises May 24 because of the rigorous study required to graduate from the school. In fact, academy students enroll in University classes and can receive up to 48 college credits before going to such schools as Yale, MIT, Brown, Smith, or in the case of 4 of the 14 seniors, Boston University. "We participated in the implementation of a legacy," said student speaker Nikalaos Ligris in the Tsai Performance Center. Indeed, BU Academy, founded in 1993, took only three years to become accredited -- "faster than any other school in history," points out Jennifer Hickman, the academy's director. She credits Headmaster Peter Schweich with not only this feat, but also the school's very existence. "Peter conceived of the idea of Boston University Academy," she said, "and within about a year the doors were opened." BU President Jon Westling said that BU Academy came into being because of Schweich's persistence and commitment: "Because of Peter's work, BU Academy isn't just an idea. It isn't just an experiment. It is a highly successful reality." The 1999 graduation ceremony marked Schweich's last as headmaster at BU Academy, which awarded him an honorary diploma. Hickman, who celebrated a graduation of her own -- she received a doctoral degree from the School of Education this spring -- will assume the post in September. Westling, who said that he was confident of Hickman's leadership abilities, also praised the students and their parents. "As a parent, I know that this is a time when the number of choices available to us -- when we seek to find a truly rigorous education for our children -- is limited." He said that although BU Academy is still relatively new and still evolving, it "is showing by example that genuinely intellectual secondary education is not only possible, it can also serve as a model for other schools across the country."