Students enjoyed our annual block party event hosted by the sixth form on Oct. 19. Festivities included games, face painting, music and pumpkin painting to show support for epilepsy awareness.

Schedule Alert

• Nov. 8 from 6:15 to 8:30 p.m.: Required advisory dinner and All-Community Read speaker

Academics

Fall Midterm Progress Reports

Fall Midterm Progress Reports -- including grades and comments for classes, afternoon programs and dorms -- are available now in the Progress > Performance area of OnBrooks for parents and guardians. If you need help signing into OnBrooks, please contact Registrar Lisa Saunders.

Meet the Writing Center assistants, serving from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. on their assigned nights (from left): Maddie Macallister’26, Giada Musto ’26, Nina Pagliuca ’25, Enna Doran ’26, Alder Hurley ’27, Sam Oblak ’27, Leah Chen ’25, Niki Shoko '26. (Not shown: Rylee Ahn ’27, Jiyu Park ’25, Abigail Nam ’26, Angie Benjavitvilai ’26).

Student Life

Halloween Costume Guidelines

The Student Affairs Office will be distributing these costume guidelines to students in preparation for Halloween on Oct. 31 and encourage all parents and guardians to reference them, as well. These guidelines are intended to prompt students to pause and reflect on the appropriateness of their costume choices and provide a basis for further conversations about those choices. (Faculty members even modeled appropriate costume choices during a recent school meeting, as shown below!). Thank you all for supporting our students in having fun and making good decisions.

Thanksgiving Break Heads Up

Thanksgiving Break will begin on Nov. 23 at noon. Our dormitories will close and all students are expected to depart campus no later than 3 p.m. that afternoon. 

• Brooks will offer bussettes to Boston’s Logan Airport and South Station at the start of each break. Families should plan their travel from either South Station or Logan. If you would like to sign your student up for the bussette to either Logan Airport or South Station on Nov. 23, please complete this form. 
• All students will be expected to submit a REACH request for Thanksgiving Break indicating their travel plans. This will become available for students to submit during the first week of November. 
• Please be in touch with Associate Director of Student Affairs Cora MacKenzie with any questions and review the travel calendar to help you make plans. 
• International students: Need plans for Thanksgiving break? Here are a few options: 
• Cogito World Education Thanksgiving Break Program
• World Ocean School Program: Thanksgiving at Sea 
• Prospect Academy: Reach out to this program directly for more specific information regarding the Thanksgiving Break Program

Weekend Activities

This weekend promises to be truly terrifying: The Open House has a scary twist this Saturday night — as a haunted house in the library basement! Fear not, there will still be plenty of food and drinks. Other weekend activities include “Skate with a Date,” a movie, crafts and snacks event, as well as a free Pride conference at Buckingham Browne & Nichols School in Cambridge, coffee trips and more. See the full schedule of events.

Athletics

Motivating Changemakers Conference

Five student-athletes attended the Changemakers Conference at Lawrence Academy on Monday. The daylong event, in its third year, is hosted by Independent School League athletic directors and diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging practitioners to address issues of DEIB in athletics.

"It was super interesting to hear all about other school's stories and I learned some great takeaways that I can bring back to my own teams at Brooks," said Cora Witherell '25. Kendall Lee '27 reported that she appreciated the opportunity to learn about how "to make a difference on and off the fields."

Attending for the second time, Tristan Yepdo '26 shared that he "loved it even more than last year." The event (this year featuring keynote speaker Jamie Gilbert Schultz '04!) is especially meaningful to him, he explained: "Being a changemaker is important to me. I love the fact that I can see all my fellow ISL friends and have respectful conversations about how we want our league to be better. Nobody is scared to speak their mind and talk about important topics that they might not be able to say at their respective schools. ..I can't wait to attend next year!"

Memorial Football Game

Brooks' Nov. 1 football game versus Lawrence Academy will be dedicated to former student, football player and friend Preston Settles, who died during his first year at Brooks in 2022. Students will be encouraged to line the path leading to the turf for the football team to run through. The sixth-form players, including Settles and his parents, will be recognized before the game.

It was an amazing showing for Brooks students and alumni who rowed in this year's Head of the Charles event last weekend. Pictured above are student rowers, parents, alumni, coaches and friends who all celebrated together. Go Brooks!

• In the Men's Youth Singles, Forrester Clark '25 placed 17th 
• In the Women’s Youth Coxed Quads Olivia Booth '27, Cat Casey '25, Kata Clark '25, Lauren DuBarry '25 and Ady Duval '25 placed 22nd 
• In the Men's Youth Coxed Quads Peyton Dahmen '25, Armaun Dehpanah '26, Enna Doran '26, Harrison O'Connor '25 and James Nagle '27 placed 24th

Inspiration From an Olympian!

Olympic rower and bronze medal winner Henry Hollingsworth '17 (below center) shared the story of his road to the Olympics this summer during a visit to campus on Oct. 21. "A piece of advice that I would give you all, in whatever your endeavors may be, is to surround yourself with other people that are better than you," he said in Chapel. "I really think that is one of the most effective pathways to self-improvement." Click to read his speech and watch a portion of his talk.

Family Programs

Still Hoping for More Donuts for Ghostly Goodies!

We are loaded up with candy, but we hope you will please consider donating a dozen (or two!) donuts to our annual Ghostly Goodies Halloween event. Currently, we have close to half of what we need in order to provide a donut for every student. Please consider a $15 donation to cover the cost of a box of donuts. We are grateful for your help with this treat for our students and employees.

Here are the three ways you can participate:

• Venmo a contribution to Aybike Crott (@Aybike-Crott ) to help underwrite the event and purchase donuts (always a hit!) and other items.
• Visit our Sign Up Genius to pursue our volunteer opportunities as well as to sign up to bring items to campus on Oct. 31.

Thank you to co-chairs Aybike Crott P’25, P'28, Jaclyn Olivieri P’26, Elena Foster P'26, P'27 and Adrienne Principe P’26, P’27, P’28 for coordinating this event! Any questions? Please contact one of the co-chairs or Director of Alumni and Family Programs Sara Bird.

Brooks is Coming to Washington, D.C.

The greater Brooks community is invited to join Acting Head of School Nina Freeman and other administrative faculty at our Washington, D.C., Reception on Oct. 30. You can register online via our D.C., Reception page.

Boston-Area Parents and Guardians: Save the Date!

This year’s Brooks Boston reception will take place on Feb. 4, 2025 at the The Lenox Hotel in Back Bay. We are grateful to Brooks alumnus and The Lenox Hotel owner Gary Saunders '73 for welcoming Brooks alumni, parents, guardians and friends to this special annual celebration.