91̽��

Eighteen teams ranging in size from one to seven students came together via Zoom to participate in 91̽��Hacks II, an intramural, student-led hackathon. The hackathon took place over 12 hours on May 24, during which students from different schools built projects that were judged by a panel of 91̽�� alumni. Teams competed in six categories: Most Addictive Game, Most Educational, Most Technical, Most Scalable, Best UX/UI, Best Novice Hack, and Best Overall Hack. 

Most Addictive Game went to Dina-Sara Custo ’22, who built a social-distancing simulator game where the player must avoid others to advance. “The more people that see the good message the game is promoting, the better the outcome will be,” said Custo. 

Oliver Eielson ’21 won Best UX/UI for his app, Busy Beach. Eielsom described BusyBeach as an app that “helps people and governments limit contact and overcrowding at beaches and stop the spread of coronavirus.” He also won the Student Vote award, determined by popular vote at the end of the hackathon.

The School community gathered virtually this morning to celebrate seniors at the Prize Assembly. Awards recognized overall student achievement as well as achievement in the performing arts, visual arts, English, science, math, classics, computer science, modern languages, history, public speaking, student publications, and athletics. 

The Head of School Award honors and thanks certain seniors for their demonstrated spirit of self-sacrifice, community concern, leadership, integrity, fairness, kindliness, and respect for others. Eight students were honored (in photo via zoom): Zaki Ellis M’hammedi Alaoui, Yaneris D’Anique Briggs, Jerry Ducasse, William Conners Livingston, Erinma Adaeze Onyewuchi, Allison Nicole Reilly, Jeanna Yuyang Shaw and Iryna Sobchyshyna. 

Congratulations to all of the prize recipients, including a few junior students. Below is a complete list of awards:

The senior project is a long-treasured tradition at 91̽��—an opportunity for Class I students to spend the month before Graduation focusing on one topic before presenting their work.

This year, the coronavirus pandemic changed many seniors’ plans for projects, but members of the Class of 2020 still found creative ways to use their time, either by pursuing their projects safely, altering their projects, staying in their regular classes, or dedicating their month to serving the 91̽�� community. In lieu of the senior project fair that traditionally caps off the seniors’ May work, projects were compiled on a website. 

Nine students were selected for a Bisbee Prize by their teachers for outstanding research on their U.S. history papers. Although unable to gather in person for the spring tradition, the history department  recognized students’ impressive work on topics ranging from the 1994 baseball strike to the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act.

The Bisbee Prize was established to honor Ethan Wyatt Bisbee, a former history faculty member who retired in 1993 after 40 years of teaching. The Prize was endowed in 2005 through a gift by John Warren, formerly of the history department, and his wife, Laura Warren ’78, former head of Robbins House.

Recipients of the 2020 Bisbee Prize are:

The 91̽�� Speech and Debate teams continue to shine in competitions, which are taking place virtually. Over Memorial Day weekend, students participated in the rescheduled Massachusetts Speech and Debate League (MSDL) State Championship Tournament that featured 30 schools and nearly 500 students competing in live, online speech and debate events. Tyler Tjan ’22 was State Champion in Extemporaneous Speaking and Emily Hong ’21 was State Champion in Radio Broadcasting. Miranda Paiz ’21 and Caitlin Waugh ’20 earned second place in Duo Interpretation, Abby Buonato ’22 earned second place in Play Reading, and Nyla Sams ’20 earned third place in Informative Speaking.

Newly elected head monitors Eliza Dunn ’21 and Garvin McLaughlin ’21 took up the mantle as school leaders from outgoing head monitors Olivia Wang ’20 and Beck Kendig ’20. Historically, head monitor elections are held in May with a School-wide Q&A and speeches in the Athletic and Convocation Center from each candidate. Despite the circumstances of students being home due to the pandemic, Wang and Kendig worked hard to replicate the process. They hosted a live Q&A with the 13 self-nominated candidates over Zoom. The session was recorded so students had the option to watch it at a later time. Then candidates submitted recorded speeches and those were posted so students could watch them before voting online.

A few weeks into 91̽��’s remote-learning program, math teacher Phil Robson started getting headaches—if the additional time on video calls, email, and creating online instruction plans was affecting him, he figured, students may feel the same way.

To offset the added screen time, Robson instituted “no-screen math” in his precalculus and statistics courses. He offers students a game or activity they can complete entirely off-line.

“There are math games and puzzles they can work on with their parents and siblings, or by themselves,” he said. “I give them different options; they’re not all mandatory, they’re fun.”