St. Mark's School

On Saturday afternoon, January 11, the St. Mark's Girls' Varsity Basketball team hosted the local Southborough 6th Grade Travel basketball team for a special practice.

Yuang (Thomas) Li '22, a IV Former from Mountain House, California, has published an article in IEEE Xplore, the journal of the Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers. Entitled "Enabling Commercial Autonomous Robotic Space Explorers," the piece is an in-depth theoretical analysis of the possibilities regarding advance robotic space missions.

Congratulations to Nicholas Braun '06. At this year's Golden Globes, Succession, the HBO show in which he plays a key role, took home the top prize as Best Television Series-Drama.

St. Mark's alumnus Alex Smith, a doctoral candidate in Harvard's Mathematics Department, was recently awarded the inaugural David Goss Prize in Number Theory at the Journal of Number Theory (JNT) Biennial Conference in Cetraro, Italy.

Students in veteran art teacher Barbara Putnam's Studio 1 course recently researched and created impressive paintings examining the health of the marine ecosystem of the Mediterranean Sea. Their work was exhibited in December at the World Marine Mammal Conference in Barcelona, Spain, and is currently displayed in the Admission corridor gallery at St. Mark's.

Recently, St. Mark's Belmont Chapel echoed with the strains of that classic Christmas carol, "O Little Town of Bethlehem".

On Wednesday, December 18, the St. Mark's Wellness program sponsored the 4th annual Puppy Pet. Dogs belonging to faculty, staff, families, and other members of the St. Mark's community gathered on the Athletic Quad, where they were greeted by students taking a break during Assessment Week.

From December 15 through December 18, St. Mark's participated in a virtual Global Citizenship Institute collaboration with the NGO Educate Lanka.

The holiday season at St. Mark's is filled with wonderful traditions and celebrations.

On Friday, December 13, 14 students in the St. Mark's New Hampshire Primary Club attended a rally for Senator Bernie Sanders and Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. They were accompanied by veteran faculty member David Lyons.

This past week, St. Mark's held its annual Service of Lessons and Carols on Thursday evening, December 12, and again on Sunday afternoon, December 15. The service is considered a traditional Christmas event at many (if not all) Episcopal boarding schools, as well as numerous colleges and churches around the world.

As many as 75 St. Mark's graduates are currently active in college and university athletics, and more than 30 of them participated in sports this fall.

On Sunday morning, December 8, the St. Mark's New Hampshire Primary Club again traveled north to attend a rally in Nashua. This time they saw Democratic presidential frontrunner and former Vice President Joe Biden appear at Nashua Community College. Former Secretary of State John Kerry also spoke at the event.

Practices are already well underway for the upcoming winter sports season at St. Mark's. The first games took place during the week after Thanksgiving break (see below) and the prospects are good across the board.

The very first St. Mark's School Thanksgiving was celebrated in Southborough, hosted by the School's Founder, Joseph Burnett, as two of the earliest students were his sons and it was not possible for their schoolmates to travel home and return during the brief time allotted to the holiday. So a Thanksgiving spread was served for all at the Burnett manse on Main Street: one school family, together giving thanks.

St. Mark's staffer Ilya Kazantsev, accompanist for the School's music program, has been nominated for a Grammy award.

An abundance of music has echoed throughout the School this November. From singing in Belmont Chapel, to the annual Fall Showcase in the Putnam Family Arts Center, and then a rock band performance at all-school meeting in the Center, November has experienced an outburst of sweet sounds on campus.

Ten of the 14 St. Mark's teams this autumn posted records of .500 or better. The Lions went 94-42-9 at all levels of competition, for an overall winning percentage of .679.

St. Mark's students—Ryder Henry '20 (French horn), Grace Li '21 (flute), Waverly Shi '21 (violin), Albert Wu '23 (violin), Kelly Yang '23 (vocal—soprano), and Richard Zhang '21 (violin)—were accepted into the Massachusetts Music Educators Association (MMEA) Central District Music Festival. They will be performing on Saturday, January 18, in Worcester's Mechanics Hall.

On Saturday, November 9, in a triumphant end to the 2019 fall sports season, varsity field hockey edged Groton 2-1 in overtime for St. Mark's fourth win of the day over their historic rival, winning back the coveted raccoon coat and sending Coach Colleen Finnerty's team to the New England playoffs.

On Thursday, November 14, Friday, November 15, and Saturday, November 16, at 7:30 p.m. in the Putnam Family Arts Center's Black Box Theater, the St. Mark's Theater Department will present the Fall Play, Angels in America: Millennium Approaches, by Tony Kushner.

Two St. Mark's teams have earned postseason berths in New England Preparatory School Athletic Conference competition.

On Monday, November 11, the St. Mark's community honored Veterans Day with a brief ceremony at the School flagpole on Belmont Field.

This Saturday, November 9, St. Mark's teams will square off against opponents from Groton, continuing a rivalry that goes back 133 years. The two schools are once again vying for the coveted raccoon coat, while kicking off the yearlong competition for the Burnett-Peabody Bowl. In 1886, the game was simply for bragging rights between the only two Episcopal boarding schools in Massachusetts.

There are more than 60 St. Mark's graduates currently participating in athletics in colleges and universities. Most of them take part in what are generally seasonal sports, and their endeavors are detailed on this site after each season is finished. But rowing transcends the seasons. It is a year-round commitment, competitive in the fall and the spring, and the St. Mark's rowing legacy has been carried on by several alumni this fall.

"I think it's the job of the artist to create work that inspires and uplifts so we can, together, move forward to a future that we create," says Dr. Mark Lomax II. On Thursday, November 7, Dr. Lomax will come to St. Mark's to present portions of 400: An Afrikan Epic, his acclaimed 12-album cycle that tells the story of Black America over the past 400 years.

On Monday, October 28, the band Mariachi México Lindo Boston performed before a packed St. Mark's dining hall during seated lunch. They were on campus at the invitation of veteran Spanish teacher Charlie Sellers.

On Monday, October 28, the St. Mark's Student Athletic Council held an "antique jersey" sale to benefit the nearby Marlboro Boys & Girls Club. Old and retired St. Mark's athletic uniforms went up for sale to help an organization that has been supported by community service at St. Mark's since 1899.

The annual Fall Trustee Weekend at St. Mark's took place from October 24 through 26, 2019. Members of the St. Mark's Board gathered on campus for regular meetings and to celebrate the recently launched Lives of Consequence campaign.

On Thursday, October 17, the Right Reverend Alan Gates, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, visited St. Mark's. The School, and especially its historic Belmont Chapel, are part of the Diocese as Episcopal institutions, and the bishop formally visits every four years along with celebrating at services of confirmation for members of the St. Mark's community from time to time.

St. Mark's cross country, field hockey, and girls' soccer programs all are looking strong at the halfway point of the 2019 fall season.

This year's St. Mark's Family Weekend was most successful, as parents and other family members of students flocked to campus for a series of special events.

In an annual tradition at St. Mark's, on Friday, October 4, student and faculty pets were welcomed at the morning Chapel service for the "Blessing of the Animals."

On Thursday, October 3, St. Mark's alumnus Michael Greenwald '02 visited campus to open the 2019-2020 Gray Colloquium series. The theme of this year's series is "Civil Discourse."

On Friday evening, September 27, members of a new St. Mark's student organization—the New Hampshire Primary Club—traveled north to Nashua, New Hampshire, to attend a meet-and-greet with democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang.

From September 23 through 27, St. Mark's is taking part in Ally Week, hosted by the School's Gender & Sexuality Alliance (GSA). The GSA is one of the student-directed Pathways affinity groups at St. Mark's, part of the SM Community and Equity program.

LEO, the St. Mark's online academic journal, is back for its seventh academic year of operation. Over that time it has had more than 210,000 online views.

On Tuesday, September 24, a faculty folk duo was the main event for the regular morning Chapel service. Jason and Sarah Eslick, who perform and record as the folk duo Old Horse, brought acoustic guitars and classic folk harmonies to Belmont Chapel.

On Saturday, September 21, Anishka Yerabothu '20 presented "A Kathak Showcase" in the Putnam Family Arts Center. The event was a fundraiser for Educate Lanka, a program providing support to Sri Lankan students, where Anishka volunteered this past summer.

This fall, St. Mark's welcomes five exchange students from Australia. They come from two of St. Mark's partner schools as part of the Global Citizenship program.

Dr. David Gleason, longtime consulting psychologist at Concord Academy and the author of At What Cost: Defending Adolescent Development in Fiercely Competitive Schools, will speak at St. Mark's on Friday, October 11, at 3:00 p.m. in the Putnam Family Arts Center's Class of 1945 Hall. The event, part of Family Weekend, is free and open to the public. Dr. Gleason will also meet with student, faculty, and administrative groups during the weekend. On Saturday evening, he will participate in the St. Mark's College Counseling program.

On Friday afternoon, September 20, the annual St. Mark's Club Fair was held at the Putnam Family Arts Center, in both the Class of 1951 Lobby and Taft Hall. Representatives of a wide range of student activities staffed tables and were available to answer questions about their respective programs and to sign up potential participants.

On Friday morning, September 20, some 200 members of the St. Mark's community joined hundreds of thousands of protesters around the world to raise awareness about climate change. While supporters of all ages turned out for the Global Climate Strike, the day was billed as a walkout by high school students to call on world leaders to step up their efforts against carbon emissions and other environmental issues.

For 99 summers, students from St. Mark's School have volunteered at Brantwood Camp in Peterborough, New Hampshire, working primarily with low-income youth. St. Mark's alumni and faculty are also involved with the camp in a variety of ways: as staff, trustees, supporters, and advocates to the greater community.

This past summer, Reina Wang '22, a boarding student from Shanghai, China, took the St. Mark's Robotics "Blue Suitcase" project to Pakistan. The "Blue Suitcase" is packed with Lego Mindstorm kits and is used to teach the local children how to perform simple assembling and programming.

On Tuesday evening, September 17, St. Mark's held its annual "Celebration of Education and Service of Installation" in Belmont Chapel. Eight new faculty were welcomed, the 2019-2020 St. Mark's choir made its debut, and the Rev. Barbara Talcott delivered a sermon entitled "The Religious Value of Human Reason."

Barely two weeks into the school year, St. Mark's teams are already off to a strong start as the 2019 fall athletic season gets underway. Girls' varsity soccer is already 2-0, while all four cross country teams—boys' varsity, girls' varsity, boys' JV, and girls' JV—are all unbeaten at 1-0.

On Friday evening, September 6, the 2019-2020 school year at St. Mark's was officially opened by the traditional Convocation ceremony in the Putnam Family Arts Center's Class of 1945 Hall.

The Global Citizenship program offers numerous opportunities for students to engage with partner schools and international organizations. This past summer, 10 St. Markers took advantage of those opportunities, spending time at schools and programs in Australia, Germany, Spain, Chile, and Sri Lanka.