Boys Varsity Soccer Advances to the NEPSACS after Undefeated EIL Season

The Berwick Boys Varsity Soccer team finished off an undefeated season Saturday with a win over Bancroft, clinching their first undefeated season in the Eastern Independent League with a record of 16-0-0. Berwick will now advance to the Quarterfinals of the Class C New England Tournament in the coming week.

To read more visit their page: https://www.berwickacademy.org/podium/default.aspx?t=1150

Welcome Back!

Tuesday marked the opening of the year for the Berwick Academy Upper School. With so much excitement and new faces it is sure to be the start of a good year on the hilltop. Morning assembly opened up the day, lead by Student Life Coordinator Owen Labrie ’11 and Student Body President Ryan Walters ’11. A candy tasting-eating contest followed, with blindfolded representatives from each grade guessing various candy bars that were hand fed to them. For every correct guess they earned a point. The headmaster also stopped by with a warm welcome and director of the Upper School Peter Saliba gave his opening remarks in regards to community goals for the year. He asked us to think of a personal goal for the year and then took a poll to see how many goals were to reach a destination and how many have a goal that is a journey. Here is a brief excerpt of his speech from September 7th, 2010:

“When we set goals for ourselves, they usually are finite, measureable achievements.  Most people think of them as destinations, and examples might include a specific grade or GPA, a college admission, or perhaps winning a specific game.  However, this year, I want people to starting thinking about the journey and not the destination.  How do you get to a destination?

If you ask alums about what they remember the most about BA, it is the human relationships with their peers and teachers, an entire season of athletics, or some sort of arts performance.  The same can be said for the captains of industry (Gates/Buffett), our political leaders (Snowe/Obama), or our headmaster (Schneider).  When asked about their greatest achievement, they describe a journey, not a destination.

My goal this year is to focus on the journey, not the destination.”

So welcome back! Get ready for a fantastic year and start that journey everyone’s been talking about, you don’t know where it might lead.

One Final Task: Senior Projects on the Horizon

By Tyler Harley ’11

Emily Lorei '09 interned at Foster's Daily Democrat last year for her project

The Class of 2010 has one last challenge before them. It is not a challenge to test their acquired knowledge of school subjects. It is not to see how well they can recall information. It is a challenge that allows them to pursue their passions and do something that they themselves want and chose to do. Most importantly, it is a challenge that ushers them out of high school and into the world beyond.

From the time seniors leave school to the last few days before summer break, seniors take on the senior projects. Succinctly, the seniors basically do whatever they want (within a few certain rules.) They have to accomplish something of their choosing, something that interests them, and they will be doing it all themselves, with minimal guidance and absolutely no hand-holding. Mr. Fletcher, who is in charge of both helping the seniors choose projects and following up on their progress, said that the idea behind the projects was for them to be “fun and possibly even beneficial to have seniors explore an interest that hadn’t been realized in high school.”

Mr. Fletcher, who initiated the senior projects with Mr. Sherbahn around fifteen years ago, has categorized the projects into three broad groups, with some variations: arts/academic projects, professional internships, and community service. From there, the seniors have almost no limit on what they choose to pursue.

In the past, seniors have picked whatever interests them most. Berwick alumn Emily Lorei interned at a newspaper publisher, and even managed to publish a few pieces of her own. Greg Galvin, on the other hand, worked under the wing of a cardiac surgeon, and Alysa Morse and Kolbie McCabe started up Berwick’s SWAT program. There are some things at Berwick that you would have never recognized as a senior project. Woofstock? That was someone’s project many years ago, and we still continue it today.

The feedback from the seniors on these projects is overwhelmingly, but not surprisingly, positive. Berwick graduate Dave Pazzani replicated the standard Microsoft Paint program using Java programming, working on the Berwick campus to do so. “I loved the fact that I could hang around on Berwick and see my friends, but at the same time I got to feel like an alumn and not have to pay attention to time or teachers!” Also from the class of 2009, Pete Wituszynski worked at his local church for his youth pastor. He painted walls, signs, stage backdrops, doors, and more. Also, he fixed computers because he is Peter Wituszynski, and he does that sort of thing. “The project was awesome,” he said. “It had nothing to do with my senior year and that was perfect. It gave me time to relax and enjoy the end of high school.”

The seniors are getting the opportunity to finally leave their nest of Berwick Academy. They go out into the world and tackle challenges like adults, doing it their way. It’s the perfect transition between high school and college. Best of all, they have fun doing it, and it’s centered around their passions and interests. Mr. Fletcher says, for those who have trouble deciding on a project, “When someone comes to me and has no idea about what to do, I always start by asking, ‘What is something you’ve always thought would be fun or worthwhile to do but have just never found the time or opportunity? Tell me that, and we’ll try to make it a great project.’”

Berwick Announces Water Bottle Pledge!

The Pledge

Berwick Academy Green Alliance has been working with the Middle School Green Committee on a community wide water bottle pledge that was put in place at the Earth Day celebration on April 23^rd. The pledge is in effort to reduce the use of disposable plastic water bottles campus and community wide by having participants instead use a reusable aluminum water bottle. For every pledge, each participant received an aluminum reusable water bottle with the Earth Day 2010 logo to help get them started. Plastic water bottles are wasteful and damaging to the environment through the processes used to extract the plastics as well as the pollution it produces from improper recycling and disposal. This pledge kicked off on April 23^rd and is open to any willing participant who wants to make a difference and effort to preserve the environment. BGA and members of Middle School Green Committee collected signatures for students and faculty during lunches the week of Tuesday, April 27th which was a great success. There was lots of

Earth Day water bottles

participation and interest in signing at all grade levels.  Pledge signing will continue the remainder of the year for anyone interested as well as be open to students for years to come.