News

Think of it as a crash course in all things Masters.

From ballet and lyrical to the hora and the latest Tik Tok moves, dance students brought their A-game during preseason activities that started the week of August 30 and is continuing into the first weeks of school.

It was an afternoon of firsts for newly appointed Interim Associate Head for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Roland Davis and Associate Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Selas Douglas who introduced a new DEI-focused orientation to the upper school community on Friday, September 10.

Congratulations to the Class of 2021! We are proud of our graduates’ accomplishments and look forward to cheering them on in college and beyond. 

On Saturday, June 12, during a memorable and joyful in-person commencement ceremony, the Masters community celebrated the 128 members of the Class of 2021 as they became alumnae/i. Click here for coverage of the event.

Our Middle School Graduation celebrated the 61 members of the Class of 2025 as they transitioned to ninth grade. Click here for coverage of the event.

Congratulations to the eighth grade students who received awards during the Middle School Award Ceremony on Thursday, June 10. 

Congratulations to the seniors who received awards during the Senior Recognition Ceremony on Friday, June 11.

Tower journalists are making headlines again. Students recently took home trophies from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, the National Scholastic Press Association and School Newspapers Online.

Congratulations to the students who received awards during the Underclass Recognition Ceremony on Thursday, June 10. 

Outstanding exhibits of artwork that showcase the vast range of creative talent within the upper school and middle school communities are currently on view.

Call it photobombing of another sort. This week, Photo 2 students put their technical skills to the test with water balloon-popping fun on the quad.

Colorful, majestic gods and goddesses took center stage as the fifth graders debuted their impressive and entertaining on-screen puppet opera, “How The Sphinx Lost Its Nose,” before a virtual audience of their families on Tuesday, June 8.

In a fitting tribute, the Masters community planted a tree in memory of Panton Adams in front of the Middle School, where each morning he warmly greeted everyone by name.

Zooming in all year from China, Ukraine and Mongolia, the 11 sophomores in Stacey Browne’s English class are a true testament to the School’s mission of learning, striving, daring and doing. 

As they put pen to paper, their smiles sealed the deal. Three of Masters’ top senior athletes — Brooke Tatarian (Fairfield University/basketball), Allie Koziarz (Wellesley College/basketball) and Eliza Abady (Goucher College/tennis) — celebrated their commitment to play at the collegiate level during a signing ceremony at the Fonseca Center on Monday, June 7.

For the members of the Middle School’s MISH (Masters Interested in Sharing and Helping) Club, the idea was simple: raise awareness and funds for an important cause by getting students together for a fun and friendly basketball competition. Their plan worked.

Behind all the clay, cardboard and construction paper were the personal stories of seventh grade students who presented their annual Journey projects on Thursday, May 27.

When Frank Yang ’22 approached a cab driver on the streets of Shanghai to speak to him and take his photo, he knew he had to capture that moment.

As part of May’s Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month, the school community celebrated the diversity of Asians, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States.

Numerous student-athletes were honored during the 2020-2021 virtual Upper School Athletic Awards Assembly on Wednesday, June 2.

In pursuit of his dream of competing in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, Masters track coach Isaac Updike has hit the ground running.

With its 96 acres, The Masters School campus has provided plenty of inspiration for ninth and tenth grade architecture students as they design imagined outdoor campus parks. 

Sunny, breezy weather made for perfect plankton racing conditions on Wednesday, May 12. As part of the seventh grade’s oceanography unit, middle school science teacher Dana McNamee held outdoor plankton races modeled after a college basketball Sweet 16 bracket-style contest.

In preparation for their final production of the season, Masters Mainstage students have spent much time and energy rehearsing for the spring play, an adaptation of Homer’s “The Odyssey,” which premieres tonight, Friday, May 21, at 7:00 p.m.

The new middle school Model UN (MUN) team is off to a might-y start!  During the weekend of May 15 and 16, Masters’ junior delegates had an impressive showing at their first event as a team: Fieldston School’s Virtual EthicalMUN IV Conference. Three newcomers received recognition.

Matt Nappo ’21 has added another accolade to his roster: He was recently named a Scholar in the National Cyber Scholarship Competition (NCSC).

The Panthers were back in action in May, competing on the lacrosse field, golf course, tennis court and track — and setting new school records. Congratulations to Adam Bello ’24 for his record-setting high jump and to Camille Smith ’22 for a new record in the girl’s 100-meter dash.

Building on what they learned throughout the year during their Hudson River Valley intensive, sixth graders sharpened their storytelling skills through songwriting.

Estherwood Lawn provided a picturesque setting for the Senior and Faculty Tea on Thursday, May 20, as the Class of 2021 joined faculty for an afternoon of refreshments and reminiscing.

Working around the clock from their desks across the globe, four upper school students have been named semi-finalists in the prestigious BCIL Impact Challenge competition.

Sitting in silence for six minutes on the quad. That was how upper school members of EFFECT kicked off Green Week, a week dedicated to environmentally conscious activities.

Seventh graders dived into their end-of-year oceanography unit with visits from experts in the field.

Students in Masters Dance Company (MDC) are sending powerful messages through movement.

In the Middle School’s Design, Modeling and Prototyping class, students have been using Tinkercad, the 3D digital design app, to brainstorm and prototype solutions to authentic design challenges.

The Parent Association (PA) treated faculty, staff and administrators to gourmet sandwiches, ice cream sundaes and handwritten thank you notes during Faculty and Staff Appreciation Day on Tuesday, May 4.

During a challenging year, the bi-monthly Matters of Spirit presentations have offered spiritual food for thought to the upper school community.

As students in Ladane du Boulay’s class bid “adieu” to French 2, they ended the school year with a final project highlighting their appreciation of French inventors.

It was time to rise and definitely shine the morning of Wednesday, April 21, as seniors made their way to the Claudia Boettcher Theatre for the first in-person Morning Meeting since March of 2020.

Global issues were local for students in Brendon Barrios’ International Relations classes. The upper school students have been studying the United States’ intervention in Latin America from the 1950s onward.

Without skipping a beat, upper school music teacher Gilles Pugatch has promised a knockout Great Gig performance this year centered on the iconic Marvin Gaye classic soul album “What’s Going On.”

Artistic expression is on full display in the Middle School. Students in Vicente Saavedra’s seventh grade art classes are sprucing up the walls of temporary classrooms on campus by creating big and bold wall murals.

A new initiative, appropriately named Courageous Conversations, is encouraging faculty and staff to lean into discussions about and to reflect on race.

A host of ancient deities will soon be coming to campus! Fifth graders recently began rehearsals for the annual Puppet Opera performance. 

More than 200 poetry fans gathered to share, hear and celebrate the art form during the 10th Annual Westchester Poetry Festival on Saturday, April 10. 

First, they selected their topics. Then they spent months researching and writing. The next step was to present their findings.

Sixth graders didn’t have to travel far for artistic inspiration this week. On Friday, April 9, young artists scouted out possible locations for imagined outdoor sculptures in the Eldridge Family Woods near the Greene Family Field track. 

It was a day of debate, diplomacy and distinction for Masters at the Brewster High School Model UN (MUN) Conference. Multiple students earned accolades at the event held on March 6.

Inspiration struck Skyla Case ’21 while on a trip to Union Square in New York City. She “sat down on a park bench and drew for eight hours and came back the next day and did six more.”

To the mathematically inclined, March 14 — or 3/14 — is a day worth celebrating that has nothing to do with a delicious dessert. Not one to ignore a good reason to toast this day is middle school math teacher Eliot Bloomberg.

“Can’t you feel a brand new day?” For the talented middle schoolers performing the uplifting number from “The Wiz” last month, the answer was a resounding “Yes!”

Take the podium as “a power for good.” That’s what middle school teacher Michaela Boller’s fifth grade students did as they presented speeches that answered the question: “How can I help?”

If the halls of Masters Hall are alive with the sound of music, then one of upper school teacher Roberto Mercedes’ Spanish classes must be in session.

Cartoonist Rube Goldberg’s eponymous machines are a delight to watch in action, with the goal of performing a simple task in an indirect or overly complicated way. And eighth graders recently discovered that the creative machines aren’t just entertaining – they are a fantastic lesson in physics.

Move over, Christie’s. With a chance to bid on lots such as Dr. Dieck’s homemade butter cookies, an Hermes tie, and the chance to be upper school co-chair for the day, this week’s MISH online auction proved to be a winning fundraiser.

Middle and upper school classes recently included a number of new faces: students who were accepted to Masters for the 2021-2022 school year.

Lights, camera, action! It was a fitting way to wrap up a life science unit on the coronavirus as seventh graders wrote, created and produced public service announcements using music, skits and animation.

Numerous awards were announced during the 2020-21 virtual Upper School Winter Athletic Awards Assembly on Wednesday, March 10.

Mother Teresa. Aretha Franklin. Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Kamala Harris. These are just a few of the many women admired by middle school students and faculty.

From the worlds of sports, science and the arts, students in Paul Friedman’s and John-Alec Raubeson’s seventh grade advisory group celebrated a variety of notable figures in honor of Black History Month.

Recognized for being the cream of the creative crop in the New York region, 13 Masters students recently took home prestigious Scholastic Art & Writing Awards presented by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers.

Audiences pressed “play” this past weekend to experience the School’s first-ever virtual musical, a performance of “Now. Here. This.”

It’s the sort of academic performance that deserves a standing ovation.

Inspired by a desire “to make Masters a diverse, inclusive, and equitable community,” upper school science teacher Jayanti Nerurkar joined the School’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Task Force last fall.

Chamber music students — Andrew Chang ’22 on violin, Ryan Guan ’23 on contrabass, and Sarah Wu ’22 on flute — were featured in the recent product upgrade launch for the Upbeat music app.

The fifth graders have been hard at work studying galaxies far, far away! This week, classes wrapped up a science unit on planetary systems. 

Logan Schiciano ’21 was recently awarded The New York State Student Journalist of the Year by the Journalism Education Association (JEA).

To commemorate Black History Month, students in the ONYX club turned teachable moments into a much larger lesson around the theme of “What You Didn’t Know About Black History.”

Everyone’s a winner with this year’s winter Physical Education (PE) offerings. Middle school students have enjoyed the current lineup of basketball, squash, fencing, swimming, fitness, yoga and health. 

Don’t miss this chance to stream a performance of “Now. Here. This.” for free during the weekend of Friday, February 26 to Sunday, February 28.

Call it a lesson in being “a power for good.” Aside from his own busy academic schedule as a junior, Chad Zhao ’22 has returned to teach at YingJiaMei, his former English school in China that he attended when he was younger.

The Masters Cybersecurity Team finished in the top 10 percent and third overall in New York state during round three of CyberPatriot's National Youth Cyber Defense Competition, the world's largest of its kind, on Saturday, January 23.

Happy Lunar New Year! It is time to say hello to the Year of the Ox that begins this year on Friday, February 12.

Through spoken word, shared tributes, and song, the Masters community came together on the evening of Thursday, February 11, to celebrate the life of Panton Adams.

The sun was shining and there was excitement in the air as the first group of boarding students returned to The Masters School on Saturday, February 6. This was the first time boarders have been in the dorms since last March.

After one of the biggest snowstorms in years blanketed the region, middle school students took advantage of the winter wonderland on campus as Head of Middle School Tasha Elsbach and Associate Head of Middle School Lynn Salehi declared a different sort of snow day on Thursday, February 4.

Keeping in line with its title, the production of “Kafka’s Metamorphosis” by the School’s Theatre Production Ensemble has undergone many changes. In spite of it all, the group’s digital staging premieres today, Friday, February 5.

The Masters family has sadly said goodbye to one of its own. After a courageous battle, Panton Adams died from complications related to COVID-19 on the morning of Monday, February 1.

In its efforts to diversify course offerings and be “dancing advocates” for the School, Masters Dance Company (MDC) has welcomed two guest artists to its winter dance intensive sessions.

In Judaism, there is a saying that "he who saves one life, saves the whole world." Holocaust survivors Bernard Schanzer, M.D. and Henry Schanzer, J.D. are living proof of those powerful words. The twin brothers were invited by the Jewish Culture Club (JCC) to speak to the upper school community in honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Wednesday, January 27.

On the steps of the Capitol where mayhem and destruction ensued two weeks earlier, history was made as Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were sworn in as the 46th President and Vice President of the United States on Wednesday, January 20.

As a campus nurse extraordinaire for the past four years, Tara Eng has served the Masters community with compassion and kindness. So it’s no surprise that when the campus closes for the weekend or remote learning, she has risen to the call of a global pandemic by volunteering on the frontlines.

Raising awareness about the impact of gun violence in Brooklyn communities of color was the focus of a recent Morning Meeting held by MISH (Masters Interested in Sharing and Helping) on Friday, January 22.

Sam Coffey ’17 wrote another chapter in her storied soccer career on Wednesday, January 13, getting selected 12th overall by Portland Thorns F.C. in the 2021 National Women's Soccer League Draft.

Sharing her message through art has paid off for photography student Haoqing (Sunny) Shi ’22. A towering construction site near her home inspired Shi to snap a prizewinning image emblazoned with the word “Awaken.”

On the morning of Tuesday, January 19, the Masters middle school community came together to celebrate the life and work of Martin Luther King Jr. around the theme of amplifying “Unheard Voices.”

Upper school students in the upcoming musical production of “Now.Here.This.” did a double take when the original stars and creators of the 2012 Off-Broadway hit joined their Zoom rehearsal on Friday, January 8.

The theme may have been “Unheard Voices” but the message came through loud and clear during the upper school community’s annual celebration to honor the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. on Thursday, January 14.

When Advanced Studio Art student Christopher Shim ’22 noticed people around him going through difficult times this year, he decided expressing himself through art was a way to be “a small power for good.”

Eight months after The Messenger profiled the Friends4Frontlines initiative, the ongoing efforts of its founders are drawing national attention.

Interviewing Masters’ alumnae/i has given students at Tower, the campus newspaper, some newfound inspiration.

Following the turbulent takeover of the Capitol that took place in our nation’s capital on Wednesday, January 6, Head of School Laura Danforth addressed the community with the following message. 

Last spring, Clara Kolker ’22 and Mia Romanoff ’22 were trying to make sense of the fractured cultural response to the pandemic and other news during an eventful year.

Put yourself in other people’s shoes. That is what more than 125 Masters faculty and staff members had the opportunity to do during a virtual professional development day on Monday, January 4. They participated in FACTUALITY, an interactive group activity about identity and its impact on ourselves and others.

From more than 2000 submissions by more than 770 high school students across the country, four Masters students - Rachel Schwartz ’21, Charlie Cooper ’23, Niamh Fortuna’ 23, and Ava Bashew ’23 - had their photographs selected to be included in the annual Drexel University High School Photography Exhibition.