Grandparents Day at Berkeley Carroll is an annual tradition. On April 19, 2013, grandparents enjoyed a day of performances, classroom visits, and lunch with their grandchildren and friends. Click here for photos from the day.

David Rohde, who turned his seven-month captivity with the Taliban into award-winning journalism, will deliver the 2013 commencement address. Previously the The New York Times’ South Asia Bureau Co-Chief, Mr. Rohde is a columnist for Reuters and the Atlantic Magazine. With his wife Kristen Mulvihill, he is the author of A Rope and a Prayer: A Kidnapping from Two Sides, and is a graduate of Brown University.

They began work in November, researching topics, running experiments, writing up results. On April 17, 2013, the 8th grade convened for its annual science fair, each student eagerly explaining his or her area -- multitasking, the Stroop effects, teenage stressors, baseball and science, odors, and many others.

Click for photos

The Berkeley Carroll varsity baseball season is off to a great start! Click here to read the latest dispatch from baseball coach, Walter Paller.

Jacob udewitz and Ian Miller combined to pitch the BC Lions, to a 6-0 victory over The Morristown Beard School. Udewitz went 5 innings and Miller the final 2 innings, allowing only two runners to reach second base. The Lions stole 6 bases, drew 6 walks, and had only 4 hits. However, an RBI hit by Yanai Feldman (2rbi), a double steal and an RBI groundout, showed the lions to be resourceful offensively. Richard Palacios, Jr. was stellar, both offensively (bunt single, base on balls), and defensively (6 assists). It was a successful recipe, and one that hopes to bring many victories our way.

It was a highly successful season for Winter athletics at Berkeley Carroll! Our basketball and swim programs all finished their seasons with high water marks for every program.

Click here for the full wrap-up.

On the morning of March 14, 2013, the dining hall at 181 Lincoln Place was jam-packed with talk of optical illusions, time-travel paradoxes, and baseball statistics. It was “Pi Day” again (so-dubbed in honor of the irrational number 3.14151926535), a beloved tradition for Berkeley Carroll seventh graders.

Click for more.

Four Lower School Berkeley Carroll teams competed at the Odyssey of the Mind regional competition on March 3, 2013. The children were guided through the Odyssey of the Mind process by their coaches, Randi Toll, Andrew Ahmadi, Erin Baldwin, and Jacquee Novak.

Details and photos here.

Earlier in February, 39 Berkeley Carroll students participated in the American Mathematics Competitions. Of the Berkeley Carroll students who participated in the AMC 12, three scored in the top 25% worldwide and tied for the first place score at BC: seniors Allison Brown, Emily Katzner, and Sophia Timko. For the AMC 10, the first and second place winners at BC, ninth graders Maximillian Wu and Emily Cornicello, also scored in the top 25% worldwide in their division. Ninth graders Nadine Khoury and Jimmy Council tied for 3rd place among BC students.

The AMC 12 and AMC 10 tests are very challenging competitions. Worldwide, on the AMC 12 there were only 2 out of 65,296 perfect scores and on the AMC 10 there were only 14 out of 67,877 perfect scores.

On February 21 and 22, 2013, there was something for parents, students, and mummified cat buffs alike in the fifth grade’s Egyptian tomb, a venerated and spooky Berkeley Carroll tradition that got a few innovative tweaks this year.

For photos and more detail, click here.

Congratulations to the JV Boys and Varsity Boys Basketball Teams for winning their home, quarter final games on Thursday. JV Boys defeated Leman Manhattan Prep Academy by a score of 67 - 40. Varsity Boys defeated Saint Ann's School 75 - 59.

JV Boys Basketball will be competing in the Semi-Finals at 12 noon on Saturday against Staten Island Academy; Varsity Boys in the Semi-Finals at 2 pm on Saturday against Friends Seminary. Both games will be held at Packer Collegiate Institute. The JV game will be held in the 4th floor gym and Varsity game will be held in the 2nd floor gym.

Come out and show what a great community Berkeley Carroll has and support our teams!

Click here to see the names of the more than two dozen writers and artists from Berkeley Carroll's Upper School whose work was recognized by the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards program.

Varsity Girls Basketball defeated Bay Ridge 60-34. Sarah Paller '14 led all scorers with 24 points during the February 14, 2013 game; Rebecca Bender '14 chipped in with 15 points.

Sarah Paller was named both League MVP and play-off MVP. Olivia Saleh '14 was named All Conference, and Margo Miller '13 was named All Division. Captains Margo Miller and Mia Kellman '13 complete their Varsity careers by leading a young team to an 8-0 record in the PSAA.

More photos here.

Three Berkeley Carroll students distinguished themselves over the past weekend at the annual Columbia University HS Speech and Debate tournament, which draws competitors from all over the country.

Click here to read the account by Jim Shapiro.

Peter Brown received a Caldecott Honor Award on January 28, 2013. He will meet with the Lower School on Thursday, Jan 31. His book You Will Be My Friend will support social skills curriculum in PreK and Kindergarten. Peter Brown's book, The Curious Garden will support grade 2's study of the High LIne.

The 3rd grade sang a medley of freedom songs. The children learned what spirituals and gospel songs were -- the 2nd grade, along with members of the PreK, sang "This Little Light of Mine" and the 4th grade sang "Precious Lord," which they followed with a recitation of what they wished they could tell Dr. King about his legacy.

To culminate the Martin Luther King assembly, David Egolf said that an important part of Dr. King's legacy is respect, after which the entire Lower School recited the school's Statement of Respect. Mr. Egolf announced that framed copies of the statement would be given to every member of the Student Councel and Green Team for them to hang in the classrooms.

Mary Susan Miller, Headmistress of the Berkeley Institute from 1969 to 1975, died peacefully on November 16, 2012 at the age of 90. During her six years at Berkeley, Mrs. Miller increased student diversity, made the Upper School coeducational, added Sex Ed to the curriculum, and exposed students to a bevy of cultures (including a memorable Friday morning visit from the Hare Krishnas).

Click here to learn more about Mrs. Miller.

Head of School Bob Vitalo joined almost 100 of his colleagues in expressing a strong opinion against gun violence. The New York metro Heads of Schools group wrote an impassioned letter to President Obama and our nation's policy leaders; the letter appears in the January 17 issue of The New York Times.

Expressing a willingness to assist elected officials in the effort to find a better and more reasonable balance in the gun control debate, the letter also encourages colleagues who are leading schools across the country to join the effort initiated by the New York City Heads of Schools. Individuals are also encouraged to show their support by clicking the "support the letter" link.

The letter can be read by clicking here.

A Lower School presence since 1986, Helen Teagno is the administrative assistant to the Lower School Director.

Lower School Director David Egolf talked about tradition, Head of School Bob Vitalo spoke of light. During the Middle and Upper School Ceremony, the school paused to remember the victims of last week's school shooting. Ryan Henneberry, who teaches in the Middle and Upper School, gave a wonderful speech about family during which he told the students, "What seems small or forgettable now might be what you hang onto in the future."

Candles were lit during the two separate events by a representative of every facet of Berkeley Carroll -- children, teachers, alumni, parents, staff.

On December 14, 2012, thirty-eight members of BC’s Middle School Jazz Ensemble trekked to Lincoln Center to take in a concert hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning trumpeter Wynton Marsalis.

For details, click here.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we will be hearing oral arguments in the case of Denver Dispatch vs. United States." Thus began the hearing at the United States Bankruptcy Court in Brooklyn on December 13 and 14, 2012, at which Berkeley Carroll 7th graders began their role-play of a fictitious First Amendment case weighing the importance of freedom of the press against the government's national security concerns.

This unit of study on how the Constitution Works, engages students in study of the U.S. Constitution, related Supreme Court decisions, and federal law. They then prepare briefs, oral arguments, and write questions in preparation for the hearing in which students play the role of lawyers presenting oral arguments or justices asking questions to probe the constitutional issues of the case. The justices write their opinions and hand down decisions based on the arguments they heard, legal precedent established by the Supreme Court, and the lower court decisions.

On November 16, 2012, fifth graders made the world of Norton Juster's The Phantom Tollbooth “real” with their second annual Word and Number Market, a smorgasbord of antic word searches, math activities, and mouth-watering letter cookies.

To learn more, click here.

“What kind of seasoning would you put on kale chips to make them tasty?” asked Lower School teacher Lan Wong. “Jelly!” exclaimed Mark Zeltser ’26.

To read more about a day in the Cooking Arts program, click here.

This week the Middle School reelected President Obama in a mock presidential election. The ballots were tallied by members of Math Counts, the Middle School math team.

With a 94.42% voter turnout, the majority (81.86%) voted for President Obama with 7.17% voting for an independent/3rd party candidate. It should be noted, however, that although no one specifically evoked the spector of hanging chads, 0.84% of the ballots were rendered invalid.

Photos galore. Click here to see them.

Jim Shapiro, who started the high school speech and debate program 18 years ago, was honored last weekend with the Bronx Achievement Award which underlines the careers of coaches from around the country for their dedication to training their students in forensics. The award was presented at the start of the annual Bronx High School of Science Speech & Debate tournament.

Full details are available here.

Amid much fanfare, third graders received their iPads on October 25, 2012. They will use their iPads to share ideas using Google Docs and, working collaboratively, will produce e-books, movies, and websites. Click for more info and to see the photos.

On Saturday, September 29, 2012, members of the Berkeley Carroll community, friends, and community leaders gathered to officially open Berkeley Carroll's beautifully renovated buildings and the success of Berkeley Carroll's capital campaign. Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, State Assembly Member Joan Millman, and City Council Member Stephen Levin were among those who joined Berkeley Carroll students and cut the ribbon. Welcome to our new buildings! Click here to see some of the photos.

On the afternoon of September 21, 2012, Upper School English Chair Erika Drezner burst into a classroom, slapped her knees for a while to approximate the clopping of horse hooves, and—when a junior said, “Speak, lad!”—she announced, voice atremble, the bloody news of the Battle of Lexington.

Click here for more about BC's viscerally revamped American Studies curriculum.

Dressed in a pinstriped sports jacket and armed with a wheel trundle, two dozen stopwatches, and a wooden device used by the BC theater department to fake thunderclaps, US Science Chair Scott Rubin set out for Prospect Park on the afternoon of September 13, 2012 with his Physics class.

For more, click here.

Jaya Sahihi '13 is an insatiable globetrotter, and it shows—while discussing her research internship in the republic of Georgia this summer, Jaya nonchalantly tossed off lines like “My host mother was the widow of the former Prime Minister of Georgia, who was assassinated by the KGB, or so they thought."

Click for more on Jaya's experiences in Georgia with probiotics, hiking, and misogyny.

Francesca Longo '12, who last year won a national Scholastic silver medal for her essay "For the Birds," has had her essay selected for publication in Scholastic's The Best Teen Writing of 2012. Francesca's essay is a personal exploration of epigenetics in her family, inspired by her Science Research work (which can be seen by clicking here) and written in her essay class last fall. If you would like to read it, click here for the online Reflections, the Berkeley Carroll high school award-winning literary magazine.

The editor told Francesca, "Of the over 200,000 works of art and writing submitted to the Scholastic Awards, your piece is not only one of the top 500 national award-winning pieces of writing, but you are also among the top 70 students selected for The Best Teen Writing. Your work is, to state it metaphorically, the cream of the crop!"

Congratulations to the 2012 Yearbook Editors, Allison Brown '13 and Tim Bendernagel '13, for their hard work and dedication creating the 2012 Yearbook. The 2012 Lion Yearbook received a Silver Award from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association. Year after year, Berkeley Carroll's yearbook, created by a small dedicated group of students, continues to receive CSPA awards.

Sophia Washburn '12, Lily Lopate '12, and teachers Brian Chu and Erika Drezner are very excited and proud to announce that 2012 issue of the Reflections literary magazine earned Berkeley Carroll a third straight Gold Medal in the National Scholastic Competition.

You can read Reflections on line by clicking here.

The contest is scored out of 1000 points and magazines earning over 800 earn gold medals; the 2011 magazine earned 972 points, and the 2012 magazine earned an amazing 982 points.

Welcome back to school! Berkeley Carroll is pleased to welcome a record 856 students, all making themselves at home in the school's beautifully newly renovated facilities.

SUMMER BREAK KICKOFF

at
SIX FLAGS GREAT ADVENTURE

Friday, June 14, 2013 Departing from 181 Lincoln Place

Summer reading assignments can be found on the website under "Parent Downloads" within the BC Community section of the website.

On June 9, 2012, Brandon Clarke, Jessica Smith, Zack Blakley, and 16 Berkeley Carroll high school students embarked on this year's community development program in Kenya. Most of their time will be spent building a cistern and finishing a dining hall at the same primary school members of our school have been working with since 2010. They are all excited to mix cement, haul rock and water, work with mortar, and paint as they learn from the Maasai community in Shompole about expanding access to education, the impact of drought on the region, and the challenges of maintaining traditional culture in the 21st century. They hope to see some elephants, too!

Follow their adventures through their blog, available here.

On June 7, 2012, the Middle School Closing Ceremonies felt like a string of warm, uproarious inside jokes—from Egyptian tombs and maggot encounters to a basketball team that "lost a lot of games, but never lost its panache."

For more, click here.

Teeth were lost, songs were sung, and complicated Cricket in Times Square analogies were made on the morning of June 6, 2012, at Arch Day—the beloved Berkeley Carroll tradition in which lower schoolers march, sidle, and strut through an arch coated with primary-color flowers to symbolize their passage to the next grade.

Click here for more.

Congratulations to the 4th Grade! Click to see the photos.

The Upper School Awards Ceremony as held on May 17, 2012. Congratulations to all of the students!

The Berkeley Carroll Varsity Baseball team has upheld its tradition of excellence as they enter the final week of the season. The team's accomplishments include Co-Champions of the ACIS/PSAA Alliance League; Playoff Champions of the ACIS/PSAA; and the #4 seed in the NYSAIS tournament. Individual accomplishments include honors awarded to Junior Anthony Spina (League MVP), Sophomore Ian Miller (Playoff MVP), and Coach of the Year Walter Paller. Juniors Robert Graham, Sophomores Yanai Feldman and Ian Miller, and Freshman Richie Palacios were named to the All-League team, in addition to Spina.

The Lions open their quest for another NYSAIS title on Saturday at 11:00 AM (Freedom Field) with a quarterfinal game against Horace Mann.

Congratulations to Allie Korbey '13 and Chelsea O'Neil '14! They were selected to be ANNpower Fellows, which enables them to participate in the inaugural ANNpower Leadership Forum in Washington, DC this summer.

The goal of the three-day forum is to empower young women from across the country in order that they might affect global progress and become the next generation of global trailblazers.

Learn more about Allie and Chelsea and the projects they're hoping to spearhead in the future.

The Senior Project Program is a yearlong undertaking that provides highly motivated students with the opportunity to work independently to investigate a specific area of interest not offered in the Upper School curriculum or to explore a topic that represents an in-depth extension of courses already completed. The written component of the project can take the form of an analytical paper but may also include creative writing that illuminates what has been learned. Videos, films, artwork, and music can be used to enrich the public presentation.

David Owen, the New Yorker writer and author of The Conundrum, spoke to the High School on May 2, 2012, about environmental issues. He asks the question: given all of our technology and all of the knowledge already accrued that shows us how to live sustainably, isn't there someone who can invent a way out of the energy crisis?

Sudhir Venkatesh, Professor of Sociology and Committee on Global Thought at Columbia University, will deliver the Commencement address at Berkeley Carroll's 125th commencement exercises on May 25, 2012.

Between the weather and the new classrooms, it's like the first day of school!

Welcome to the brand-new PreK and Kindergarten building at 712 Carroll Street.

Photos from the evening, along with their research journal, are available here.

Grandparents Day is a cherished tradition at Berkeley Carroll. On April 20, 2012, over 300 grandparents enjoyed refreshments, spent time with their Lower and Middle School grandchildren, and were entertained by various student performances—including the kindergarten and first grade's enthusiastic rendition of "Sidewalks of New York," which was performed with a kazoo interlude. During the reprise, grandparents whipped Berkeley Carroll kazoos out of their gift bags and joined in.

To see the photos, click here.

To conclude their unit in physics, teams of 8th graders, designed balloon cars that took in to consideration the applying aspects of Newton's three Laws of Motion.

As you can see from the video, students designed cars that maximized the force of air exiting the balloon, which propelled the car forwards, and minimized the opposing forces of friction, which slowed the car down. Their challenge was to design a balloon car that traveled the greatest distance or had the greatest acceleration.

The Berkeley Carroll School Music Department captured the overall Grand Sweepstakes Trophy at the Boston Heritage Festival which took place April 13 and 14, 2012. The award goes to the school with the highest overall combined scores. Details and individual honors here.

Congratulations to Emily Cunningham '08 who received a Fulbright Scholarship for her work at Haverford College in astronomy. Emily's Fulbright proposal is on modeling the properties of dwarf galaxies and she will do her Fulbright-funded research at the Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris. Further detail is available here.

As a Berkeley Carroll student, Emily received the school's science department award.

Read about Richie Palacios, 9th grader whose baseball prowess caught the attention of the Daily News.

Congratulations to Anthony Spina, named "Athlete of the Week" by the New York Post! Click to read about Anthony.

This winter our middle school girls basketball team had one of its most successful seasons. Coach Zarzycki and Coach McGrath have talked all season about what a great group of girls joined the basketball team this year. They worked hard, they played hard and they had fun! The coaches talked all season about how so much of the team's success came from the girls' willingness to work hard for each other. This group really loved each other and it showed in the way they operated as a unit on the court. The team finished 10-3. Congratulations and Thank You to Lilian Rona, Joey Ball, Danielle Cheffo, Ana Konyk, Camille Johnson, Zoe Denckla, Kristen Ebenezer, Yasmin Gapper, Olivia Mace, Alex Inciardi, Grace Walls, Emily Cornicello, Courtney Gabel and Leah Ross!

This winter, our JV Boys Basketball team completed an epic journey with an ACIS Championship!

Here's the full story

Berkeley Carroll High School students are in India. They will begin in Mumbai and after two days continue in Chinchoti, a rural village a few hours from the city. They will be helping to build a community center there while staying with local families. Follow them on their blog: http://berkeleycarroll-india-2012.blogspot.com/.

Francesca Longo '12 won a Scholastic National Silver Medal for a personal essay that combined her reflections and experiences along with her ongoing study of epigenetics.

On March 10, 2012, three teams, totaling 17 fourth graders, traveled to Wantagh, Long Island to compete in the Odyssey of the Mind Regional Competition. The students were competing in the You Make the Call, structures challenge in Division 1 (grades K-5th). At the competition the teams tested their balsa wood structures and received points for the amount of weight they held. In addition, each team wrote and performed a short performance that had mathematics as its theme and incorporated devices that performed a mathematical function.

The Berkeley Carroll Teams swept their division, placing 1st, 2nd and 3rd. The 1st place team will shortly be on its way to Binghamton to participate the in the state competition on March 31st. First place winners at the state level advance to the World Competition held in Iowa and face competitors from across the globe.

And, for those of you who were not able to be there, click here to watch the video shown during the Live Auction. Berkeley Carroll parents Lizzie Gottlieb, Eden Wurmfeld, Greta Mansour, and Michael Hampton created this wonderful video.

To see photos from the event, click here. Photos by Walter F. Cieben.

See you next year!

The Middle School Debate Team hosted a big tournament over the weekend of March 4, 2012, at which somewhere in the neighborhood of 90 Middle School students from around the city competed.

When Oedipus, King of Thebes, discovered through his own investigations that he had killed his father and married his mother, Jocasta, he put out his own eyes, and Jocasta killed herself. After Oedipus’ self-banishment and exile, his two sons Polyneices and Eteocles, agreed to alternate as king. When Eteocles refused to give up power to Polyneices, the latter collected a foreign army of Argives and attacked the city. In the ensuing battle, the Thebans triumphed over the invading forces, and the two brothers killed each other, with Eteocles defending the city and Polyneices attacking it. The action of the play begins immediately after the battle. Note that Creon is a brother of Jocasta and thus an uncle of Antigone, Ismene, Eteocles, and Polyneices.

Photos by Zach Fisher '14

Berkeley Carroll's middle-school math team, the Quantifyin' Lions, flourished at the 2012 Brooklyn MathCounts Competition, taking 3rd place in a field of nine schools and earning a coveted berth at next month's New York State Competition at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

On February 3, 2012, the entire Lower School convened for an unveiling of the Hopes & Dreams Mural. But the process of putting the 253-tile mural together wasn’t easy.

The Middle School debate team hosted a Metro Parliamentary Debate League tournament on February 4, 2012, at which 100 debaters from the top middle schools in Brooklyn and Manhattan competed.

By way of introduction, Courtney Roach '12 said that Darin Strauss's memoir Half a Life was honest and blunt. When he addressed the High School on February 3, 2012, Mr. Strauss spoke honestly and bluntly. "When you're writing about yourself and you take out the parts that make you look bad," he said, "it's not art. It's propaganda."

Darin Strauss knows memoir. His received the National Book Critics Circle Award. He wrote Half a Life in order to come to terms with the very personal story of killing a bicyclist. His process also includes talking about his book.

Berkeley Carroll High School students are on the move! Three students reported this week about their semesters spent abroad and at alternative schools. Later this month 30 Berkeley Carroll High Schools students will travel with Berkeley Carroll to abroad programs where they will be surrounded by culture, language, and life-changing experiences.

Details here, including information on Berkeley Carroll's programs that transcend its parameters.

In Half a Life, the nonfiction account by novelist Darin Strauss in which he recounts how--at age 18--he accidentally killed a bicyclist while driving with friends through Long Island, the author tell us, "My accident was the deepest part of my life, and the second-deepest was hiding it."

Parents are invited to join the audience on Friday, Feb 3, at the Sterling Place building when Mr. Strauss speaks to the High School. Click here for details and more background.

As part of the 20th anniversary celebration of the award-winning Magic Tree House books, author Mary Pope Osborne spoke to the Lower School on January 30, 2012. To date, she has published 49 Magic Tree House books, with more in the pipeline. She talked to the children about her writing process and inspirations, and now the children of the Berkeley Carroll Lower School can look forward to a Magic Tree House book all about Alexander the Great.

Details of the visit by this award-winning author can be seen here.

The Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, located in lower Manhattan, awards Gold and Silver Keys to private school students displaying excellence in the art. This year, several Berkeley Carroll high school artists received awards.

Click here to see the list of Berkeley Carroll high school students whose creative excellence was recognized.

What words of caution might Dorothy Parker have given Daniel Pearl? What advice might Orville Wright have given Amelia Earhart? What questions could Scott Joplin have asked Mozart?

All of these pillars of history, plus dozens more, came together on January 26, 2012, at the annual 8th Grade Living Wax Museum.

Click here for details and photos.

Click here to see the photos from the Upper School production of The Drowsy Chaperone.

On January 19, 2012, Berkeley Carroll’s Middle and Upper School divisions convened at the Athletic Center to honor Dr. Martin Luther King’s legacy in an assembly that managed to be both reverent and offbeat.

To learn more, click here. To view the video created by a small team of seniors in the Film and Video class, click here.

During the Middle and Upper School Candle Lighting ceremony, Upper School teacher Liz Perry spoke about her late grandmother, a "candle," she said, whose light Liz never noticed. "It's astonishing what you don't learn if you don't ask questions," she told the students.

Liz's beautiful speech, along with photos from this time-honored Berkeley Carroll tradition, can be viewed by clicking here.

As long as there's been a Berkeley Carroll, there's been a Berkeley Carroll Candle Lighting ceremony.

During the December 16, 2011, Candle Lighting ceremony, Head of School Bob Vitalo urged Lower School students to "make each day count." He told them, "each day we can make something special happen. By doing that, we can make each day count."

Click here to see why Candle Lighting is such a special part of Berkeley Carroll.

Upper School science teacher Cindy Molk reviews the interviewer's notes, then hands them back. The interviewer, clearly unused to having her supremacy questioned, is nonplussed when she sees the red marks made by Cindy in the margins of her notebook, but Cindy Molk is no ordinary interview. Click on "read more."

On December 8 and 9, 2011, Berkeley Carroll seventh graders—headstrong, dressed to the nines, and carrying ancient hand-me-down briefcases—descended on the United States Bankruptcy Court in Brooklyn.

To find out why, click here.

Click here for details.

Middle School thespians opened the 2011-2012 Season with an adaptation of L.M. Montgomery's literary classic, Anne of Green Gables. Under the direction of Theater Department Chair Carolyn Giles, over 60 middle school actors and stage technicians wowed audiences with their ability to tell a sweet and simple story with grace and theatrical agility.

Click here to see the photos (all photos by Jackie Weisberg)

"There is no act of preparation for good writing," prize-winning author Téa Obreht told the members of the Upper School on November 14, 2011. "The only way to write that one good sentence is to write five bad ones."

Click here to read about Téa Obreht at Berkeley Carroll.

A perfect Marathon Sunday was made even more perfect by the music of the Middle and Upper School jazz bands. Click here for the photos.

Gilda Gross '12 has been named to the roster for the Independent School Girls Soccer team that will play in the Mayor's Cup game against a team representing the PSAL on Sunday, November 20 at Poly Prep. The team was selected by a panel from a list of seniors nominated by their schools for their outstanding play. In addition to Gilda, girls from Poly Prep, Packer, Riverdale, Dalton, and other peer schools will participate. Congratulations to Gilda on her selection and her wonderful four years of play for Berkeley Carroll.

The 7th Grade put their own spin on The Day of the Dead, a Mexican holiday focusing on death. The celebration takes place on November 1–2, in connection with the All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day. Traditionally, celebrants build private altars honoring the deceased using sugar skulls and the favorite foods and beverages of the departed.

The group of seventh graders who often gather at break times in the Library to read stories to each other had previously proclaimed their mission: "We are the Reading Angels. Our mission is to defeat those who find words boring. By reading stories out loud we can make the world even more awesome!"

To read how the Middle School took on Banned Book Week 2011, click here.

Here's what Middle Schoolers did over their summer vacation --- they read, read, read, read, and read (note: summer may be over but they're still reading). Some read an awesome, inspiring amount. Click to see -- it's quite impressive.

Visiting Writer Alex Prud’homme told Berkeley Carroll's Upper School on September 28, 2011, that “the conflict in Darfur is arguably a water war on some level. Water will be the defining resource of the next century. Oil dominated the geopolitics of the last century, but that was an exception. For most of history, water has been the crucial resource."

To read the details of Alex Prud’homme's visit, click here. This Visiting Writer is a Berkeley Carroll parent.

The Lower School welcomed 84 new students and 23 new faculty members, along with all the returners. Welcome back!

Click here to see the photos from the September 14, 2011, reception for parents new to the school. Parents from all three divisions met faculty members and were greeted by members of the Berkeley Carroll administration.

The 2011 Yearbook won a silver medalist award from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association. Congratulations to editors Drew Stazesky '12 and Sophie Deverell '12 and the rest of the Yearbook staff.

Before the beginning of the school year, Peer Leaders go on a retreat in order to prepare for their roles as teachers, leaders, and role models. Led by their faculty advisor, they take on team-building and problem-solving activities, reflect on their own leadership styles, and learn tools for effective communication. The retreat is not only mandatory for prospective Peer Leaders but is often a life-changing experience as they head into their senior year.

Berkeley Carroll is eager to welcome everyone back to school, including the 84 new members of the Lower School, 26 members of the Middle School, 33 members of the Upper School, and the 23 new members of the faculty (click here to see their photos).

The first day of school is next week! Students and parents, if you're looking for supply lists or want to be sure that summer assignments have been completed, look at Parent Downloads. Schedules are on the online calendar.

See you next week! Everyone at Berkeley Carroll is looking forward to a great school year.

Congratulations to the 55 members of the class of 2011.

At the June 9, 2011, Middle School Closing Ceremonies seventh grade speaker Tom Shea told the audience that change is not always easy but, speaking for his fellow seventh graders and perhaps everyone in the audience, they learned things this year that might be useful later in life.

Click here for details. To see photos of the 253 members of the Middle School, click here.