The National Merit Scholarship Program recently announced the names of Class of 2025 students across the country who earned recognition for their academic achievement. This year, 28 Roxbury Latin boys were named—seven as National Merit Scholar semifinalists and twenty-one others earning commendations from program officials, equating to 50% of the class.

Juniors from across the United States entered the 2025 National Merit Scholarship program by taking the 2023 PSAT. The nationwide pool of semifinalists, representing less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state, while commended students placed among the top 50,000 students who entered. Scholarship recipients are selected on the basis of their skills, accomplishments, and potential for academic success at the college level.

It is estimated annually that from the approximately 16,000 semifinalists, about 15,000 will advance to become finalists, making them eligible for 6,870 National Merit Scholarships nationwide. The organization, along with several hundred independent businesses and companies, support the awards totaling over $33 million. 

Roxbury Latin boys earning recognition this year include semifinalists Darian Estrada, Levi Harrison, Xavier Martin, Krish Muniappan, Brendan Reichard, Raj Saha, and Daniel Stepanyan; and commendation recipients Miles Baumal-Bardy, Lucas Connors, Alex Giordano, Zach Heaton, Josh Hua, Bruno Kim, Justin Lim, Nick Makura, Ben McVane, Ryan Miller, Lucas Numa, Cole Oberg, Eliot Park, Devan Rajagopalan, Calvin Reid, Robbie Sun-Friedman, Jack Sweet, Quinn Thomson, Isaac Frehywot, Oliver van den Bosch, and Nathan Zhang. 

One of Roxbury Latin’s goals is to foster a community of “accomplished generalists.” In other words, it encourages boys to be passionate about and involved in many different things. A terrific example of this is Class II student Max Kesselheim, whose love of both politics and humor informed the research behind his article “How funny will Kamala Harris be?” which was picked up and posted by political news outlet The Hill.

The variety of opportunities at RL has allowed Max to explore outlets for his love of humor, including writing funny articles for the literary magazine The Forum and the school newspaper The Tripod, acting in and stage-directing comedies through the drama program, and participating in the humor-catered sector of the Debate Club. Yet, like most RL boys, there was something else that piqued his interest: U.S. politics.

“I have been starting to increase my political intake as this election gets closer, because of the impact it could have on the present and the future of our country,” says Max. Thus, the question arose: How could he explore these topics of interest simultaneously? The answer: the RL Connected internship program. While working with Assistant Head of School Tom Guden, who facilitates the program, Max learned he could spend his summer conducting research.

Over the summer, Max created and implemented a dedicated schedule and method to obtain the data necessary to write the article. “I set up a coding scheme… lists of the context, type, and intended outcome of each joke,” he said. He used this system every Wednesday and Thursday night when watching YouTube videos of the past 28 Presidential State of the Union addresses, spanning seven presidential terms and five presidents. With the data collected and a resulting article crafted, Max looked for a tangible way to highlight the work and time spent over the summer as the end of August drew near.

When selecting the right place to submit his article, he looked for key things like the rapid processing of an online platform instead of print, the legitimacy of the news outlet, and the accessibility for someone like him, a high school student in Boston, to contribute. “I came across The Hill because it has an online [component], is well known, is based in D.C., and accepts external op-ed submissions.” After a conversation and some suggested changes from one of the editors at The Hill, Max learned his article would be published the morning after he submitted his final edits! “It was exciting; I showed it to a bunch of my family members… I sent it to a bunch of teachers” (Mr. Beam, Mr. Smith, Mr. Sokol, and Dr. Schaffer, to name a few). 

Aside from the incredible opportunity and memorable achievement, a key takeaway proved to be the realizability of the task. “I want to highlight how doable something like this is… it’s really just the fact that two of my main interests could be combined, and I found a way to combine them.”

Read Max’s article published in The Hill on August 29, 2024.

View the Beaver Brook Photo Gallery (Photos by Marcus Miller)

On the morning of September 6, Roxbury Latin’s newest cohort of 43 Sixies, nine Class I leaders, Head of School Dr. Schaffer, and several faculty members departed campus for Hollis, New Hampshire, for the annual Class VI trip to Beaver Brook. 

After disembarking the bus and gathering their equipment, the boys faced their first challenge: true or false trivia about their beloved school. Using whatever they could find as a desk, including but not limited to the backs of their classmates, the boys approached each question with careful thought and a hint of friendly competition, not entirely dissimilar to when in class. 

Throughout the day, the boys engaged in many longstanding RL activities, such as Numbers, Flip Flop, and ropes course challenges, supported by Class VI Dean Elizabeth Carroll and other RL faculty. As day turned to night, the boys shared laughs and spirited conversation over dinner and then settled for a viewing of the 1975 film Twelve Angry Men, promptly followed by a discussion and reflection. The dynamic conversation continued to the roaring campfire outside as everyone gathered for s’mores and the task of learning The Founder’s Song. (With this new institutional knowledge, Class VI boys can confidently join in singing at the next Hall!) As it approached time to unfurl the sleeping bags and retreat to tents, students and faculty were ready for a restful, albeit short, night’s sleep. 

The following day, the boys gathered for breakfast, after which they received hand-written letters from their big brothers. The valued tradition fosters community and connection between the youngest and oldest students at RL. Using these notes as inspiration, the boys crafted a letter for themselves to read when they return to Beaver Brook as a class once more as seniors.

After an eventful 24 hours, the bus full of students left the New Hampshire woods for the wooded campus nestled in West Roxbury. The delight, camaraderie, and touch of exhaustion from lack of sleep were felt throughout the bus on the ride home. While the boys have now closed the chapter on one RL tradition, they are met with a forged story of brotherhood.

Each fall, Roxbury Latin welcomes a new cohort of faculty, staff, and students to campus. This year, in addition to new Head of School Dr. Sam Schaffer, six faculty and staff from a variety of backgrounds and areas of expertise join RL’s roster of educators, coaches, advisors, and community members. 

Anthony D’Amato joins RL as a member of the Science and Math departments, where he will teach IPS and Math 7 to our younger boys. Anthony is no stranger to teaching and coaching at boys’ schools: He has taught chemistry and coached baseball at Xaverian Brothers H.S. just down the road, and prior to that he taught biology and chemistry and coached baseball at BC High for five years. Most recently, Anthony pursued a career in the corporate world, working in business development and instructional design at Recorded Futures, a cybersecurity company, where his role was developing curriculum and training materials for their products. Thankfully for us the call of teaching was strong, and Anthony was eager to get back to the classroom. He earned his bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from Loyola University in Maryland where he was a member of the Division 1 swim team, and he earned his master’s degree in education at Boston College. At RL, Anthony will also coach middle school soccer and JV baseball.

Jon Doerer joins us as one of two new Penn Fellows. As he works toward his master’s degree in education, he will teach advanced level Algebra to Class V and Precalculus to Class II. Jon earned his bachelor’s degree in sociology and his master’s in management from University of Notre Dame, where he was the kicker for the football team for four years. His undergraduate experience included studying abroad in South Africa, and most recently Jon has served as a middle school teacher in a North Carolina public school, where he has worked to foster a classroom culture of “positive thinking, persistence, and integrity.” An exemplary high school athlete on his football and track teams (named “Kicker of the Year” in Charlotte and ranked third nationally), Jon will help coach both Varsity football and JV basketball.

Lisa Kostur is a consummate generalist, bringing a variety of passions, talents, and expertise to Roxbury Latin. Multilingual (including in French, Italian, and Latin), Lisa will serve primarily as a member of our Modern Languages department, teaching sections of French 2 and French 3. She has taught French at the college level as a teaching fellow at Harvard for the past four years. Prior to that, Lisa was a professional dancer for ten years—a member of the Compagnie Pal Frenak traveling throughout Europe as part of more than 200 performances. Lisa taught dance and dance history in France from 2007 to 2010. At RL, she will teach Class VI Dance and assist with choreography in drama productions, and also serve as RL’s Director of Travel. Lisa earned her bachelor’s degree cum laude in French, with minors in dance and English, from Barnard College, and she earned her master’s in French from Harvard University.

Kerin Maguire joins RL as our new Assistant Director of External Relations, working closely with Erin Berg and Marcus Miller to tell the “RL story” through a variety of media throughout the year. Kerin has spent the last five years in higher ed, working in admission and financial aid at Harvard Kennedy School, and in student programming and campus life at Tufts, where she supported a board of 25 elected students in planning and executing more than 40 events each school year. Prior to that, Kerin was a coordinator for Ali Krieger Football Camps, creating content to market and advertise the camps, running the organization’s social media channels, and developing relationships with vendors and other partner organizations. Kerin earned her bachelor’s degree in English at Dickinson College, and she earned her master’s in sports industry management from Georgetown University.

Erin Sutton will serve as Roxbury Latin’s Chair of the Arts Department, bringing a broad range of skills to both the making and the teaching of art. Named Massachusetts’ Secondary Art Educator of the Year in 2022, Erin has been teaching art to high school students for 14 years, most recently in the Lawrence and Lynn public school systems. She has devoted her career to helping students develop their own artistic voices and agency, competence and confidence, in a range of media, from painting and drawing to glass-fusing and mural-making. An artist in her own right, she has amassed an impressive portfolio of juried group exhibitions, commissioned art projects, and solo exhibitions. At RL she will work closely with colleagues and students across the arts—visual, dramatics, music—to build on strengths and evolve the program in meaningful ways. She will teach students in Arts 7, Arts 8, Arts 9, Mixed Media (Arts 10), Applied Art (Class I and II), and assist with drama and outdoor program trips.

Andrew White, RL Class of 2018, has been a familiar face in our Halls of late, teaching various levels of classical languages in the winter/spring of 2024 as a long-term substitute. That return to RL further kindled a passion for teaching, and this year Andrew will join us full-time as a Penn Fellow and a teacher in the Classics department. Andrew earned his bachelor’s degree magna cum laude in Classics from Princeton University, and he has taught and worked with young people in various capacities over recent years, including as a fellow at Princeton’s Writing Center and as a lead teacher of RL’s i2 STEM camp. Andrew has further honed his musical, journalistic, and classical chops in a variety of extracurriculars, first seeded at Roxbury Latin (in certamens, Tripod, Glee Club, Latonics) and continuing through Princeton: He was vice president of the Princeton Classics Club, an editor of the Nassau Weekly (Princeton’s student newspaper), and president of the Princeton Tigertones, an all-male a capella group. This year at RL, Andrew will teach Latin 1 and Honors Greek, coach middle school soccer, and assist with debate and drama.

Sam Schaffer is the 12th head of The Roxbury Latin School following an extensive career in education, most recently as Head of Upper School at St. Albans, an independent boys’ school in Washington, DC. Dr. Schaffer graduated from the University of North Carolina summa cum laude and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. After spending a year teaching at Groton, he joined the St. Albans community, where he spent six years as a dorm parent, history teacher, advisor, and varsity football and basketball coach. Dr. Schaffer left St. Albans to pursue a graduate degree in history from Yale, earning his PhD in 2010. From 2007 to 2011, he worked as a fellow and coordinator at Yale’s McDougal Graduate Teaching Center, organizing workshops for teachers across disciplines. Dr. Shaffer returned to St. Albans in 2012 as the Assistant then Associate Dean of Faculty, while also serving as Assistant Director of College Counseling, teaching history, and coaching at various levels, before becoming Head of the Upper School in 2021. 

Read Dr. Schaffer’s full biography.

On August 23, the last Friday before the new academic year, Roxbury Latin faculty and staff—new and returning!—gathered for a series of school-wide updates and meetings. This year the schedule included a presentation and discussion on Stress, Technology, and Learning by Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath, PhD, MEd, in a continued effort to provide professional development opportunities for faculty and staff, all to enhance the work they do in teaching, coaching, advising, and supporting boys. 

Dr. Cooney Horvath, an educator and neuroscientist, studies the impact of technology on learning and the physiological, social, and mechanical reasoning for this impact. The presentation highlighted two key points: that safe and emotionally connected relationships are the driver of learning, and that technology should be used only as a necessity to aid in learning, not as a convenience or due to ease of access. The first point, in particular, resonated with each person in the room, as Roxbury Latin prides itself not only on the academic program of the school, but the student and faculty-staff relationships that are at the heart of the community. 

Roxbury Latin continues to support the ongoing education of faculty and staff through professional development opportunities and experiences, as well as continued community-wide initiatives throughout the academic year.

Mere hours after Roxbury Latin celebrated the year’s Closing Exercises, dozens of students and faculty members departed for Europe to partake in RL’s long-standing—and often transformative—cultural immersion programs. Students in French and Spanish courses are testing their language skills and experiencing life, language, and learning in France and Spain. This experience involves month-long stays in Caen, France, and Cádiz, Spain—including homestays with local families and academic work in their elected modern language.

Read the students’ firsthand accounts and view photos from their adventures at the following RL travel blogs:

France

Spain