On the morning of September 5, Roxbury Latin’s newest cohort of 46 sixies, nine Class I leaders, and several faculty and staff 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. The boys were also encouraged to ask for help from the adults present, but warned that the adults were encouraged to provide the boys with false answers—the only time this would happen during the boys’ time at Roxbury Latin!

Throughout the day, the boys engaged in many longstanding RL activities, such as Flip Flop, orienteering explorations, field games, and ropes course challenges, supported by Class VI Dean Sarah Demers 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. 

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.View a complete gallery of images from this year’s Beaver Brook adventures.

“As we start this new school year, as we contemplate all the great things in store for us, I want to encourage all of us to quiet the noise,” began Head of School Dr. Sam Schaffer on Monday, August 25, during the traditional Opening of Fall Term Hall, commencing Roxbury Latin’s 381st year. “I hope that as we arrive back on campus, and as we take on this new school year, that we can use our time together at Roxbury Latin as a way to quiet the noise, focus on what is truly important, and have a great year.”

Together in Rousmaniere Hall, along with new and returning faculty and staff, were 308 boys, 63 new to the RL community—all ready to kick off the year together.

In opening, Dr. Schaffer went on to recognize the boys in Classes I and VI, those oldest and youngest in the school, as they stood to applause and recognition from the community. He also highlighted the 18, or nearly 40%, of faculty members who have taught for fifteen years or more at RL. English and Classics faculty member, Mo Randall, impressively begins his 50th year teaching at the school, tying him for the longest serving faculty member at the school alongside William Cole Collar, whose 1895 “Address at the School’s 250th Anniversary Exercises” was read at the beginning of Hall by Class I President Danny Tobin. Dr. Schaffer also offered gratitude for the work of various individuals over the summer, who carefully maintained and prepared the school for the arrival of a new academic year.

Dr. Schaffer began his opening address with an anecdote about when he was a tight end on his Georgia high school’s football team. He reflected on a moment in his high school career when he had a chance to be the hero of the game, scoring a touchdown to break a tied game and secure his team’s victory. As he was inching closer toward the end zone, he reflected on all of the things running through his head, the reaction of the crowd, the recognition the following day, and what college scouts would think, when a tackle blindsided him. “All the distractions, all the things competing for my focus—rather than listening to it, I would have been better served by quieting that noise,” he explained.

In a world full of noise, external and interpersonal pressures, and uncertainty, Roxbury Latin serves as a refuge from these things, from the noise, he asserted. “Roxbury Latin allows us to focus on what is important,” Dr. Schaffer stated: character, honesty in all dealings, the life of the mind, service to others, a sound mind in a sound body, and several more essential ideals that foster a community of generalists and academically gifted, good-natured boys. “I want to encourage you to quiet the noise so that you can nourish your mind and your body and your spirit. I want to encourage you to quiet the noise, so that you can amplify what is within.”

Students, faculty, and staff then gathered along the newly-refurbished outdoor walkways and around the Senior Grass, relishing the cooling air of late-August, to welcome new members to the community and wish one another a wonderful school year.

Read Dr. Schaffer’s opening Hall talk in its entirety.

Watch the morning’s Opening of School Hall.

View a gallery of photos from Opening Day.

Each fall, Roxbury Latin welcomes a new cohort of faculty, staff, and students to campus. This year, three full-time faculty members join RL’s roster of educators, coaches, advisors, and community members.

Mysha Kuhlmann will be RL’s first Director of Counseling. Ms. Kuhlmann is a remarkable educator who comes to us with a deep well of experience and understanding in the field of school counseling. She has spent the past four years as Director of Counseling and School Psychologist at Thayer Academy; before that, she served for four years as the school psychologist in Andover Public High Schools; and prior to that she spent four years as the school psychologist and counselor at Rockport Middle Schools. In those roles she has counseled students, developed programming for students and faculty and parents, supervised counselors, created academic support plans, advised students, and mentored a variety of groups. Most fittingly, Ms. Kuhlmann has always been in schools, beginning her career as a middle school English teacher, science teacher, and learning specialist at KIPP charter schools in Houston, Texas, and Lynn, Massachusetts, as well as serving as a fifth-grade homeroom teacher in Boston Public Schools. Hailing originally from the Lone Star State, Ms. Kuhlmann holds a B.S. in applied learning and development from the University of Texas at Austin, an M.A. in special education from Loyola Marymount University, and an Ed.S. in school psychology from the University of Massachusetts, Boston. We are excited not only about the new position but also the person filling it: Ms. Kuhlmann will enhance the Roxbury Latin community.

Sophie Brett joins the long line of distinguished educators at RL to have graduated from Bowdoin College. With a B.A. in neuroscience and education and a minor in computer science, Ms. Brett brings a scholar’s approach to the classroom as well as a teacher’s. She has served as a research fellow at the Temple Center for High Performance Computing and a researcher at Bowdoin’s SciEPlay Project, as well as a substitute teacher in the Brunswick, Maine, school system and a tutor in the Bowdoin chemistry department. Her extracurricular involvement and leadership runs deep, as well: not only was she the head proctor in the Office of Residential Life at Bowdoin but she is a four-year letter winner for both the Bowdoin women’s varsity sailing and lacrosse teams (thus, eight letters!) and was selected as captain of the lacrosse team this past year. With her wide-ranging experiences, Ms. Brett will teach IPS and Science and Technology, and she will help coach junior varsity soccer and lacrosse.

Katie Armstrong arrives at 101 St. Theresa Ave. fresh from the reaches of western Massachusetts as a recent alumna of Williams College, where she majored in English and psychology, was a member of the varsity women’s ice hockey team, and earned honors as a two-year NESCAC All-Academic. For someone her age, Ms. Armstrong has a remarkable amount of experience working with young people, having served as a teaching fellow for three years at North Adams Greylock Elementary School; taught introductory courses as a Choate Rosemary Hall Summer Programs teaching intern; mentored high school students looking to play collegiate hockey; and been a counselor and director at the Belmont Hill School Summer Camp for six summers. No stranger to independent schools, Ms. Armstrong is a proud alum of Nobles (for which we will forgive her), where she was a member of the Cum Laude Society, co-captain of the varsity ice hockey and softball teams, and the recipient of the Davis Cup for sportsmanship. Ms. Armstrong will teach Class VI history and Class V English and will help coach junior soccer and thirds ice hockey.

Roxbury Latin is also the beneficiary of a remarkably talented group of faculty and staff, all of whom are willing to serve in many roles. To that end, the following familiar individuals will take on additional responsibilities at the school.

Elizabeth Carroll will take on the role of Dean of Academics, in which she will help envision, oversee, and implement the school’s academic curriculum, from course selection and scheduling to grading and communication to course offerings.

Meredith Reynolds will become the Co-Director of the College Guidance Office, a position suited to her experience and contributions to that important element of school life as a thoughtful, innovative, and caring advocate for RL boys and our school.

Sarah Demers will take on the role of Class VI Dean, extending her expert and loving care for the Sixie class as they learn how to be Roxbury Latin boys.

Chris Brown, a former Penn Fellow himself and the assistant director of the program the past few years, will take on the role of Director of our Penn Fellows Program.

Jim Ryan, with his steadfast and lifelong commitment to serving those around him, as well as his organizational talents, will take on the role of Director of Community Service.

“In my first year at Roxbury Latin, I have witnessed many wonderful things, and among those is the unparalleled generosity of this community,” Head of School Sam Schaffer wrote in an email to the RL community on July 22. His message was an expression of gratitude, thanking this past year’s donors for the more than $4,900,000 given in support of the Annual Fund in 2024-2025, setting a new fundraising record. The Annual Fund achieved 99% parent participation, 100% faculty participation, and over 50% alumni participation. The funds raised will continue to help cover the $32,240 gap between tuition and the cost of educating each boy, and will allow RL to continue to charge roughly $22,000 less per boy than other Boston-area schools. Ultimately, this support allows RL to democratically assemble the most capable, bright, aspiring group of boys, regardless of their families’ means, and to bring together and support the most talented, dedicated group of teachers to know and love those boys. “You may rest assured that we pass along this commitment to our current boys, who know that ‘from those to whom much is given, much is expected,’” Dr. Schaffer noted. “They, too, I am sure, will heed this call in the future.”

Every July since 2017, Roxbury Latin has hosted the now annual Boswords Summer Crossword Tournament—the brainchild of puzzle enthusiasts John Lieb, chair of RL’s Math Department, and alumnus and former faculty member Andrew Kingsley ’12. On July 27, in collaboration with the Boston Globe Globe Games team, Roxbury Latin will host the 2025 Boswords Summer Crossword Tournament on campus. The Boswords Summer Tournament is a one-day crossword competition in which participants solve five puzzles over the course of the afternoon and may participate either as an individual or as part of a pair. The Boswords team is expecting attendance from 200+ crossword enthusiasts for a day of fun and puzzle-solving.

Learn more about the tournament and the team—and register to be part of the fun!—at https://www.boswords.org/.

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 chosen modern language.

Leia os relatos em primeira mão dos estudantes e veja fotos das suas aventuras nos seguintes blogs de viagens da RL:

França

Espanha

Additionally, be sure to follow Roxbury Latin on Instagram at @RoxburyLatin to stay up-to-date on student stories from the trips.  

The National Merit Scholarship Program has recently announced its selection of 2,500 scholarship winners, chosen from a pool of 15,000 talented high school senior finalists nationwide. Raj Saha, a recent graduate in the Class of 2025, earned a $2,500 scholarship toward college next year, representing less than 1% of the initial entrants. Raj will be attending Harvard College beginning in the fall. 

The National Merit Scholarship Program selection process began in October 2023, when roughly 1.5 million juniors took the PSAT, or the National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. In addition to Raj, 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.

It is a great honor to have a National Merit Scholarship winner in a graduating senior class of 56. Congratulations to all of the RL boys who received recognition from the National Merit Scholarship Program this year.

In this 67th annual National Merit Scholarship competition, awards are supported by the organization and approximately 400 businesses and educational institutions, to “honor the nation’s scholastic champions and encourage the pursuit of academic excellence.” About 1.5 million juniors in more than 21,000 high schools entered the 2025 National Merit Scholarship program by taking the 2023 PSAT, which serves as an initial screen of program entrants. Scholarship recipients are selected on the basis of their skills, accomplishments, and potential for academic success at the college level.

On May 31, the 380th year of The Roxbury Latin School culminated with Closing Exercises and the graduation of the Class of 2025. The traditional and intimate ceremony—which includes the seniors, their families, the faculty and trustees—took place in Rousmaniere Hall. Immediately after the ceremony, the 56 newest alumni of The Roxbury Latin School celebrated on the Senior Grass with classmates, family members, and faculty members. (View a gallery of images from the morning.)

Beginning with opening remarks from Head of School Dr. Sam Schaffer—which acknowledged the triumphs of this particular group of boys, and also noted their many, worthy accomplishments—the ceremony included the singing of America The Beautiful, Commemoration Hymn, and The Founder’s Song. The ringing of the school bell, chiming 2-0-2-5, officially marked the end of the school year.

Class valedictorian, elected by his classmates, was Raj Saha, whose speech explored the everlasting community formed while being a student at RL. “The joy of brotherly friendship, the grit forged through our struggle, the curiosity to understand and examine our world, the everlasting commitment to service—they are the gifts of RL that have found a home in us just as much as we have found a home in RL.” Read his remarks in full here.

The powerful and inspiring commencement address was delivered by Amanda Cook, Vice President and Editorial Director at Crown Publishing, and mother to graduating senior Oliver Cook and alumnus Aidan Cook ’20. Mrs. Cook explored the power of stories and storytelling, reflecting on some beloved books and extolling the many benefits of reading, for our minds and our souls.. She implored the audience to read, and insisted that in today’s world, in which technology demands so much of our attention, reading can be a radical act. Read Mrs. Cook’s address in full.

Following the ceremony’s addresses, Head of School Schaffer and President of the Board of Trustees Ethan Berman ’79 awarded diplomas to the 56 newest alumni of The Roxbury Latin School.

Three major Class I prizes were also awarded during the Closing Ceremonies:

The Richard A. Berenberg Prize, for generosity of spirit and concern for others, was presented to Darian Estrada.

The Class of 1913 Award, for significant contributions to the life of the school, was presented to Brendan Reichard.

The William Coe Collar Award, for achievements and contributions to the school that are deemed by the faculty as most deserving of recognition, was presented to Raj Saha.