September 23 Highlights

Wellness Update | S tudent Support | Overnight Excuses

Family Weekend October 22–24

We look forward to welcoming families back to campus in just a few weeks! Family Weekend, October 22–24, provides a unique glimpse into your child’s daily life at Andover, with activities such as classroom visits with your child’s instructors, student performances, and athletic events.

To assist you with planning, here are some important Family Weekend details:

A full schedule of events will be available on the Andover Event Guides App. You can download the app (if you haven’t already done so for the Opening of School) either through the Apple App Store or Google Play. The Family Weekend App, complete with schedules and other important information, will be published and ready to download to your mobile devices as we get closer to Family Weekend.
Student schedules for Saturday morning classroom visits will be available on The Hive prior to Family Weekend. Please download The Hive App from Google Play or the Apple App Store.
On Saturday, October 23, you will have the opportunity to attend small group meetings with your child’s primary on-campus contact person. The contact for boarding students is the house counselor; the contact for day students is the day student advisor. Given the number of events scheduled throughout the weekend, teachers do not hold individual conferences with parents or guardians but are happy to have a phone conversation or to correspond via email.
Please reference the Family Weekend FAQ document for answers to questions such as:

– May we take our student off campus? We hope that our fully vaccinated students will be able to receive overnight permissions over Family Weekend. We will continue to update you as we open up permissions further.

Further Family Weekend questions? Please contact Mary Corcoran, Alumni Engagement coordinator, at 978-749-4524 or Carla Castillo, Alumni Engagement administrative assistant, at 978-749-4289.

In consideration of the health and safety of visitors and our campus community, we ask that attendees be fully vaccinated and wear masks for indoor events. Please monitor your health prior to visiting campus. If you are feeling unwell, please plan to stay home. Thank you!

Campus Health & Wellness Update

Please note the following information from Medical Director Amy Patel, MD, as of Wednesday, September 22.

Current PA Campus/Community Risk Level: Yellow (lower risk)

Public health guiding principles: Campus, town, county, state data.

Campus community members in isolation = 1
Campus community members in quarantine = 0
Number of new positive test results from campus testing past 7 days = 0
Campus testing positivity rate past 7 days = 0%
The town of Andover: 20.4 daily cases per 100
Essex County: 25.9 daily cases per 100
Massachusetts COVID-19 risk level is “very high”: 27.8 daily cases per 100k

Numbers in isolation/quarantine above reflect all individuals that have been tested on/off campus and have informed the wellness center team.

COVID-19 Vaccination Update:

PA students: 99% have received 1+ dose, 95.8% fully vaccinated
Commonwealth of Massachusetts: 76.8% have received 1+ dose, 67.3% fully vaccinated

COVID-19 Testing:

Results:
– 9/16: 0 of 1183 positive
– 9/20: 0 of 107 positive
We are currently testing all students and employees who are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated, students and employees with compromised immunity who have opted into testing, or those students who have left campus for 1+ overnights.
Testing remains on Mondays/Thursday. Please have saliva sample in collection box in the Sykes Wellness vestibule no later than 9am. You may submit a sample the night before.
Students who receive overnight permission must check back onto campus through Sykes Wellness Center to pick up saliva testing tubes. These students will be added to the testing cohort the following two test dates.

Flu Clinic for Students: Students will be offered the flu vaccine during Family Weekend on Friday, October 22, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. More info to come!

Get Ten Percent Happier: Through the generosity of Ten Percent Happier, we are excited to offer every PA student and member of our community (parents too!) a free one-year subscription to the Ten Percent Happier meditation app. The 12-month promotional period will begin once the code is redeemed. We hope you encourage your student to take advantage of this amazing resource

Download the Ten Percent Happier Meditation App on your Apple or Android device.
Go to their website and enter code PHILLIPSACADEMY12HXR and create or login to your account.
Go back to the app on your mobile device and login to the same account and everything will be unlocked.

Patience and Grit!

As we head into fall, the weather is changing and students’ workloads are building. There will be emotional ups and downs in classes and in daily life both on and off campus. We hope your student is practicing patience and having faith in the journey in all their classes this term. Here are two links to helpful articles for parents: Raising Teens and Returning to School. Both were sent to us from Dr. Suniya Luthar, whose research involves vulnerability and resilience among various populations, including youth in poverty, children in families affected by mental illness, and youth and parents (especially mothers) in high-achieving, pressured communities.

Support on Campus: Here are some of the resources available when your child needs support.

1. The Academic Skills Center—Open Monday–Friday. Students can meet with a specialist to work on:

Time management
Organization
Study skills

Students can also request a peer tutor for math, computer science, biology, chemistry, physics, and world languages.

2. Study Centers—Open Monday–Thursday, 8–9:15 p.m.

Math—staffed by at least one math teacher
Science—staffed by at least one science teacher
Writing—trained peer tutors are available

3. Quiet Study Spaces—Academic Skills Center (Monday–Thursday, 9 a.m.–6 p.m.); Gelb Science Center (Monday–Thursday, 8–9:15 p.m.)

Overnight Excuse and College Visit Process

Now that students can request overnight excuses for certain leaves, we have rebooted the use of REACH Boarding, a Cloud-based product for managing overnight excuses for boarding students and college visits for both boarding and day students.

The student initiates the leave request that must receive approval from multiple individuals before it is fully approved. Parents are a key part of the approval process. You will receive an email from “no-reply@reachboarding.com.” The email will contain detailed information about the leave including where the student is going, dates, times, and modes of transportation. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the email and either click Approve Request or Decline Request. If you approve the request, it goes to either the house counselor or cluster dean for final approval. If you reject the request, it goes no further and is cancelled.

For now, only certain leaves are being approved:

Fully vaccinated boarding students may request day excuses from cluster deans to attend club sport commitments, auditions, music/dance/theatre rehearsals and time-sensitive activities such as college visits and family events. Except for college visits, these leave types do not require creating a REACH leave.
Fully vaccinated boarding students may request overnight permissions from their cluster dean to attend club sport commitments, auditions, music/dance/theatre rehearsals and time-sensitive activities such as approved college visits and significant family events.

These conditions have been implemented to minimize the number of students off campus, minimize public transportation use, and minimize exposures. Please email Claudia Scofield if you have questions about REACH Boarding.

News from the PSPA

We are excited to share that we are partnering with Dean of Studies Raj Mundra as he creates a “Curriculum 101” video, which you can expect to see prior to Family Weekend. We will also be partnering with Raj to coordinate a series of speaker events focusing on various academic areas. Please fill out the following Google Forum – Curriculum 101 by Monday, September 27, with questions you would like to have answered in the video as well as specific areas that you would like to learn more about via speaker events throughout the year.

If you have recently expressed an interest in volunteering, you should have received an email including this volunteer Google form. It’s not too late to fill out the form! We welcome any help you can provide.

Virtual Book Club Meeting—Sunday, November 7, 8–9 p.m. EDT: All are welcome to our first book club meeting. We will be discussing The Vanishing Half, by Brit Bennet. Please email us so we can send you a Zoom invitation.

Catholic Confirmation Program

This year’s Catholic Confirmation program begins Sunday, October 3, and is open to all grades. It is an intensive program that meets most weeks when school is in session and is designed to be completed in Andover’s academic school year. The Confirmation Mass will be in May 2022.

First class: Sunday, October 3, 5:30–6:30 p.m., followed by the 6:45 p.m. Mass on campus. At this first class, all the details of the program and of the year will be presented. Many students have already signed up. If your student is interested and has not signed up yet, please email Dr. Mary Kantor, Catholic chaplain.

This Week’s Religious Services

Please note: Masks will be required at ALL indoor gatherings.

Friday, September 24
1 p.m.—Muslim Student Association (MSA) Prayers: Led by Noureddine El-Alam. Meditation Room, side entrance on lower level of Cochran Chapel.

5:30–6:30 p.m.—Jewish Shabbat Service and JSU Meeting: Led by Rabbi Michael Swarttz. We will gather in Paul’s Room, second floor of Paresky Commons. All are welcome!

Sunday, September 26
6 p.m.—Ecumenical Protestant Worship: Led by Rev. Gina M. Finocchiaro, interim Protestant chaplain. Music by Michael Belcher. All are welcome for this time of scripture, prayer, spoken reflection, and music! This week we will gather inside the main chapel of Cochran Chapel.

6:45–7:30 p.m.—Roman Catholic Mass: Overseen by Dr. Mary Kantor, Catholic chaplain, with priests of the Archdiocese of Boston presiding. Kemper Chapel, side entrance on lower level of Cochran Chapel. Reception will follow.

Five on The Hive

Visit The Hive regularly for lots of useful information, including:

Photo galleries
Course of Study
Academic calendars
Your student’s team members
Recent and archived publications and videos

You Are Invited!

October 3 on Campus and Online: Celebration of the Life of Olohiye “Lohi” Ehimiaghe ’21
October 4: Blue Runs Deep Industry Series: A Conversation with Alumni in Law
October 5 in Boston: Excellence at Our Core, with Head of School Raynard S. Kington, MD, PhD, P’24
October 7: Excellence at Our Core, with Head of School Raynard S. Kington, MD, PhD, P’24
October 22–24 on Campus: Family Weekend 2021
October 29: Andover Alumni Award of Distinction 2021
November 6 in New York: Meals on Wheels Non Sibi Project, with Marcia McCabe ’73
November 8: Blue Runs Deep Industry Series: A Conversation with Alumni in Medicine
November 11 on Campus and Online: 12th Annual Veterans Day Program and Dinner, with LCDR Ali Ghaffari ’98
November 18: Excellence at Our Core, with Head of School Raynard S. Kington, MD, PhD, P’24

All events are virtual unless otherwise noted. Please join us!

Please check the Events Calendar on Andover's website regularly for additional in-person and online events that may be open to families. The Weekender, the Academy’s one-stop guide to upcoming campus activities, events, and performances for students, is posted on The Hive.

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Phillips Academy
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Andover, MA 01810

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