| Registration is open for Reunion Weekend 2025 We are so excited to welcome you back for Reunion 2025 next fall, September 19-21. Click here or on the button below to register. Everyone is welcome to attend Reunion 2025, with a special welcome to classes ending in 5s and 0s. If you'd like to contact your class personally, email us, and we can send you a list. Please reach out to your classmates, and encourage them to attend Reunion 2025! Don't forget to check back on the Reunion webpage throughout the spring and summer for event updates.  |
Searching for Life on Europa Human nature presupposes a certain curiosity about the world, both here on Earth, and also in the worlds that could exist outside of what is known. For most of us, we must be content with the imagining. But for some intrepid adventurers, bridging this divide between what is tangible and right in front of our eyes with what has yet to be discovered is the work of a lifetime. For Burr and Burton alumnus and NASA scientist Dr. Kevin Hand ’93, these worlds that seem so unknowable to the rest of us are getting closer to discovery, one mission at a time. As a Project Scientist for the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Europa Clipper Mission, Kevin has been working to discover life on other planets. The Europa Clipper Mission launched in October 2024, and it is the first NASA mission to study Jupiter’s moon Europa. There is evidence that the building blocks of life may exist within Jupiter’s icy moon. This type of work is not for the faint of heart, or for the impatient. The Europa Clipper will take nearly six years to orbit Jupiter in April of 2030. In his search for life outside of Earth, Kevin’s work has taken him to the depths of our own Earthly oceans to chronicle the building blocks of life on our planet. He has worked with Hollywood filmmaker James Cameron, of Titanic and Avatar fame, making nine dives to the bottom of the ocean. Kevin’s work is featured in Cameron’s 2005 film, Aliens of the Deep. And, Kevin has authored Alien Oceans: The Search for Life in the Depths of Space. In our 2025 spring issue of The VIEW, we sit down with Dr. Kevin Hand to discuss the pursuit of scientific discovery and the building blocks of life. Stay tuned to your mailbox and inbox for the full story, coming this spring! |
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Join us for The Gala - May 28 Join us on Wednesday, May 28 at Hildene for The Gala. Tickets are on sale now! For more information, or to reserve your table, contact Mary Francis at mfrancis@burrburton.org. This year we are working towards the completion of our BBA STEM Vision. In 2023, we launched our STEM vision at the Gala, and because of generous donors, we were able to Complete Phase I of transforming the Smith Center for Science and Communication into the Smith Center for STEM Education which includes: - Hiring BBA’s first STEM Integrationist/Engineering and Computer Science Teacher.
- Expanding STEM courses, including: Foundations of STEM, Intro to Computer Science, CP/Honors Advanced Robotics and Engineering, Developing Apps for iOS, Science Olympiad, and Project Bike Tech.
- Making an immediate investment in lab equipment for our Biotechnology and CP/Honors/AP Biology classes, including: centrifuges, a thermocycler, and an electrophoresis chamber. These tools have already allowed BBA students to perform DNA isolation, bacterial transformations, CRISPR gene editing, and evolutionary comparisons of muscle proteins;
Support for this year’s Gala will allow us to Complete Phase II including: - A dynamic first-floor and makerspace/classroom, configured to host project work across STEM disciplines and spaces for Information Technology, Physics, Engineering, Computer Science, and Robotics.
- Renovated wet labs with dedicated prep areas to serve as home bases for Biology, Chemistry, Biotechnology, and other lab science.
- Officially open the Smith Center for STEM Education in the fall of 2025.
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BBA Mountain Campus offers new courses Building on momentum from a fall semester where more than 400 students participated in orientation, leadership retreats, and other experiential coursework, the BBA Mountain Campus is excited to offer four, two-credit, double-block integrative learning courses that will be hosted at the Peru campus during the 2025-25 school year. An immersive, four-credit semester program will be offered in the 2026-27 school year. The Mountain Campus Working Group, established in the spring of 2024 as the semester program began a year-long pause, reviewed program feedback from students, parents, and alumni. The group then created a framework for an expanded program that would include two-credit, double-block integrative learning courses in addition to an immersive semester experience. |
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| Spring Musical, Urinetown - March 18-22 Urinetown is a hilarious musical satire of the legal system, capitalism, social irresponsibility, populism, environmental collapse, privatization of natural resources, bureaucracy, municipal politics, and musical theatre itself! Urinetown is hilarious and touchingly honest and provides a fresh perspective on one of America's greatest art forms. For more information, click here. |
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| Giving Day is April 3 Join us for Burr and Burton's Annual Giving Day on April 3, and you can double the impact of your gift! Generous donors have already agreed to support several gift matches on this special day - stay tuned to your email for more details, and follow us on Facebook. Go All In for the Burr and Burton Annual Fund on April 3! Questions? Contact Associate Director of Advancement Meredith Morin at mmorin@burrburton.org. |
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| Sign up for Burr and Burton Summer Camps |
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| Nominate the 2025 Hall of Fame TODAY! Don't delay, nominate the 2025 Hall of Fame today! Click here or on the button below to fill out a nomination form by March 10. Need some inspiration? Click here for a full list of previous winners, award descriptions, and more. The 2025 Hall of Fame ceremony will take place during Reunion Weekend on Saturday, September 20. Class Notes Deadline EXTENDED to March 7 Tell us about your latest news - we need the tea! New house? New job? New spouse? Send your news and photos to alumni@burrburton.org, and don't forget to include a photo! We'll include your news in the next issue of The VIEW. The Evolution of Burr and Burton Football By: Erin Scott '26, Advancement Intern The Burr and Burton football team captured its inaugural State Championship title in the 1947-48 season, competing in the Class B division. However, following that triumph, the football program at Burr and Burton began to decline. As soccer and basketball gained prominence, football participation dwindled, and the expenses to maintain the program became untenable. Ultimately, the school made the difficult decision to discontinue its football program. By the late 1990s, Burr and Burton was hitting their stride, yet the revival of the football team remained uncertain. In 1999, a determined local figure, Guy Boyer, then president of Factory Point Bank, set out to restore the program to its former glory. Despite some skepticism, Boyer believed in the possibility of re-establishing the team. The biggest challenges were the fact that there was a lack of interest from students and the financial burden on the school’s budget. Undeterred, Boyer reached out to other schools who had re-started programs, to find out how feasible it was. Guy proposed to Burr and Burton that he would help raise $30,000, and get enough interest. If he did this, was it possible to bring back the football team? The answer was “yes.” First, Boyer had to figure out how many people were interested in football. To do this he enlisted his football-enthusiast son, Andy ’01, to take a football to school and invite other students to play catch. They lit the spark. Students were interested. The next challenge was funding. Boyer had to raise $30,000. He had seen vehicle raffles work as school fundraisers, so he’d thought he’d give that a try. He contacted John Hand of Hand Motors in Manchester, who generously offered a Volkswagen Bug for the raffle, which Boyer jumped at. Boyer and the prospective players sold tickets for $100 each to the Burr and Burton community—students, teachers, parents, and alumni. John Hand's dealership also participated in selling tickets, and together they sold a total of 483. The winner of the raffle was Lester "Sonny" Beers, a beloved BBA custodian. The proceeds from the raffle provided the necessary funds for new equipment and uniforms, marking the beginning of the football program’s revival. The new team, made up of players with varying levels of experience—some of whom had never even worn a helmet—spent two years playing junior varsity to build the foundation of the program. By the fall of 2001, there was enough interest for a varsity team again. Between 2001 and 2015 the Bulldogs spent time in Divisions Three and Four, before advancing to Division Two. In 2015, the Bulldogs took the Division Two title, leading Burr and Burton to make major investments for all field sports teams by opening the Judy McCormick Taylor Turf field. In the fourth season on the new turf, Burr and Burton’s football team secured the Division Two State Championship once again, this time winning the 2018-19 title. By the 2019-20 season, the Bulldogs had made their way to Division One, where they earned an impressive 57-10 record from 2013 to 2020, celebrating another State Championship victory in the 2023-24 season. To read more about the history of football at Burr and Burton, click here for the winter 2020 issue of The VIEW. CAPTION ABOVE: Photo of the 1947 football team. In the 1947 Burtonian yearbook, it declared Coach Al Henry "as the Father of Burr and Burton Football." From the Archives is a quarterly column in The Belltower Alumni Newsletter. As we approach Burr and Burton’s 200th anniversary, we’d love the opportunity to celebrate the people and places of this incredible school. For questions about From the Archives, contact Meredith Morin, Associate Director of Advancement at mmorin@burrburton.org. |
Thank you to the Manchester Historical Society for providing materials for this column. Photo of the Burr and Burton football team practicing in the early 1970s courtesy of the MHS and Ed Campbell ’70.Enter email text here. |
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| Stay Connected Burr and Burton's mission is to educate students intellectually and morally for a life of responsibility, integrity, and service. |
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| | | | PO Box 498 Manchester, VT 05254 |
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