Ready for the Real World

One of the key goals of our mission here at Rivers is to “prepare our students for leadership in a world that needs their talents, imagination, intellect, and compassion.” For the past seven years, Rivers has gone a step farther to prepare students for the future by arranging summer internships in local business and research institutions. These internships are specifically designed to enable Rivers students to be productive members at their respective workplaces, rather than observers as summer interns often are.

Rivers’ interns share their experiences with the rest of the community during the summer through Facebook posts and at symposia on campus throughout the fall. It is so impressive to hear what these students have accomplished at such a high level. How many high school students have been invited to present papers at national conferences? Last year, Rebecca Iafrati ’12 spoke to the American Heart Association about her research at Boston University Medical Center on the relationship between obesity and blood clots. The previous year, three interns -- Alex Post ’10, Aaron Behr ’11, and Charlie Harrison ’11 -- presented their summer research at Bruker Daltonics during a national chemistry and spectroscopy conference.

The summer internship program is just one of a number of initiatives at Rivers to make learning relevant to the 21st century – a time that requires students to think creatively and independently, and be an effective team player. Our interdisciplinary courses, leadership lab, and flipped classrooms all help give our students the skills and experiences they need to face their future with confidence.

Please click here to watch a video story about three of this summer’s science interns and what they gained from their experiences at Reactive Innovations and Bruker Daltonics.

A Spirit of Innovation at Rivers

One of the defining values that has emerged in the last several years at Rivers is a spirit of innovation. Innovation at Rivers does not mean chasing the latest educational fad. Rather, it means teachers and administrators using their imaginations to find new and better ways to live our mission. Critical to living this value is the extensive professional development Rivers provides its faculty. New knowledge sparks the creative juices of our teachers as they look for ways to apply this knowledge – not to solve problems – but rather to build new programs.

The list of new programs started by teachers at Rivers is astonishing. The creation of summer science internships led to the establishment of summer business internships. The nationally recognized middle school leadership program, invented entirely by the middle school faculty, led to the establishment of the upper school leadership program. Even students get in on the act. Four years ago a senior approached a math teacher and asked if he could be her assistant in one of her classes. Four years later Rivers has a well developed teaching assistant program. Rising seniors have to apply for this program, attend every class, and can actually earn half of a credit.

Several years ago one of our physics teachers organized his classes in small groups or pods, in which students helped one another, debated, and learned from both the teacher and their pod-mates. Today, this method of organizing classes is used throughout our program. We consider it essential for preparing students for the new workplace where teamwork and communication skills are so vital. A few weeks ago I asked an upper school math teacher why she uses pods: "Because there is so much learning that takes place going down the wrong road and this forces students to articulate why they are doing what they are doing." I loved her response!