Fun with Soap!

Earlier this week, Mrs. Drurey's Chemistry Honors classes had the privilege of hosting Professor Patrick Gordon from Simmons College for an activity on saponification, i.e. the chemical process of producing soap. Soapmaking utilizes sodium hydroxide as a key ingredient, and the safety goggles are a must! Fortunately, all of Mrs. Drurey's students are well-versed in the safety protocols, as you can see in the goggle-filled photos below.

Behind the Scenes of the Gateway 10 Potluck

Thank you to the Gateway Social Committee and the entire Gateway Class of 2013 for producing what your teachers unanimously declared to be The Best Gateway Potluck Ever!

Now that your gifts to your teachers have been unveiled, here are some behind-the-scenes photos capturing the many hours of loving effort that were invested by members of the Gateway Social Committee, over the past several weeks. I thoroughly enjoyed feeding your creativity with many trips to the craft stores!

Broad Institute Final Presentations

Congratulations to this Gateway sophomore and her family, on the occasion of her successful team research presentation on "Bacteria in Our Environments" at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT this past Saturday. During this project, students grew bacterial cultures from samples taken from their own living environments; replicated, purified and sequenced the bacterial DNA using PCR and gel electrophoresis; identified the DNA sequences using the BLAST database tool; and then constructed phylogenetic trees to characterize the evolutionary relationships among their various bacteria types.

Gateway Term 2 Honors Assembly + AP Powwow!

Congratulations to the following Gateway students who have earned recognition for their academic achievements in the second term of this school year:



Amazing Aces (highest course grades):
Kerlie Merizier (English Language Arts), Iryelis Lopez (Chemistry Honors, Mrs. Drurey), Samuel Martin (Chemistry Honors, Ms. Potwin), Mary-Jo Raei (Advanced Algebra), Christian Peguero (Advanced Algebra Honors), Cuong Linh (History), Jean Charles (AP English Language and Composition), Pascal Delpe-Brice (AP Computer Science A), Xiomara Garcia (AP Biology), Michael Mejia (AP Microeconomics and Physics Honors), Kevron Robertson (Spanish 3 Honors), Josie Valcin (AP French)

Busy Beavers (highest homework average across four core courses):
Kerlie Merizier, Patricia Rosa

Courageous Climbers (most improved performances in individual courses):
Terence Coston (Advanced Algebra Honors), Guy Francois (English Language Arts), Kerlie Merizier (History), Queenie Rigaud (Advanced Algebra), Feysal Said (Chemistry Honors with Ms. Potwin), Paul Thaing (Chemistry Honors with Mrs. Drurey)

P.R.I.D.E. of Gateway Awards:
Zenubia Cameron, Cuong Linh, Iryelis Lopez, Biruk Sirmollo

Cum Laude (3.00—3.49 GPA)
Bianca Bertrand, Shacoya Fisher, Kamela Hysa, Melissa Jean, Judy Le, Iryelis Lopez, Johnny Mejia, Andreina Nieves, Kristen O’Brien, Christian Peguero, Mary-Jo Raei, Queenie Rigaud, Jemmie Tejeda, Paul Thaing, Pascal Delpe-Brice, Xiomara Garcia, Ayana Green, Anamol Gurung, Cassandra Leveille, Christina Nguyen, Kevron Robertson, Yaritza Sanchez, Rosa Soto, Victoria Tanis, Josie Valcin, Jeremy Wong, Katherine Brea, Marleah Cummins, Pierline Durand, Annie Moy, Juleissy Pimentel, Claribel Rosa, Brendon Tan, Marquette Webster

Magna Cum Laude (3.50–3.89)
Cuong Linh, Kerlie Merizier, Samantha Michel, Patricia Rosa, Michael Mejia, Kishma Andrew, Christelle Salomon, Tiffany Wu

Summa Cum Laude (3.90-4.00)
Genesis Pena

Following our Honors Assembly, several of our juniors and seniors hosted an informal "AP Powwow" to share their junior AP experiences with our current class of rising juniors, the Gateway Class of 2013. Many thanks to Jeremy, Xiomara, Josie, Annie, Cassandra, Tan, Frankline, Michael, Bianca, Genesis, Marleah, Sayyida, Jean, Yaritza, and Pierline for showing our sophomores your O'Bryant AP pride and spirit!

Gateway/BU HPREP welcomes Dean Kaplan!

Today, our HPREP student organization supported by the SNMA chapter of the BU School of Medicine was honored to host Dr. Samantha Kaplan, Assistant Dean for Diversity and Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at BUSM.

Dr. Kaplan shared with our students her experiences from college through medical school to her current work and lifestyle as an academic leader, clinician and working mother. We are very grateful for the time and excellent advice she shared with all of us!

Sophomores Sailing Through their First SATs!

Congratulations to our Gateway sophomores for successfully completing your first real SAT Reasoning Tests! Thanks to Ms. Goodner, Mr. Bhatty and four full-length practice tests, you emerged from this four-hour endurance test looking confident and strong, and we can't wait to see how your results turn out.

Special thanks to Mr. Hines for providing an amazing winter BBQ feast to our hungry test-takers!

12/21 Holiday Party at Sarah Greenwood K-8

This afternoon, a group of Gateway sophomores hosted a holiday party for the fifth grade students at Sarah Greenwood K-8 School in Dorchester. The Greenwood and Gateway students enjoyed decorating sugar cookies, sparkly snowflakes, and snazzy New Year's party hats for the holiday season. Thank you to Ms. Washington for allowing us to celebrate the holidays with your Grade 5 students and teachers!














(You might be wondering, "Where are the Greenwood students?" We do not post any student's photo online without written permission from a parent or guardian. This explains why the fourth photo above is of our Gateway group's "cookie afterparty"!)

Trip to Tufts University 12/8

On Wednesday, 33 Gateway sophomores and juniors were hosted by the admissions office of Tufts University in Medford, MA. Upon our arrival, our group engaged in a college admissions discussion with Mr. Walker Coppedge, the Tufts admissions officer in charge of the Boston region. Two Tufts undergraduate students then led us on a brisk tour of some of the main campus buildings, before leading us to our free dinner in one of Tufts' undergraduate dining halls.

Despite the seasonably low temperatures, we enjoyed a very warm welcome by Tufts University. Thanks to Ms. Style and Mr. Coppedge for arranging this special opportunity for our students!

Good Luck Charms for our Seniors

At today's Gateway Honors Assembly and Thanksgiving Celebration, our sophomores honored our senior students who have submitted early college applications, by presenting them with good-luck gifts consisting of handmade college pennants and smiley-face stress balls.

I am especially grateful to our cheerful crew of sophomores who crafted the pennants with great care and creativity - all 34 of them! Don't they look amazing?

Making Blackberry-Powered Solar Cells

On November 18, Mrs. Drurey's Chemistry Honors class participated in a daylong visit by scientists from Beyond Benign, a green chemistry education nonprofit based in Wilmington, MA. Our Gateway 10th grade students undertook an experiment in which they built small solar cells sensitized by the dye of blackberry juice. And they worked (albeit on a small scale)!

Thank you to Mrs. Drurey and the staff of Beyond Benign for providing our students with such a cool laboratory experience!

Addressing Current Events in SAT Prep - Turtle Edition

In another SAT Prep weekly foray into current events, we learned about ordinary citizens who have invested extraordinary efforts into protecting the breeding grounds of sea turtles. The creative wrap-up to this reading activity was a timed challenge for our students to master a moderately difficult origami turtle design. It was not so easy, but a number of our students successfully hatched their origami turtles!

Addressing Current Events in SAT Prep

In this year's Gateway 10 SAT Prep experience, we are interspersing our Princeton Review classes with selected readings of current events articles from the New York Times and creative responses to those articles.

This week, we read about the "bacha posh" children of Afghanistan and explored the medium of political cartooning. Here are two of the finalist entries in our quick-draw political cartoon competition, submitted by the teams of Patrick Joseph and John Paul (above) and Candice Gonzales and Lom Thaing (below).

Grasshoppers, Great-Horned Owls, and other Mystery Animals - Oh My!

Here are some opening scenes from this year's Gateway 10 Orientation, in which our students are gamely participating in our "Gateway Creatures" icebreaker activity. Many thanks to Headmaster Sullivan for joining us in our opening fun and games (see the very distinguished-looking Great-Horned Owl in the third photo below).

A Math/Art Retrospective

Here's a look back at the final exhibition of our Spring 2010 Math/Art partnership with the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Thank you to Ms. Ali Nebel for all the hard work, caring, enthusiasm that you invested in our students!

Visit from Dr. Woodson

On Saturday, May 1, we had a great turnout of Gateway students from all three classes to meet with Dr. Jonathan Woodson of the Boston University School of Medicine. Dr. Woodson is an Associate Professor of Surgery and Associate Dean for Diversity and Multicultural Affairs at BUSM. He has recently been nominated by President Obama to assume the post of Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, which oversees the entire U.S. military health system.

Dr. Woodson shared with us some valuable nuggets of advice about choosing careers, seeking help from multiple mentors in different areas of life, and always keeping an open mind about what possibilities might lie around the corner.

Following Dr. Woodson's visit, his BUSM students Laura, Sasha and Osa gave our students some hands-on experience in taking blood pressure readings. Fortunately, our students were found to have excellent, healthy blood pressures!

We owe tremendous thanks to Dr. Woodson, Laura, Sasha and Osa for taking time to be with us on a very busy day at the BU School of Medicine. All students are welcome back on Saturday, May 15 for the final meeting of our Gateway/BU HPREP program for the year!

Celebrating our G9 Community of Writers

On Friday, April 16, Mr. Marotta's Gateway 9 Writing Workshop classes came together to recognize the excellent work created by both classes in their original short story project. In the final recitation of work, the two homeroom sections were each represented by one finalist selected by his or her homeroom classmates. Both finalists wrote ambitious multigenerational narratives, but in the very different settings of international warfare and family life.

Fittingly, the vote between these two finalists produced an exact tie, and thus we were pleased to declare both finalists as the co-winners of the Gateway 9 Short Story Competition.

Thanks to Mr. Marotta, Mrs. Shields, and the entire Gateway 9 cohort for supporting this celebration of excellence in our students' work.

G9 Math/Art Visit to MassArt

On Monday, March 8, our Gateway 9 afterschool Math/Art group took a field trip to the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, the home institution of our course instructor Ms. Ali Nebel. We were treated to a guided "Looking to Learn" interactive tour of the exhibition "Selections 10," featuring the artwork of MassArt faculty members.

Thank you to Ms. Ali and Ms. Sandy Weisman, Director of Education at MassArt, for providing us with this unique experience in interacting with the artwork!

Upcoming Medical/Biomedical Student Opportunities

As I recently emailed to all Gateway students and parents, there are some exciting opportunities coming up soon for students who are interested in exploring medicine and/or biomedical science:

Gateway summer hospital placements: As in past years, our Gateway program will have access to a limited number of summer hospital job placements for current ninth and tenth grade students. All G9 and G10 students will receive informational packets in their homerooms this Tuesday, March 16. Students must nominate themselves for consideration by returning the parent/student signature form to Ms. Style by Friday, March 19.

Current juniors have the opportunity to pursue all of the same summer job programs - at Dana-Farber, Beth Israel Deaconess, Children's Hospital, and Brigham and Women's Hospital - through our school's Private Industry Council program organized by Ms. Terry Alleyne.

Gateway/BUSM HPREP: Our HPREP program (Health Professions Recruitment and Exposure Program) returns this Saturday, March 20 with a visit from Boston University School of Medicine psychiatry professor Dr. Doug Hughes. All Gateway students are invited to join the spring series of our pre-medical club!

Free biomedical/pediatrics program at MIT: All Gateway students who enjoy biology or who are interested in pediatrics should consider signing up for the April vacation program at MIT's renowned Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. The theme of this year's program is "The ABC's of Childhood Disease." Registration is first-come, first-served, and the application may be downloaded from this website.

Afterschool Artmaking

Following last year's successful pilot, our Gateway 9 afterschool program has welcomed back Ms. Ali Nebel from Massachusetts College of Art and Design to lead our math enrichment group in various adventures in math-themed artmaking. This past week, our students delved into charcoal drawing techniques, using as their common subject a landscape of 3-D geometrical figures that they had built the previous week. After the vacation, the class will explore life figure drawing.

Stay tuned for our end-of-the-year exhibition of the students' work!

All Gateway students who are interested in exploring the visual arts are encouraged to check out MassArt's spring Saturday Studios program, which is accepting registrations right now for the eight-week session starting March 6. Program information and application materials are available here. Partial scholarships may be available, depending upon your family's financial need.

2/2 Pre-Med Meeting at BU

Calling all Gateway pre-med students:

Thanks to the efforts of Gateway sophomore Meghan Comeau, Gateway students who are interested in medicine have been invited to meet with Dean Glen Zamansky, Assistant Dean of Premedical Studies at Boston University. Dean Zamansky's title indicates that he is the person at BU who oversees all advising of students who would like to apply to medical school after college.

This meeting will take place on Tuesday, February 2 at 4:30 PM at Boston University. [Please read your email for information about the specific meeting location.] We estimate that this meeting will run until approximately 6:00 PM.

Gateway students who are interested in participating in this meeting are responsible for their own transportation to and from the meeting. Parents are very welcome to attend as well. Although we are not able to provide transportation nor chaperoning to and from this meeting, Ms. Style will be attending this meeting to support participating Gateway students.

For all students who think that they might be interested in pursuing a career in medicine or another health profession in the future, we strongly encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity to learn about how to prepare yourself for this path in college.

Students or parents who have any questions about this meeting may contact me prior to Tuesday.