Hi, New Bears! We’re senior prefects Angella Ma and Beck Miller, and we’re so excited to share one of the most lovable aspects of Berkshire: the nurturing student-faculty relationships that you'll developed during your time here. 

With a 4:1 student-to-teacher ratio, it is almost impossible to not get to know your teachers and faculty, especially with more than 80% of them living on campus with you. In addition to this, Berkshire’s amazing faculty members are essentially jacks of all trades, as they hold many valuable roles under the Mountain. From giving great advice, to driving you into town or the train station, to even helping you with laundry, Berkshire teachers are always there for you. 

Here are some examples of the versatile roles that faculty play in your Berkshire experience:

Advisors

Every new student is assigned an advisor when they come to Berkshire. The advisor program at Berkshire provides enriching student-faculty relationships as well as meaningful connections with the other few students in your advisory. Your advisor is your go-to person and your #1 advocate on campus. With such small groups, the advisory provides a place for a mix of students with various experiences and interests to get together and bond. From spending Wednesday lunches with your advisor, meeting on Friday mornings, to going to your advisors' house and meeting their families, your advisor and advisory make your time at Berkshire truly special.

Teachers

Berkshire is so lucky to have such amazing teachers. Each teacher likely has another or many other roles within our community. They are some of the most influential and supportive people on campus. Due to most teachers living on campus, you run into them pretty much everywhere, from meals to sports events to hikes on the mountain. Teachers here want to get to know you. They want to watch you grow. They want to help you succeed and achieve all of your goals. They commit themselves to your personal growth both inside and outside of the classroom.

Coaches

Whether it's during a team breakfast, being taught during first period, or a bus ride to an away game, your coach is always there. Your coaches are likely to be your teachers, your dorm parents, or other forms of faculty, equally as awesome in each area. Have an issue off the field? Confide in your coach. Have an issue on the field? Go to your coach. Like the rest of the faculty here at Berkshire, your coaches want to know you and help you succeed in a comfortable environment.

Dorm Parents

Dorm parents are faculty members who live in or are affiliated with student dorms. Dorm parents are there to help support you and to help create a “home away from home” in your time here at Berkshire. They will listen to any of your concerns and provide amazing advice and make you feel seen and heard. They are truly the best and the relationships you form with your dorm parents are so unique and special. They want the absolute best for you and for everyone else in the dorm. One event everyone looks forward to is dorm snack every Saturday night, provided by your amazing dorm parents. The dorm parent on duty will bring a special meal of their choosing and draw the whole dorm together to have a Saturday night with food, drinks, and an awesome time! 

Hi Bears! We are Mia Lovering and Max Guryan, two of your prefects for the upcoming school year! We are going to give you some tips and insight into some of the food options on and off campus.

The Dining Hall: The dining hall is where all students eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Breakfast is open from 7-9, Lunch is from 11-1, and dinner is from 5-7. There are a wide variety of options and ways to be creative! First, Flik always offers a main dish for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Some of my favorite Flik meals include avocado toast day, dumpling day, make-your-own tacos and taco bowls, and crepes at Sunday Brunch! 

And don’t worry if you don’t like what is being offered by Flik on a given day as you can always create your own meal! With a sandwich bar, salad bar, soup and rice station, bagel station, cereal station, and panini press you have a lot of different options available to you. We wanted to share some of our favorite things to make in the dining hall to help guide you through the dining hall (and these are just a few suggestions):

• Make your own rice bowl: Get some rice from the soup station and then add your favorite toppings from the salad bar.

• Chicken Caesar wrap: make a Caesar salad at the salad bar, then put it in a wrap at the sandwich station and panini press it!

• Quesadilla: Grab a tortilla from the salad bar and some cheese (and any other toppings you want) and put it on the panini press.

• Sauteed/Grilled Veggies & Rice: If you're a vegetarian like me (Mia), get your fave veggies from the salad bar, put some olive oil on them, wrap them in tin foil, panini press them, and then throw them on top of rice! Add some hot sauce if you're up for the challenge : ) 

We are very lucky to have an awesome and caring dining crew on campus. They are always open to feedback and are eager to help students navigate the dining hall, and especially with any dietary needs or allergies. There are always secondary options such as gluten-free bread and desserts. If you're wondering what the meals are for the day, you can find the menu on Berkshire’s website (it's probably the most checked page on a daily basis!) or you can download the FlikIsDining App on your phone to keep the menu handy. My friends and I are always coming up with new ways to expand our options in the dining hall, so my advice to new bears is to be creative! Things may feel a little different as we move our dining hall to the Jack for this coming year, but all the same options will apply and we're up for the challenge!

Shawn's Place: Shawn’s Place is Berkshire’s student snack bar and arguably the hub of student life! It opens mid-morning to afternoon most days, and sometimes for dinner. Shawn's serves bagel sandwiches, wraps, burgers, fries, and many more! My go-to Shawn's order is a buffalo chicken wrap with fries and two cookies, one for me and one for a friend. Shawns also has a variety of drinks and candy if you're craving something sweet midway through your day. Hanging out in Shawns is a great way to meet upperclassmen, underclassmen, and people in your own class, so grab a friend and go split some fries!

The Bookstore: Berkshire’s bookstore houses most of your needs, from toiletries to Berkshire merch to school supplies. They also have a variety of different snacks, which you can stock up on for your dorm or grab on the way to practice or between classes. For your room, they have many of the popular snacks you buy at the grocery store (my favorites are the buffalo pretzel thins :). In terms of grab-and-go snacks, they have an assortment of chocolate bars, granola bars, and individual serving items. My favorite from the grab-and-go would probably be the Nutella dippers. The bookstore staff is also so nice and accommodating and if you have a favorite snack you don’t see there, they will be happy to order it for you! The bookstore is open Monday-Saturday during the typical school hours and a little bit after. 

Delivery to Campus: If you want a change from dining hall food, there are amazing local restaurants in the Berkshires in general (a fan fave is Bistro Box!). But when you can't always get off campus with your advisor or your parents, Berkshire offers dinner delivery from lots of local restaurants and we'll mention at least three of them. 

Roma's and Neo's are pizza restaurants around 15 minutes away and they have a variety of different foods aside from pizza, such as wraps, salads, pasta, sandwiches, and chicken tenders. Despite all the options they offer, Roma’s pizza is by far their most popular menu item among the students. A new addition to the dinner delivery services and my personal favorite, Roberto’s, also sells pizza, salads, chicken tenders, and more! Roberto's vodka sauce pizza and garlic knots are a must-try at some point in your Berkshire experience. Sharing a pizza or some appetizers with friends can be a great pre-study hallway to bond and hang out. It is also the perfect fuel to get you through days when you have lots of homework to do! Just be sure to order by 6, so that they can get your food delivered by 7:25-7:45. 

Instacart also delivers to Berkshire from 2 local supermarkets, so you can stock up on any food you want that the bookstore may not offer. Usually, your order will come to you in 2-4 hours. Although stocking your room with snacks from the grocery store is always fun, my favorite way to use Instacart is to order Dunkin on the weekends or during a sleep-in. There is no better feeling than waking up and knowing you have a coffee and donut waiting for you!

Something new that happened this past year is that DoorDash came to our area! Lots of Bears utilize DoorDash to order food at times when places like Roma's or Roberto's are not delivering. Needless to say, there are so many ways to find the food that you want and like while at Berkshire!

Hi! We are senior prefects, Logan Tao and Finn Sternal. 

Every year in the winter, there is a week of activities that everyone on campus looks forward to, teachers and students alike. This week is called Pro Vita Week, where there are over 50 different courses to choose from, including baking, painting, slime-making, chess, paddle tennis, aerial circus arts, crime-solving, knitting, skating, and so much more! Some of these activities might even be held outside of school, such as the Island School program in the Bahamas and the Boston History, Arts and Culture trip. 

During this week, you will get the chance to either attend one short course in the morning and one short course in the afternoon, or one long course in the afternoon. These courses are usually led by guest speakers, but sometimes teachers and students get to share their expertise on topics that others might be eager to learn about. Pro Vita as a whole embodies the spirit of our school motto: “Learning – not just for school but for life”. So, what are the activities that let us take in new experiences and have fun at the same time? Here are Pro Vita activities that we both participated in most recently:

• The Island School 

• Curling

Island School (Finn Sternal):

This year, a group of 18 students traveled to the beautiful island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas and spent a week at the Island School. Once there, they were taught about the vast marine biology inhabiting the waters around the Bahamas and the Atlantic Ocean. The group's day would consist of an early 6 am wake-up, followed by a morning activity, which would often be guided snorkeling in search of different marine life or fun beach games, emphasizing group bonding, teamwork, and environmentalism. Every day was an incredible experience that focused on another aspect of life, often taking trips down the island and learning about Bahamian culture or getting up close and personal with young nurse sharks.

Curling (Logan Tao):

Students got to go off campus to the Norfolk Curling Club and learned how to play the unique Olympic sport of curling under the guidance of instructors. They were taught the technique of tossing the stones across the ice and the role of each player on a team. Then, they got to play in a tournament on the last day after they practiced playing throughout the week. Overall it was an amazing and eye-opening experience as the opportunity to play curling is something that most people don’t get to do in their life. 

P.S. Another reason why students love Pro Vita: There is no homework at all the entire week and you get to hang out with your friends after the courses are over!