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Mark Your Calendars
Last Meeting for St. Mark's Saturdays Classes, May 13
SM Saturdays classes are scheduled for this Saturday, May 13. As usual, School Meeting will begin the day at 8:40 a.m. This is the final SM Saturdays class date of Spring 2023.
Support the NECC 5K Walk/Run for Autism, May 13
Please join the V Form Class of 2024 in supporting the New England Center for Children by volunteering or participating in the NECC's 5k Walk/Run for Autism this Saturday, May 13! St. Mark's student volunteers will be assigned to water stations and direction posts around the course, and will cheer on participants along Parkerville Road in Southborough.
For those who wish to participate, please note that the online registration deadline for the SM Team has closed; however, fundraising remains open, and race-day registrations will be available beginning at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday. Those who wish to walk or run can still register independently on race day! Please reach out to Jillian Nicks at jilliannicks@stmarksschool.org if you have any questions about this event. Thanks for your support, and go Lions!
Academics
Window Four Closes on Tuesday, May 23
Window Four closes on Tuesday, May 23. Over the course of the next week, students may note an increase in workload and the number of concluding assignments coming due. As always, we encourage students to use their St. Mark's support resources—particularly their advisors—as proactively as possible if they find themselves struggling in any way.
Adjusted Schedule on May 22 and May 23
To support the conclusion of Monday—Friday courses, we will run an adjusted academic schedule on Monday, May 22 and Tuesday, May 23. Each color block will meet once for 60 minutes during the course of these two days. Chapel and other school activities will meet as usual, and there is space built into the day for advisor conferencing and extra help as needed.
A Concert and Ice Cream to Close the Semester
Students and faculty will gather for the Spring Concert and Ice Cream Social on Tuesday evening, May 23, to celebrate the close of semester two and mark the transition into Lion Term courses.
Admission
Spring Admission Open House
Current families, do you have younger siblings or friends who are interested in applying to St. Mark's for 2024-2025? If so, we hope you will join us this Saturday, May 13, from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. for a Spring Admission Open House! Tour the campus, and connect with admission representatives and current parents. Campus tours will depart every 15 minutes starting at
9:15 a.m. and ending at 10:45 a.m. To register, visit: https://www.stmarksschool.org/admission/events.
FACTS Tuition Management Sign-up for 2023-2024
New this year, we are requesting that all families sign up for FACTS regardless of their payment plan choice. The FACTS system is now being used for recording all tuition payments from each family, and enrollment also helps ensure access to your tuition statements. If you have received your countersigned enrollment contract notification email from the Admission Office and have not already done so, please follow the link to FACTS from the checklist item in the Enrollment Portal. You may also view the FACTS FAQ PDF brochure here. The deadline to sign up for FACTS is May 15.
If you have already sent a tuition payment to the Business Office, please understand that it will not yet appear when you first register for FACTS. The payment can only be applied to the account after you have finished signing up for FACTS for the upcoming year. Please allow a few business days for the payment to be applied.
Athletics
Alumni Highlights
Congratulations to Gunnar Vachris '19 at Rhodes College for being named to the First Team All-SAA (Southern Athletic Association) for the 2023 baseball season. Vachris led the conference in batting average, hitting an outstanding .445 on the year. The senior shortstop tallied 11 doubles and 24 RBI for the Lynx, who went 27-15 this season.
Several St. Mark's graduates are gearing up for the NCAA lacrosse tournaments this week:
Von Mabbs '20 is leading nationally ranked Swarthmore College into the first round of the DIII NCAA Tournament on May 13 against Grove City College. Mabbs has had a sensational season for the Garnet as he was just named Centennial Conference Offensive Player of the Year, first in the history for Swarthmore. Mabb also earned All-Centennial First-Team honors. Swarthmore enters the tournament as the #14 ranked team in the country.
Carmen Tosi '22 and the ODAC Champion Washington and Lee Generals open up NCAA tournament play on May 14 against the winner of Capital vs. Transylvania. The Generals are 18-1 on the year and are the #2 ranked team in the country heading into postseason play.
Sophie Student '20, Bailey Horne '19, and the #4 ranked North Carolina Tar Heels will take on Sacred Heart in first round action of the NCAA DI lacrosse tournament on May 12. The Tar Heels enter the tournament as the defending national champions and will look to repeat the magic this year as they are poised for a deep run.
Lauren Tolve '21 and UMass are set for a first round matchup against Johns Hopkins on May 12, with the winner going on to face #2 Syracuse. The team earned an at-large bid to the tournament after falling to Richmond in the Atlantic 10 final.
Go Lions!
REMINDER: Spring Schedules and Updates
Please continue to check your student's game schedules on the website if/when inclement weather comes our way:
https://www.stmarksschool.org/athletics/teams. Game scores and updates will also be communicated through our SM Athletics social media accounts. Twitter: @SMSSports Instagram: @SMAthletics
College Counseling
REMINDER: Additional SMARTTRACK Information and Next Steps
Thank you to all St. Mark's families, faculty, and staff who were able to join us for the SMARTTRACK webinar on Tuesday, April 25. We hope that you found the session informative and useful. If you have not yet scheduled your personal, free evaluation with a SMARTTRACK advisor, click here to do so now.
If you were not able to attend the webinar, here is the link: What You Need to Know Now about Paying Less for College. The on-demand link will be available for a limited time, so be sure to view it soon.
Next Step: St. Mark's School is providing its III Form, IV Form, and V Form families with a no-cost, no-obligation professional College Funding Evaluation because they know how important the financial piece of college planning is, and that it starts much earlier than you might think. We highly recommend you take advantage of this opportunity to ‘stress-test’ your current funding plans.
Spend 5 minutes now and complete all 3 steps in the process.
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Create your complimentary SMARTTRACK account, or bookmark this page to login if you already have one.
- Answer the general questions in the quick assessment (necessary in order to get personalized, professional feedback!).
- Choose a good day/time for your evaluation call.
Remember, you must use this link to get started: https://join.smarttrackcollegefunding.com/st-marks-school
Once you have an account, bookmark this page to login anytime. One parent account per household, please.
As always, you are also encouraged to contact the College Counseling Office at St. Mark's with any questions.
Community and Equity
Weekly Reflection
On Monday, April 24, after months of conversation and development, St. Mark’s shared its Community & Equity Strategic Plan. This ambitious and expressed endeavor, including five specific goals for growth, will set the tone for our commitment to raising the expectations of community discourse and actions regarding the student and adult experience at St. Mark’s. This insistence on a broad sweep of specific C&E endeavors will not only set St. Mark's School on a path for improvement, but its existence online also allows for transparency and accountability for that which we have set to accomplish.
This week's prompt: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stated, "If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward."
Reflecting on his profound and simple statement, from what things have you struggled to move forward? How would you go about taking the first step in moving forward?
Community Life and Student Engagement
Weekend Activities
Want to know what's happening this weekend? Check out the Weekend Activities Google Doc for on-campus events and trips to off-campus locations.
Advisor Selection Process for 2023-2024
The advisor selection process for next year starts next week. Returning students will be completing advisor preference forms. These forms will be available for distribution later in the week. Students are guaranteed to be able to keep their current advisor if they wish to do so. Students who wish (or need) to change advisors are required to provide five names, in order of preference, of those they would be comfortable having as an advisor. The assignment process is a huge jigsaw puzzle, but it all works out!
A Note About Off-Campus Parties
Now is the time of year when deans of students at independent schools in Massachusetts become very concerned about off-campus parties. With the end of the year excitement, some parents choose to host parties and allow alcohol to be served to underage students. While rumors of party plans arise, we need to remind all parents of the Massachusetts Social Host Law and of the School’s expectations around substance use. "Social host liability" is the legal term for the criminal and civil responsibility of a person who furnishes liquor to a guest. We have all heard the horror stories of how good kids made bad decisions, and how well-meaning hosts painfully discovered that the parties they thought were harmless quickly turned into catastrophes. We are asking parents to be aware of the Social Host Law, and the liabilities that may result in civil and criminal charges, as well as the potential consequences to a student’s college admission. We expect students to obey the rules of the School and the laws of the Commonwealth concerning the use of alcohol and drugs, and we continue to expect our parents to support the health and safety of our students in this effort. Thank you!
REMINDER: VI Form Dance Information
This presentation was shared recently with St. Mark's students and includes information on the VI Form Formal, which will take place at the Boston Marriott Long Wharf on Thursday, June 8, at 7:00 p.m.
REMINDER: 2023-2024 Housing Information
The 2023-2024 student housing process will begin after the conclusion of the leadership selection process. For returning boarding students, housing is selected and assigned through a lottery system by form. A housing information session took place on Friday, April 28; during this meeting, students were introduced to the process, and they had an opportunity to ask questions.
For the time being, students are encouraged to think about a peer in their same form who would be a good roommate. Students should think about what is most important to them in a roommate, and they should consider sleeping habits, room atmosphere, and levels of socialization in the room. Please ask your student for their thoughts about housing and rooming preferences, and remind them that their closest friend may not always be their ideal roommate. Single rooms are extremely limited, so students should begin by thinking about potential roommate pairings.
The number draw, a required first component of the housing lottery process, took place on Friday, May 5, during the evening hours. Questions about the housing process can be directed to Maggie Caron, dean of student engagement, at margaretcaron@stmarksschool.org.
REMINDER: Prize Day 2023
The 158th Prize Day ceremony will be held on campus Saturday, June 10, 2023, at 10:30 a.m. under a tent on Belmont Field. For more information about Prize Day, as well as answers to frequently asked questions, please visit our Prize Day webpage. Additionally, digital swag and printables are available online at this link.
Advancement
WATCH: The State of the School for Parents
Thank you to everyone who joined us for yesterday evening’s engaging State of the School for Parents. For those unable to attend, watch a recording of the livestream here.
VI Form Parent Potluck, June 8
VI Form Parents are invited to a potluck at Choate House on Thursday, June 8, at 5:45 p.m. after taking pictures for the VI Form Dance. Thank you to our organizers Namerta Sahani P’20 ’23, Shalini Yerabothu P’20 ’23, and Navneet Anand P’23 ’24. Sign up to contribute a dish and attend.
Save the Dates for Parent and Alumni Summer Events
St. Mark’s will be hosting events for parents and alumni this summer, one in Maine on August 17 and one in Martha’s Vineyard on August 23. To ensure you receive event invites and updates, please send us your summer address. We hope to see you soon!
Around the Quad
The Search for our Next Head of School
The Head of School Search webpage provides information for our community on the search for St. Mark's next Head of School. On May 3, this update on the search was shared with our community. Please stay tuned to this newsletter for future updates on the search as it progresses.
SALE at the Online School Store
Looking for a St. Mark's gift and can't make it to campus? Shop the online St. Mark's School store here. For the month of May, receive 20 percent off eco-friendly products. Plus, orders totaling $50 or more receive free shipping. Happy shopping!
For More on What's Happening Inside the Pride
View photos from campus on our School's SmugMug page.
Read the latest news stories on our website.
Watch videos from St. Mark's on YouTube.
Enjoy the latest issue of St. Mark's Magazine.
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