After 28 years of operations in Natick, including 10 years at our current location, Academy MetroWest is preparing to move to Sudbury. The move will come following the completion of the upcoming Creative Adventures summer program and will mark the beginning of a new chapter for us. Our new site will be at 31 Union Avenue in Sudbury, adjacent to the Sudbury Field House.

While we would have been very happy to stay at our current location on Speen St. in Natick, we have known for quite some time that this would not be an option for us. The search process has been long and challenging but we have wound up with a site that we're very excited about. The space we are preparing to occupy is the former location of Giorgio's Tae Kwan Do Studio. The fact that that business also centered on physical activity for kids and adolescents has made the process of designing and building out the space a relatively straightforward one.

We understand that this new location will make it difficult for some of our current clients, particularly those who live to the south and east of Natick, to stay enrolled in our program and we regret that. We tried for at least 2 years to find a suitable location in Natick or Framingham but a number of factors made that a difficult task. The pandemic has forced a number of changes on the local commercial real estate market, making flex space (the kind we need) a highly sought after commodity. Our new facility is located in a central and accessible location, right off Boston Post Road and we are confident that the facility will enable us to run the same programs we've been running since 1994 with the same or better level of quality you've come to expect from us. We expect to be able to continue offering all the programs we're currently offering into the 2022/2023 school year.

While all of us will miss working in Natick, we are looking forward to establishing our new home in Sudbury. We hope you'll join us there.

For the past couple of years, I've been facilitating a monthly father's support group for the Asperger Autism Network or AANE. The group is one of the high points of every month for me. Not only does the group put the lie to a fairly common view of dads as clueless troglodytes, at least as it pertains to their kids' emotional well being, it's helped me gain a broader, deeper perspective on parenting during this period of well documented challenges. 

Before my most recent session with the dads, I received an email from the AANE office, requesting that I share some information with the group about a new scholarship program available for high school seniors on the autism spectrum. When I read the email more closely, I was shocked to see that the name of the scholarship is the Ben Kessel Memorial Fund. One of our first clients here at Academy MetroWest was named Ben Kessel and, as I read further, I noticed more and more familiar facts. That sent me directly to Google where I learned about the tragic rock climbing accident that took Ben's life in September of 2020. Despite not having communicated with anyone in Ben's family for nearly 20 years, I quickly contacted his mother, Irene, to offer my condolences and to ask permission to share my experiences and reminiscences of Ben with my fathers group. Irene responded quickly and said that anything that helps keep Ben's memory alive was ok with her. 

Hope has not ruled out the possibility of remaining on our staff on a part-time basis so we are optimistic that we will continue to see her. One way or the other, we are all extremely grateful for her contributions over the last 7 years and wish her the best in all her pursuits.

For over 10 years, we've been fortunate to be a field training site for doctoral students in counseling and clinical psychology at William James College. This year's interns have made some great contributions to their groups and, as it always is, it's going to be hard to say goodbye.

As always, this year's interns have some fascinating sites lined up for their 2022/2023 placements. Ellie Deveaux will be doing her internship next year at Fenway Health Services in Brookline. She will be working for their Violence Recovery Program, providing individual and group therapy for survivors of violence, specializing in in advocacy, counseling, and referrals for LGBTQIA+ individuals.

Chinye Nolisa will be working with Dr. Danielle DeSantis, a psychologist in private practice located in Cranston, Rhode Island. She will be providing assessments and individual therapy to adult clients.

Gabriela Sarshar will be doing her next field placement at the UMass Lowell Counseling Center, providing individual therapy and case supervision to a diverse group of young adults.

The flip side of this transitional period is that we get to welcome two new, or in this case, new-ish, interns into the fold for the 2022/2023 school year program.

To some of our current participants, the first intern we're welcoming will be a familiar face. Haley Wynn has been volunteering with us on Tuesdays and Thursdays for most of the current school year. While her involvement this year provided her with some familiarity with our work, we're looking forward to working with her in a more focused, learning intensive manner.

Miranda Corley, our other incoming intern, is currently finishing up her undergraduate degree at SUNY Binghamton in upstate NY. Miranda developed an interest in working with children by going into work with her mom, a special education teacher, as a child. Working with children with social/cognitive issues has been a passion of hers for years and we think she'll be a great fit for us here at Academy MetroWest.

If you see any of our current interns around the office over the next few weeks, make sure to stop and say goodbye and thanks for their contributions.

Creative Adventures is based upon the same non-competitive, cooperative approach to activity that we use in our school year program and is usually an appropriate resource for most of our participants. However, there is more unstructured time and longer transitions than there are during the school year and we urge parents to contact us prior to enrolling your child if they have questions about the fit.