In her time on the hilltop, Melissa Boviero has held many different titles, including Middle School dean and Science Department Chair. Coming to Hackley with an Earth science background, Ms. Boviero’s classes, particularly her sixth-grade class, have been praised by the students who take them. Now, heading into the summer, she will assume a new position in the Middle School, stepping into the open role of Middle School director.

Last spring, it was announced that Shazia Durrani, the previous Middle School director, would be leaving the Hilltop for the Nightingale Bamford School. To fill the void of the position, the school elected to temporarily fill the position for a year, with Associate Head of School Dr. Cyndy Jean, who previously held the position. That decision was made so that the school was best positioned to hire a new director in coordination with a national search.

After a months-long process that included over 90 applicants, Mr. Franklin officially announced in January via email that Ms. Bo would be the director. For Ms. Boviero, or as her students call her – Ms. Bo, her journey started on the hilltop just over 15 years ago, starting as a member of the science department.

Before coming to the hilltop, her educational journey began at a science conference promoting science education. During the conference, a speaker put up a statistic on the number of science positions available versus the number of students to fill those positions, and the lack of students in the United States to fill those positions.

“I felt that as a calling to help encourage people and provide a mirror to someone who couldn’t imagine themselves at that time going into science,” Ms. Bo said.

Since joining the community, Ms. Bo has served in a variety of different capacities, as a dean, diversity coordinator, faculty representative, and department chair, but for her, the moments that stick with her the most are the ones that have come from her time as a middle school adviser.

For Ms. Bo, it was the moments on the field trips, such as seeing kids interacting with each other, playing card games, that have helped her become a better teacher and faculty member.

“Being an adviser has taught me the most about mentoring groups, being flexible and fun, and how to best communicate with parents and families. The role as an adviser has helped make me a really great middle school teacher,” she said.

As she prepares to step into the role of Middle School Director, Ms. Bo wants to try to carry over from her time teaching to keep the students engaged and at the center of the focus.

“Keeping students at the center of the lesson, I think, is really important at the Middle School level, and that’s something I want to make sure I encourage and reinforce within the ideals and experience of the Middle School,” she said.

Ms. Bo’s curriculum and courses reflect that goal, with sixth-grade science students completing multiple different projects throughout the year. In the fall and spring, sixth graders work on rock hammering, where they go out onto campus in the forest and across Akin Common to mine for rocks within their earth studies and bring home and keep anything they hammer out. Then, in the winter, students self-write and produce “documentaries” on a figurative ocean creature of their imagination that doesn’t exist but could plausibly exist within an ecosystem as a part of their oceans unit.

“I hope that I can bring over the experience of letting students apply what they have learned through these centered lessons from the classroom out into the role of director. I hope to, as much as I can, encourage engagement with the students, getting to learn things that they enjoy, and try to incorporate that into their time in the Middle School.”