While you might worry about your personal image, have you wondered how others perceive the school you go to? As part of the Independent School League (ISL), Upper School (US) students often interact with students from the 15 other ISL schools, which are mostly concentrated in the Greater Boston area.
Maylea Harris ’26, a softball player from The Rivers School, meets US students through her sport.
“The community within softball is usually pretty accepting and nice, but we’ve never had problems with BB&N that I can remember,” she said. “We had some really good games in teamwork against schools in the ISL, so there’s never been any problems with BB&N.”
The interaction between private schools in the area mainly comes from athletics and personal connections, Maylea said.
“I’m not super in tune with everything, but from what I know, the soccer team is really good,” she said. “I remember some heated discussions about soccer games the entire season last year.”
The ISL is an athletic conference that facilitates sports games between its member schools.
“There’s not a lot of crossover between the schools, in my opinion, other than competition and maybe some shared backgrounds.”
One such shared background — being parts of Rivers’ AAPI affinity group — gave her the opportunity to meet US students outside of athletics.
“I met some really cool girls from BB&N when I was there. They did really well at leaving a good impression about their community with me since I still chat with a couple of them every once in a while.”
As a runner, Milton Academy’s Esme Campbell ’26 said she doesn’t follow many of the other US sports. Esme mostly sees US students at track and cross country meets, which have been positive experiences, she said.
“All the girls that I race on BB&N’s distance team are super nice, and I feel like that’s not something that’s true across the board for all the ISL schools, necessarily,” she said. “The BB&N girls are ones that I’m excited to race because they’re always super nice, and we work well together during races, and it’s fun to catch up.”
Esme said the US’s “Friday Knight Lights” inspired her to watch football.
“Milton doesn’t really have any under-the-lights games,” she said. “Because BB&N hosts that under-the-lights game, I know I had never been to a football game before, and I still showed up and went with all my friends.”
JJ Pena ’26 from Belmont Hill School has competed against friends who go to the school.
“The only time I really interact with people that go there is completely outside of school or during athletics,” he said. “I have a lot of friends that go there, so the first thing that comes to mind is some of the people I know. Obviously, it’s competitive, but also, it’s friendly competition. It’s like, I know this person, and we’re gonna go out and grab dinner with their team after the meet, regardless of what happens.”
The current level of interaction between the schools is appropriate, JJ said.
“It’s nice to have a unique environment inside your own school, but it’s also good to branch out a little,” he said. “Athletics is a great way to start branching out because you’re competing with people, but you also share a similar passion with them, and there’s a lot of value in that.”
