BSM hosted one of their annual Open Houses January 5th from 6-8:30pm. The school offers between five and six open houses a year, two held in the evening and the others in the morning. The evening open houses consist of a presentation by admissions, an athletics and activities fair, and a mini-class tour. The morning open houses include an admissions presentation, a campus tour led by the admissions team, and an opportunity to connect with administrative representatives.

With an outcome of anywhere between 50-100 attendees, open houses are a popular attraction for new and incoming students and families that want to learn more about what the BSM community has to offer. “Open Houses are a great opportunity for prospective families to get a comprehensive feel for our BSM community,” Associate Director of Admissions Betsy Van Cleve said in an email.

At last night’s open house, attendees were able to visit an activities and athletics fair where there are booths for 60-70 different sports and clubs. The booths are run by upperclassmen who have been involved in that activity for a long time or have a leadership position. Having students work these booths allows for families to get a feel for what the program is like from the eyes of a current participant.

Along with the activities fair, attendees were given the opportunity to take a mini-class tour, where they got to follow a modified version of an actual class schedule. The tour consisted of six total 11 minute “classes” that featured presentations from the Math and Science department, College and Guidance, Engineering and RED, and English and Social Studies department, allowing families to meet and hear from various representatives from our BSM community.

The families got to hear from Dr. Ehrmantraut and Mr. Freese who is the Director of Admissions about why they should consider joining the BSM community and the next steps in the admissions process. The evening also featured a student TED Talk from Jillian Petty and Sophia DiPaola about their Engineering project followed by a special performance by the Red Knotes a capella group.

“The main goal of open houses is to inform interested families about BSM and to answer their questions about what it’s like to be part of our community. This is usually the first step families will take on campus to learn more, and hopefully they move forward in the admissions process after a memorable experience on campus,” Van Cleve said.