Belmont Grad to Seek Two Degrees in Time of One

Mackenzie Cushman to purse joint BA program from William and Mary and Scotland's St. Andrews.

Mackenzie Cushman will soon start living “a dream come true.” The recent Belmont High School graduate will be flying around the world for the next four years – living in Virginia for the first, on the east cost of Scotland for the next two and then back to Virginia again for the fourth. And, at the end of all that travel, she will receive two bachelor of arts degrees: one from the College of William and Mary and the second from the University of St. Andrews. Cushman will be studying history and loves the fact that she will be “living through the history” she’ll be reading about while in attendance at both schools. William and Mary, located in Williamsburg, was founded in 1693 by a royal charter issued by King William III and Queen Mary II…

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Senior Stories

Emily Rifkin Adjusts To Sudden Change Of Plans

The BHS graduate was planning a gap year before Carleton College came a calling.

Emily Rifkin’s plans for the fall changed dramatically in just the past month. The Belmont High School recent graduate was hoping to take a gap year and then attend Oberlin College in 2012. “I wanted a break from academics for a while and was hoping to perform volunteer work in a developing nation, possibly teaching English in the western part of Africa,” she said, explaining that’s a part of the continent where the people speak French and she wanted to improve her skills in the language. In addition, Rifkin just didn’t feel ready to go to college right away. “I wanted a rest from the stress of studying and the college search,” she said. But, without a solid plan, Rifkin was having difficulty arranging precisely what she would do in her …

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ViEWFINDER: "Do Work, Son!”: Senior Service Day

One final act for the Belmont High School Class of 2011 to do before graduating: volunteering.

On Wednesday, June 1, more than 120 Belmont High School seniors gathered in the Belmont High School cafeteria ready to begin their Senior Service Day assignments.  Soon after their departure, the thunder began to rolling in and the rain started to fall. The storm, however, did not dampen the spirits of the High School volunteers.  The volunteers had chosen service sites all over the Belmont-Waltham area to assist in summer clean-ups and touch-ups. Seniors helped out at Habitat, Rock Meadow, the Woodland Garden, Belmont Food Pantry, Belmont Public Library, the Belmont Public Schools, Belmont Recreation Department, Belmont Manor,  Sergi Farm,  Waltham Fields Community Farms, and Middlesex Human Service Agency.  Each group of students put …

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Belmont High's Graduation 2011

A glorious day for the graduating class to receive diplomas and begin a new chapter of their lives.

It was a glorious day for the 2011 Belmont High School graduates, in both weather and spirits, but bittersweet at the same time. During their graduation ceremony on Sunday, June 5 in the Wenner Field House, many spoke with enthusiasm for their future but added how much they will miss their classmates they’ve come to love in the past four years. “I’m excited for what will happen but extremely sad to leave my friends,” said Class President Luke Lu immediately following the commencement. “I loved Belmont High School and wouldn’t have wanted to go anywhere else,” he said. “I only started making friends with kids in Belmont in the past three years but now I feel the students in this class are my family.” During his address to the class and …

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Congratulations, Graduates Of The Class Of 2011

What has come and what will follow the 280+ grads from Belmont High School.

When my best friend had her first child 18 years ago, we laughed at the absurdity of a T-shirt I had made for the baby that stated “Class of 2011.” We didn’t even know how to properly state the year, let alone imagine being part of a new millennium. What lay ahead for this little boy? What kind of future awaited him that was different from ours; what would he learn in school that we had not; and what technological advances would he grow up with that were more astonishing than voice mail and faxing, we asked ourselves in reference to two developments that entered our own work lives fairly recently. Now, almost two decades later, we have some of the answers. That boy and you, the members of Belmont High School Class of 2011, have grown up in…

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