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Our journey: The evolution of the Burroughs campus
Enrollment: 601 in 2010 & 639 in 2019
Distinctions: 14 National Merit Semifinalists, 225 Finalists & 110 Scholars
Tuition Assistance: Totaled $1,892,639 in 2010 (91% Increase Over 2000)
Distinctions: 14 National Merit Semifinalists, 225 Finalists & 110 Scholars
Tuition Assistance: Totaled $1,892,639 in 2010 (91% Increase Over 2000)
Program Highlights
- In the fall of 2010, the Modern Languages Department added Chinese as a new elective.
- Best-selling author Jonathan Franzen visited assembly in September 2010.
- The St. Louis Arts and Education Council named Wayne Salomon (Theatre; Speech/Debate) their 2011 Art Educator of the Year.
- In the fall of 2011, Jim Lowe (Classics) was named Burroughs’ first Bogliasco Fellow and attended the Bogliasco Foundation’s Study Center in Bogliasco, Italy the following spring.
- In December 2011, JBS past grandparent, former three-term U.S. Senator from Missouri, and former Ambassador to the United Nations Jack Danforth spoke at student assembly and then visited history classes.
- A cross-curricular/cross-campus sustainability program was launched in 2012.
- The technology department began offering a summer tech camp for faculty and staff during the summer of 2012.
- In August 2012, filmmaker, FoodCorps co-founder, and advocate for sustainable agriculture and healthful food, Curt Ellis kicked off a “Year of Sustainability” at Burroughs with an evening program and a talk in morning assembly.
- In November 2012, Burroughs math students took every first-place finish — both individually by grade and as grade-level teams — in the regional Excellence in Mathematics competition hosted by St. Louis Community College - Forest Park.
- During the 2012 - 2013 school year, the Burroughs robotics team claimed the Inspire Award at the FIRST Tech Challenge regional competition for the best all-around team and robot; the top award for an FTC team. They went on to compete in the world competition at the Edward Jones Dome in the spring of 2013.
- The Super Mileage Vehicle (SMVC) club took its super-mileage vehicle powered on biodiesel fuel to the State competition during the spring of 2013, where they claimed the Engineering Award.
- Shortly after the curtain dropped on the May 2013 performance of the seventh and eighth graders’ production of The Complete Works of Williams Shakespeare - Abridged, the doors of the original Haertter Hall were closed forever in anticipation of the new and enlarged Haertter Hall Performing Arts Center.
- Kirk Smith ’13 was named a Rhodes Scholar (and Post-Dispatch scholar athlete).
- Three JBS teams took first place in the small-school division of the regional Excellence in Mathematics Competition in November 2013.
- In 2013, Burroughs installed two sculptures by prominent St. Louis artist Ernest Trova, one on the Maritz Quadrangle and the other outside the new Taylor Family Athletic Center. The sculptures are on permanent loan from Laumeier Sculpture Park.
- In April 2014, the Kiva Club topped $100,000 in micro loans made to entrepreneurs in developing countries.
- Also in April 2014, the Bombers robotics team captained the three-team alliance that claimed first place in its 36-team division at the North Super Regional Championships held at the University of Iowa’s Carver Hawkeye Arena. They went on to take third place in the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) World Championships held at the Edward Jones Dome in April 2014.
- The SuperMileage Vehicle club (SMVC) claimed the highest fuel efficiency (127 miles per gallon) in the biodiesel category at the Missouri SuperMileage Challenge in April 2014. They also won the Engineering and Pit Awards.
- The SuperMileage Vehicle club (SMVC) claimed the highest fuel efficiency (127 miles per gallon) in the biodiesel category at the Missouri SuperMileage Challenge in April of 2014. They also won the Engineering and Pit Awards.
- In 2014, our DEI Office collaborated with other DEI professionals to launch the Equity Exchange to provide advanced training to support public and private school educators with 5, 10, 15+ years of experience in diversity, inclusivity, equity, and social justice work. Participants continue to represent over 50 schools across more than 13 states. Trainings started in 2015 and have continued every summer.
- Also in 2014, Brittany Packnett Cunningham ’02 addressed students in assembly and spoke about “bearing witness” to the events in Ferguson as a resident, and as one of 16 members of the Ferguson commission. At the time, Brittany was executive director of Teach for America in St. Louis. Shortly after her appointment to the Ferguson Commission, Brittany was one of seven young leaders to meet with President Barack Obama prior to his Executive Order to create a Task Force on 21st Century Policing to which he named Brittany one of its members.
- During the 2014/15 school year, the Alumni Association launched a semi-annual Alumni Speakers Series to bring alums to campus to speak at morning assemblies.
- In a December 2014 morning assembly, Hody Nemes ’08 spoke about anti-Semitism, historic and current, and urged students to be cognizant of how they and society treat “the other.”
- Cellist Grant Riew ’15 was selected as a member of the National Youth Orchestra USA. After a two-week training residency this summer, he will be one of 120 student musicians in the orchestra who will go on tour, with engagements at Carnegie Hall and in China. Grant’s sister, Julia ’17, took second place in the high school fine art division of the Crafting Original Music Project sponsored by the University of Missouri–Columbia School of Music. Her work, “Laughing Lake” for string quartet, was premiered at the 2014 JBS fall orchestra concert and was featured in the spring play, The Glass Menagerie.
- Josh Kazdan ’16 took first place in the 2015 Academy of Science–St. Louis Science Fair. As the top winner, Josh earned a $3,000 scholarship and an all-expense-paid trip to Pittsburgh for the next level of competition, the Intel International Science & Engineering Fair. His project, “Assessing the Feasibility of Using Photoelectron Imaging to Study Electronic Structure in Cu-,” was based on research he did as a participant in the 2014 Students and Teachers as Research Scientists program with Washington University chemistry professor Richard Mabbs as his research mentor. Olivia Long ’16 was a finalist, and Will Wolfe ’15 was a semi-finalist in the St. Louis competition.
- At assembly on March 6, 2015 senior Rosie Sciortino, the 2014 Newman Prize recipient, reported on her visit with writer, magazine editor, actress and singer Tavi Gevinson, and junior Madeleine Johnson was announced as the 24th recipient of the Newman Prize. The Newman Prize committee selected Madeleine based on her character, sense of values, potential and willingness to be different and take risks in order to achieve goals.
- Talia Bennett ’15 and her dance partner, Dony’ae Bush, took second place in the 2015 St. Louis Teen Talent Competition at the Fox Theater in April.
- In May 2015, a team of sophomore chemistry students won the first Missouri Chem Bowl competition.
- Ryan Thornton ’15 is named a Presidential Scholar. Four other JBS seniors — classmates Amanda Cao, Sandy Chesterton, Elise Thomas, and Emily Zhao — were finalists in the competition.
- In 2015, Burroughs established the Community & Equity Partnership as a forum for parents, guardians and alums to plan programs and activities for our adult community.
- In October 2015, our Bonsack Gallery celebrated its 50th Anniversary. It opened in October 1965 with an exhibit by Ernestine Betsberg; one of St. Louis’ most prominent modernist artists.
- During the 2017 - 2018 school year, several alumni spoke at morning assembly including: Dr. Joanna Dee Das ’01, who spoke about Katherine Dunham, the subject of her dissertation; Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jane Smiley ’67, who reflected on how the power of observation contributed to her success as a novelist; Sam Altman ’03, who shared insights about innovation, the automation revolution and how both can affect social change through his experience as president of Y Combinator and his nonprofit Open AI; and Dr. Erica Barnell ’00, who talked about founding her company Geneoscopy to create noninvasive diagnostic tests for gastrointestinal disease.
- Alumni artists returned to campus to offer advice and coaching to students with an interest in pursuing careers in the visual arts, music and entertainment fields. Susan Scafati ’95 spoke to the visual arts. Julia Bullock ’05 gave a master class in vocal music to help students with breathing and vocal resonance techniques. Musician Andrew Volpe ’98 sang with juniors and seniors in the men’s a cappella group. Playwright and screenwriter Beau Willimon ’95 spoke at morning assembly to encourage students to engage politically.
- In 2019, Shell featured the Burroughs Super-Mileage Vehicle Club in their marketing campaign interviewing co-president Chloe Sowers ’19 in a “Shell Women in STEM” segment after being impressed by the @JBSGirlsofSTEM Facebook page managed by co-president Hallie Williams ’20.
Athletic Highlights
- Athletic Director Jim Lemen stepped down as director of the physical education and athletics department effective June 30, 2010. He continued to teach physical education to seventh and eighth graders and helped with fund-raising before retiring at the end of the 2010-11 school year. Peter Tasker was named the school’s next athletic director.
- Our field hockey team claimed the State title with a 3-1 victory over MICDS on November 6, 2010 led by coach Meridith Thorpe ’95, a member of three JBS championship teams and a standout at the University of Virginia.
- Girls lacrosse garnered a State championship in the spring of 2011, capping an undefeated season. Ezekiel Elliott ’13 claimed the top spot in the State in the 110 hurdles, shattering his own school record.
- Burroughs launched the inaugural season of its boys lacrosse program in the spring of 2011.
- Sydney Lehmann ’12 claimed her third consecutive State tennis title in the fall of 2011 (the school’s ninth consecutive title).
- In 2012, our girls lacrosse team held onto its State crown and finished their season with a perfect record (17-0). The track team claimed a State championship in shot put with Jordan McClendon’s ’15 performance.
- In 2011 - 2012, senior Cory Lester concluded his JBS wrestling career by claiming the Missouri record for career wins (196), a second-place finish in State and Metro League wrestler of the year honors. Cory is the school’s only four-time State medalist - third as a freshman, first as a sophomore and second as a junior and a senior. Upon graduating from Burroughs, he wrestled at the University of Michigan.
- Swimmers Daniel Diemer ’12, Kevin Steinhouse ’12, Robert Beckles ’13 and Tyler Waterman ’15 took first in State in the 200 free relay in the fall of 2012, setting a school record. The win represented the swim team’s first number-one finish in a State event, and the team topped 13 school records in the process.
- In the spring of 2013, swimmer Maddie Wessel ’16 became the first student in Burroughs history, boy or girl, to qualify for State in every single event.
- Ezekiel Elliott ’13 signed his letter of intent to play football at The Ohio State University which ultimately led to his NFL career as a running back for the Dallas Cowboys. Classmate and teammate Foye Oluokun ’13 received an academic scholarship to attend Yale University which ultimately led to his NFL career as a linebacker; first, with Atlanta Falcons and now with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
- The boys lacrosse team, in its second season as a varsity-level sport and third year of existence, took first in State in the spring of 2013. Ezekiel Elliott ’13 took home first-place medals at State in each of his four events: the 110-meter hurdles, the 100-meter dash, the 300-meter hurdles and the 200-meter dash.
- In the fall of 2013, swimmers Daniel Diemer ’12, Kevin Steinhouse ’12, Vaios Kouvelis ’15 and Tyler Waterman ’15 took first place in State in the 200 free relay; Kevin Steinhouse claimed first place in State in the 50 free.
- The boys soccer team won its second State title and capped off its most successful season in program history in the fall of 2013.
- Also in 2013, our girls golf team won Burroughs’ first-ever State championship in the sport, and led by 11 strokes.
- For the first time in school history, the girls swim team was undefeated for the winter 2014 season.
- In the spring of 2014, tennis player Michael Peters ’15 had a 7-5, 6-0 win over MICDS in the finals of the Class I State individual singles tournament.
- John Moten ’15 claimed a first-place finish at State in the 100m dash and broke the school record and the Class 3 state record (the state record was deemed “unofficial” due to a wind reading of 0.1 above the legal limit). Jordan McClendon ’13 took first in shot put, also breaking a school record.
- Skippy Keefer, who officially retired in 2001, retired again in June of 2014 (after staying on as director of the Health Club and the director of Burr Oak Camp).
- For three consecutive years in 2015, 2016 and 2017, the ice Bombers won the Founders Cup for the Mid States Hockey Association (first awarded in 2007). When the ice hockey team won in 2015, it was their first state championship since 2005.
- The middle school chess team took first, and the high school team took second in their respective divisions of the Missouri State Scholastic Championship Chess Tournament. The season’s chess highlights included a Gateway Chess League championship for the high school team. At the middle school level, Jason Zhou ’19 took first and Paul Byrne ’19 placed fourth in the state tournament, and Bombers claimed seven of the top 10 spots in the middle school division of the Gateway Chess League’s regular season.
- In 2015, the robotics team (Team 4211) double qualified for the FIRST Technical Challenge (FTC) South Super Regional competition by winning the most prestigious award, the Inspire Award, at the Arkansas State Championship and decimating the competition at the Kentucky State Championship, coming home as the No. 1-ranked team and captain of the winning alliance. At regionals in San Antonio, Texas, the Bombers joined two other teams in an alliance that competed in the finals and qualified for the World competition. It was the team's third World appearance in three consecutive years. A second Burroughs team (Team 6153) advanced to the FTC North Super Regional competition.
- After placing first at the St. Louis Regional Science Olympiad competition, the Burroughs team advanced to the State competition, held at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, on April 18, 2015. Overall, the team placed third in state out of the 32 teams that qualified.
- Tom Bolstad '16 (195) took sixth place in the Class 2 State Wrestling Championship.
- For the first time in JBS history, the girls swimming team claimed the Metro League championship, topping the No. 2 team, MICDS, by a score of 480-471. In the final meet of the Metro League 2015 season, the team also avenged its only loss in regular-season competition by besting Westminster by 100 points.
- The girls varsity basketball team took second in Districts in 2015, and Alison Gill '18 was named District Player of the Year.
- The SuperMileage Vehicle Club claimed the Engineering Award and took first place in the biodiesel category at the 10th Annual Missouri SuperMileage Challenge in April 2015. The JBS vehicle registered 149 miles per gallon.
- Also, in 2015, our girls track and field teams claimed the Class 3 State title with only 1.5 points to spare and their head coach, Daniel Harris, was named Coach of the Year.
- In 2015, Burroughs football won their State championship title (14-1); the team’s fifth appearance at State in six years. It was Burroughs’ ninth state football championship and the first since 2001. Additionally, the girls varsity tennis team captured their state championship (12-3) by defeating defending state champion MICDS (5-3).
- In 2016, former coach and athletic director Jim Lemen was one of 15 individuals to be named to the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame (MSHF), and the entire Bomber football program was also named to the 2016 MSHF class “as one of the most respected programs in the state.” Only three other high school programs had ever been selected to MSHF.
- Also in 2016, the boys track team took first place in State, its first since 1952. Boys soccer also took first place in State with 20 wins and coach Alan Trzecki was named 2016 boys Coach of the Year by the Missouri High School Soccer Coaches Association. In addition, girls tennis claimed their second consecutive State championship and finished the season 20-1.
- In 2017, the boys track team finished with their second consecutive State championship.
- In 2018, the boys tennis team, girls track and field team, boys soccer team, girls golf team, and the girls tennis team all won their respective state championships. For the golf team it was their first state championship since 2013 and their second overall. For the girls tennis team, it was their third state championship in four years. For boys soccer, it was their fourth state title.
- Also in 2019, the boys varsity tennis team successfully defended their state championship title and the girls tennis team claimed its fourth state title in five years (2015, 2016, 2018 & 2019).
Campus Highlights
- The Campaign for Burroughs funded the following capital improvements:
- Ray Beckman Field and Tennis Courts renovated.
- Taylor Family Athletic Center completed.
- Haertter Hall Performing Arts Center completed.
- Student Commons renovation completed.
- Maritz Quadrangle expanded.
Giving Highlights
- Twenty-one additional endowed scholarships were established for a total of 68 by 2019.
- On May 10, 2014, more than 1,200 members of the JBS community celebrated the transformation of our campus through the generosity of those who donated to the Campaign for Burroughs.
- In July 2014, Burroughs launched its next major comprehensive fundraising campaign in anticipation of the school’s 100th Anniversary - Our Next 100 Years Campaign. Donations to build the STAR building were the first gifts toward this campaign which started on July 1, 2014, and will continue through June 30, 2026.
- In 2017, major gifts from the William E. Weiss Foundation and the Parents Council, together with an earlier gift from the John and Anita Drosten O’Connell ’72 family, underwrote the addition of an outdoor classroom for the kilns and foundry to enable students to more actively participate in the firing and casting of their ceramic and sculpture works.
- The Class of 1969 celebrated their 50th reunion with a class gift to help renovate Graduation Grove - collectively donating over $36,000.
- The Class of 1994 celebrated their 25th reunion by establishing an endowed fund to which classmates will direct gifts with the hope that by their 50th reunion they can collectively support a partial scholarship.
- Campaign for Burroughs was completed with gifts from over 1,500 donors totaling more than $80 million between 2001 and 2014.
- In 2013, the Holekamp Family Department Chair in Athletics was established by Bill ’66 and Kerry Holekamp. Peter Tasker was named the first chairholder.
- The Centennial Campaign launched in July 2014 when donors came together to provide the funding needed to build the STAR Building to replace the science and library buildings; STAR opened for the 2018-2019 school year.
- In 2016, the Jerome Taylor/Kemper Family Science & Technology Directorship is established by the William T. Kemper Foundation. Jerry taught physics in the Science Department from 1983-2013. Martha Keeley was named the first chairholder.
- In 2018, the Elizabeth C. Brown ’11 Chair in Environmental Science was established in her memory by her family and loved ones. Eric Knispel was named the first chairholder.
