A Visit From '24 Alums Brynna and Brady

Just before the spring break last month, on Friday, March 14, two Class of 2024 alums paid a visit to Caedmon. Brynna Portella and Brady Grazioli both had the day off at their respective schools–Riverdale, in Brynna’s case, and another hill school, Fieldston, in Brady’s–and they took the opportunity to spend some time at their recent alma mater.

Brynna says she wanted to see how everyone is doing at Caedmon and to make note of any changes since last year. (She liked the new courtyard.) She enjoyed spending time in the morning with this year’s Fifth graders and hearing about their minimester, which they were reviewing on the day of her visit. Asked about Riverdale and 6th grade, she admits to getting lost on the school’s big campus in her first weeks, but she has gotten to know her way around and has mastered a number of “secret passages” which allow her to get to class faster. She is taking, among other things, 7th grade Spanish, having skipped a year of the language; strings-themed art classes in which she is learning the viola; and a science class currently focused on geology. Her English class is working extensively on poetry; and in math, which Brynna calls her best subject, the main topic is negative integers, while in history much of the class discussion has been about inequality and slavery, giving rise to some thought-provoking arguments concerning those injustices. 

Brady has experienced some of the same challenges as Brynna in navigating a large campus, one which he nevertheless describes as “amazing”. As he explains, for certain subjects different classes are given through which students rotate across academic terms. In science, for example, three different environment-themed classes are offered, and everyone cycles through them, taking one of the classes for one term, another for another, and so on. Similarly, four different foreign languages are offered, and everyone studies each for a set period of time. Brady has already sampled the Mandarin and Spanish offerings and is currently tackling Latin. He notes that Spanish at Fieldston is similar to the Caedmon course, and that Caedmon’s Latin class prepared him well for the Fieldston version of the subject in 6th grade. Brady also feels that Caedmon set him up for success in middle school science. His message to Caedmon students for whom Fieldston is or may be in their future is reassuring and enthusiastic: “Once you know the campus there’s nothing to worry about. Teachers are very open to talking. I just love it there!”