Exonian Profiles
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Educator Rebecca Upham ’74: Watching Brainpower
at Work
Rebecca Upham ’74 loves to see “brainpower at work.” There is, she says, “something exciting about being invited to watch as young people play with ideas. It doesn’t matter if it is a high school student working on a math problem or a child beginning to read.” As head of Buckingham Browne & Nichols School in Cambridge, MA, Upham has ample opportunity to observe young minds at work. She has just begun her second year as head of the 1,000-student independent school that runs from pre-K through 12th grade. She and her husband, Will Viner, a computer and e-commerce expert, live in a big yellow house adjacent to the campus. “I get great enjoyment from participating in the life of the school,” says Upham. “There aren’t too many professions where you can really live the great liberal arts tradition. Our lives as the adults in a school are enormously enriched by the variety and complexity of our communities. How many other people can go to music performances on a regular basis, hear assembly speakers, have the chance to see young people putting together art shows, talking about an event in world history or debating an ethical question from the great religions of the world?” Upham comes by her love of teaching naturally. “I think education runs in families,” she says. “In my case it skipped a generation.” She is referring to her late grandfather John Clarence Hogg, the Harlan Page Amen Professor of Science and chair of the science department emeritus, who taught at the Academy from 1931 until his retirement in 1961. She also credits her Exeter experience for the way she views teaching. “Exeter influenced the kind of educator I am today by showing me the things that can happen if you put talented young people and talented teachers together. I always felt that Exeter trusted the students and had faith in their goodness.” After receiving her B.A. from Middlebury College, Upham did graduate work in molecular biology at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and received her M.A. in interdisciplinary studies from Columbia University, where she was a Klingenstein Fellow. Before coming to BB&N she was head of The Ellis School in Pittsburgh and served as director of program implementation at the Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles. She also taught chemistry at the Branson School in Ross, CA. During her time in Scotland, when she was doing pure research, Upham realized that she missed teaching. She returned home and turned her energies to school life. And according to those who work with her, those energies are legendary. Often accompanied by her golden retriever, Zoe, Upham is a constant presence for her teachers and students. Along with the expected campus visits and meetings with parents, she has been sighted camping out with ninth graders, as a frequent participant or spectator at extracurricular events and belaying climbers on the school’s Challenge Course. An avid climber herself, she recently scaled Switzerland’s fearsome Eiger. Her on-campus interactions have given Upham a sincere optimism about the future—even in a post–9/11 world. She says, “I find today’s youth to be very engaged and interested in the world around them. I find being with them not only sheer enjoyment, but also a source of hope for the future. I am very positive about where the world is going. Our young people are serious about making a contribution to the world and genuinely interested in trying to make things better.” —Julie Quinn |
