STAR Building Dedication: A Night With the Stars

STAR+Building+Dedication%3A+A+Night+With+the+Stars

Kendall Allen, Reporter

On Friday, October 12th, over seven hundred Burroughs alumni returned to their alma mater to join JBS parents, faculty and staff in celebrating the completion of the new Science, Technology and Research (STAR) Building on campus.

The product of over a year of construction, the LEED Gold-rated building opened its doors to the Burroughs community this summer. Featuring state-of-the-art facilities including a rooftop greenhouse, extensive library, makerspace and more, it also completes the Maritz Quadrangle on all four sides and provides classrooms for Science, Family and Consumer Sciences (FACS), Industrial Technology, German and Math courses.

To celebrate the opening of such a monumental building, the guests were welcomed at the event by Mr. Andy Abbott, head of school, who thanked all of the returning alumni as well as current Burroughs com- munity members for attending.

As announced in assembly on October 11th, the 2018 Alumni Award was presented at the STAR celebration, by Alumni Board president Ellen Trovillion ‘73 to John Dubinsky ‘61 and Steve Trulaske‘75 The two men received the honor for their considerable work for Burroughs and dedication to the school and its members. Ms. Trovillion also announced the “Abbott Walk,” a new donation given to honor the current head of school. Mr. Abbott then “returned to the podium to visually demonstrate how our current campus manifests the school’s long-standing philosophical tenets and showed a video about the campus and how it supports the school’s mission and the work of our students and faculty,” as reported by an attendee.

Although unforeseen weather circumstances forced the celebration to move indoors, there was no dampener to the mood. Furniture was placed in the space outside of Haertter Hall, which was accompanied by colorful lights and music. Later, tours were given of the STAR Building, and it was even accompanied by a stunning projection of the Burroughs’ logo on its south-facing wall.

The evening culminated with a musical performance given by Kennedy Holmes ‘23, a contestant on NBC’s “The Voice,” and a finale of fireworks and toasts.