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Join us for an Open House and experience Brewster for yourself. Meet the students and faculty who make our community extraordinary, explore campus, ask questions, and discover why so many families leave feeling they've found the right place. Join us on Saturday, October 10, or Friday, November 6.

What keeps us grounded when the world around us gets noisy? What guides the choices we make, the people we become, and the impact we have on others?

Those were the questions at the heart of Head of School Kristy Kerin’s message as the Brewster community gathered on Brown Field for the opening All-School of the 2026-27 academic year. With more than 160 new students joining the community, along with new faculty and staff, Kerin introduced a word she hopes students will return to throughout the year: Center.

The word builds on last year’s theme of Commitment, which challenged students to consider what they were willing to work for and stick with, even when things became difficult. This year, Kerin asked the community to go a step deeper.

“Before you can decide what you commit to, you have to know what drives your choices at your core,” she said.

For Kerin, finding that center is especially important at a time when so many things compete for students’ attention. Friends, family, teachers, coaches, news, and social media all provide a constant stream of ideas, expectations, and distractions. The goal, she said, isn’t to shut out that noise, but to know yourself well enough that you don’t lose yourself in it.

A strong center, she explained, is what you return to: the values that guide difficult choices, the people and relationships that keep you grounded, and an understanding of what matters to you when no one else is watching.

That doesn’t mean staying the same. In fact, Kerin reminded students that growth and change are an essential part of the Brewster experience. Throughout the year, students will encounter people who challenge their thinking, discover ideas they haven’t considered, celebrate successes, and experience failures. Each of those moments offers an opportunity to learn more about themselves.

As students move through those experiences, Kerin encouraged them to return to a few questions: What do I stand for? What anchors me when things get hard? What kind of person am I becoming? What kind of impact do I have on others?

That final question, she said, is particularly important because having a strong center isn’t only about knowing yourself. It also shapes how you contribute to the people and communities around you, a reflection of the interdependence that is central to the Brewster experience.

Kerin closed by turning the idea of Center back toward the School itself. With faculty gathered around students on Brown Field, she reminded them that students are quite literally and figuratively at the center of Brewster.

“We’re a student-centered school. We’re a mission-driven school,” she said. “Our job is to make sure that we know you, that you feel valued, that you’re challenged, that you’re supported.”

And she left the community with one question to carry into the year ahead:

What do you put at the center of your life?

By Dr. Bryan Gross

Each year, Brewster recognizes two educators with the Academy’s highest faculty honors: The Arthur Morris Kenison Faculty Award for Career Growth and The Arthur Morris Kenison Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching. Head of School Kristy Kerin announced the 2026 recipients, Nikita Duling (right) and Bill Ward, during Brewster’s opening All-School Meeting on Brown Field.

“What I love about these awards is they come from their colleagues, people who understand their work in ways that no one else can,” Kerin told the community. “They know what happens behind the scenes to make for an exceptional teacher.”

Nikita Duling: Career Growth

The Arthur Morris Kenison Faculty Award for Career Growth recognizes a faculty member who has demonstrated accelerated professional growth within the Brewster Academy program. This year’s recipient, Nikita Duling, has made an impression in just two years at Brewster, becoming an integral part of nearly every facet of campus life.

In introducing Duling, Kerin described the special experience of watching a new faculty member arrive and quickly become someone the community simply cannot imagine being without.

What stood out most in the comments from Duling’s colleagues was her desire to continue learning. She listens, asks questions, seeks out professional development, and regularly engages colleagues in conversations about teaching. Lessons learned at conferences make their way back to faculty meetings, while even casual interactions with students can become opportunities for learning.

“She approaches her work with humility, and understands that none of us ever really finishes learning how to do this work well,” Kerin said.

That curiosity and commitment extend well beyond the classroom. In two years, Duling has become deeply involved in Brewster life as a teacher, dorm parent, coach, summer programs leader, colleague, and highly engaged community member.

One colleague described Duling as someone who is always willing to “make the path smoother for others,” a sentiment Kerin said captures something important about her approach to professional growth.

“She isn’t just interested in getting better herself,” Kerin said. “She wants the people around her to get better, too.”

Her colleagues also pointed to the balance she brings to her work with students: holding them accountable while listening carefully to what they need. A “superfan at Brewster games and events,” Duling has embraced the community with an energy and commitment that have quickly made an impact.

“She works incredibly hard. She cares deeply,” Kerin said.

Bill Ward: Excellence in Teaching

The Arthur Morris Kenison Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching recognizes demonstrated excellence in teaching practices and overall contributions within the Brewster Academy program.

This year, Brewster faculty selected Bill Ward, an educator whose impact on students stretches from the math classroom to the hockey rink to residential life.

His colleagues describe a teacher who is tireless in his preparation, thoughtful in the feedback he provides, and deeply committed to helping students develop confidence and a growth mindset. He works closely with fellow teachers to ensure students across his classes and teams receive an equally strong experience, pairing high expectations with patience and care.

But Ward’s contributions to Brewster go far beyond teaching math.

One colleague described him as Brewster’s “triple threat”: teacher, dorm parent, and varsity coach. Each role requires a significant investment of time and energy on its own, which is why Brewster faculty typically serve as either a coach or a Community Life Parent, not both. Ward takes on both while maintaining his commitment to the classroom.

“What I appreciate most is that, despite everything he carries, the quality of his teaching never becomes secondary,” Kerin said. “He invests deeply in his students in all aspects of their life at Brewster.”

That commitment is evident in his work developing and growing Brewster’s hockey program, recruiting students, working with Admissions, and nurturing the growing JV program. At the same time, he continues to help students build their confidence and skills in mathematics.

For Kerin, the qualities Ward brings to each of those roles reflect something fundamental about teaching at Brewster.

“That combination of high expectations, deep care, and commitment to the whole student is at the center of what we hope teaching at Brewster can be,” she said.

Together, Duling and Ward represent the spirit behind the Kenison Awards: faculty members committed not only to their own craft, but to their students, their colleagues, and the broader Brewster community.

The History of the Awards

Brewster’s Career Growth and Excellence in Teaching awards are named for the late Arthur M. Kenison, Ph.D., who served devotedly on Brewster’s Board of Trustees from 1979 to 1999 as the chair of the board finance committee. The Kenison family has strong and lasting ties to Brewster: Arthur’s grandfather, also Arthur, was Brewster Class of 1899. His uncles, Frank ’25 and Arthur ’30, were also Board members, and his father Samuel was Class of 1927. Brewster's library is dedicated to the Kenison Family legacy and the Kenison House dorm is named after Arthur ’30 and his wife Doris. It is an appropriate honor to name two of Brewster’s most prestigious awards after a man who devoted himself to ensuring a sound foundation for the school his family loved so dearly.

A new team has settled into Brewster’s College Office, and with students back on campus, they are ready to get started.

Director of College Counseling Dee-Dee Sanders and College Counselors Luke Rosinski and Zoe Oswald spent the weeks leading up to the school year getting to know Brewster, preparing for the year ahead, and beginning to reach out to students and families.

Together, they bring a range of experiences and perspectives to the College Office, along with a shared belief that the college process should begin with getting to know each student: who they are, how they learn, what they value, and what they hope life after Brewster might look like.

It is an approach that connects naturally to Brewster’s mission to prepare diverse thinkers for lives of purpose. Rather than allowing rankings, testing, acceptance rates, and other pressures surrounding college admission to drive the process, the new team wants to help students focus on finding opportunities and communities where they can continue to grow and thrive.

Before the year gets too far underway, meet the three newest members of the Brewster community who will be leading that work.

Meet Dee-Dee Sanders

Director of College Counseling

Dee-Dee Sanders came to college counseling through the classroom. As an English teacher, she was often asked to help students with their college essays, initially focusing on the familiar territory of structure, clarity, and mechanics. But before long, she found herself increasingly interested in the bigger questions behind those 650 words.

“What makes a story resonate with an admission reader? How can a student create a narrative that feels authentic, memorable, and meaningful?” Sanders recalls asking. “How can they use 650 words to reveal something important about who they are and how they think, how they learn, how they build community?”

“I loved the process,” she says, “and a college counselor was born.”

Sanders comes to Brewster from Brentwood School in Los Angeles, where she loved her experience but found herself drawn to Brewster’s emphasis on purpose and how naturally it connects to college counseling.

“I was drawn to the idea of ‘purpose’ as it relates to college planning, the college search and selection process, and how students think about life after high school,” she says. “I knew that preparing diverse thinkers for lives of purpose connected so closely to the work we do in college counseling.”

She was also inspired by the students themselves: how they “live, and think, and create, and solve problems, and engage, and ultimately thrive.”

“I knew that I wanted to be a part of this team and work closely with students who were thinking about what comes next,” Sanders says, “and I wanted to be a part of helping them shape that.”

Now that students are back on campus, Sanders says she already feels the energy of the Brewster community, “in the hallways, on the fields, in the laboratories, in the dorms, and classrooms.” As she looks to the year ahead, she wants to help students and families approach college planning in a way that feels “purposeful, manageable, and even joyful.”

That means helping them cut through what Sanders describes as the considerable “noise” surrounding college admission and bringing the focus back to the individual student.

“My role is to help students and families distill the essence of the process: who the student is, how they learn, what they value, what kind of community will help them thrive, and what a meaningful next step might look like,” she says.

For Sanders, that approach is closely connected to Brewster’s emphasis on individuality, growth, meaningful relationships, and intentional learning—and to a college counseling process centered not simply on where a student gets in, but on fit, self-awareness, and long-term possibilities.

“I am excited to support families as they make thoughtful decisions about life after Brewster.”

Meet Luke Rosinski

College Counselor and Director of Basketball Programs

For Luke Rosinski, college counseling and coaching may be two different roles at Brewster, but they have something important in common: both begin with relationships.

A New Hampshire native, Rosinski played Division I basketball at the University of New Hampshire from 2016 to 2020. After college, he headed to UNC Greensboro, where he earned his master’s degree while spending two years as a graduate assistant with the men’s basketball program. He then spent three years at Hargrave Military Academy.

Along the way, Rosinski also gained experience beyond the basketball court, including a year in college counseling and two years working in admissions. Combined with his experience in coaching and recruiting—and his own time as a college student-athlete—those roles have allowed him to see the college process from several different perspectives.

“A huge part of coaching, especially at the prep school level, is also helping kids and families figure out what comes next,” Rosinski says. “I’ve spent a lot of time helping players through the recruiting process, talking with college coaches, helping families understand their options, and trying to find the right fit for each kid.”

It was a part of coaching he particularly enjoyed, making college counseling a natural extension of his work with students.

“I really enjoy helping kids figure out what they want to do next and giving them someone they know they can come to throughout the process,” he says.

Growing up in New Hampshire, Rosinski was already familiar with Brewster and its successful basketball program. But as he learned more about the school and the people behind it, he was drawn to the opportunity to contribute to the community in ways that extended beyond basketball.

“I really liked that Brewster gave me the opportunity to do more than just coach basketball,” he says. “I get to be involved in different areas of the school, build relationships with a lot of different students, and be part of the community.”

That dual role feels natural to Rosinski because he sees significant overlap between the work of a coach and that of a college counselor.

“A lot of coaching is getting to know your players, figuring out what they want, holding them accountable, and helping them get where they want to go,” he says. “College counseling is very similar.”

His varied background also gives him insight into what students and families experience as they navigate the college process. He has worked in admissions, counseling, recruiting, and coaching, and has been through the process himself as a college student-athlete. But regardless of which role he is in, Rosinski says the foundation is the same.

“The biggest thing for me in both roles is relationships,” he says. “Whether that’s a basketball player trying to figure out recruiting or a student trying to figure out what colleges make sense for them, I want to be someone they can trust and someone who is going to work for them.”

That approach is rooted in another principle that is important to Rosinski: servant leadership.

“I’ve always felt like if you’re going to be in a position where you’re leading young people, it has to be about them and not about you,” he says. “Whether I’m coaching someone in the gym or working with a student in the College Office, I want them to know that I care about them, I’m going to be there for them, and I’m going to do everything I can to help them be successful.”

As he begins his first year at Brewster, Rosinski is looking forward to getting to know students and families and learning what each student wants from their college experience.

“The college process can be stressful, and every kid’s situation is different,” he says. “I’m looking forward to being there for them throughout it and hopefully making the process a little easier. At the end of the day, I want our students to end up somewhere they’re excited about and somewhere that is the right fit for them.”

Meet Zoe Oswald

College Counselor

Zoe Oswald brings an international perspective to Brewster’s College Office. With a background in German language education, she has spent much of her career abroad, first teaching English through the USTA Fulbright Austria program and later teaching German at an international school in Latvia.

Her interest in education, and particularly its potential to create opportunities across borders, eventually led her to college admissions. “I have always loved the field of education, and I'm a major proponent of utilizing it as a tool for global mobility,” she says. When an opportunity arose to work in college admissions, she returned to the United States to serve as an admission officer at a liberal arts university in Maine.

That combination of international education and college admissions experience made college counseling at Brewster an especially appealing next step. Having worked on the admissions side of the process, Oswald brings firsthand knowledge of how colleges evaluate applications and what they look for as they build an incoming class. Now, she has the opportunity to bring that perspective to the other side of the process, helping students identify schools that fit their goals, understand how to tell their stories, and navigate their college search with confidence.

“I was drawn to Brewster's student-first approach and our commitment to being a good neighbor to the Wolfeboro community,” Oswald says. “Since I really value multicultural exchange, I deeply appreciate Brewster's significant international student population in addition to what we have spearheaded in Spain.”

Oswald has already begun building connections with colleges and universities, scheduling visits to Brewster from representatives who have not been to campus in the past few years. She is excited to introduce those representatives to students and, more broadly, to help students explore the many possibilities ahead.

“I look forward to navigating this exciting time with students and helping them realize their dreams,” she says, “whether they're headed somewhere in the U.S. or abroad.”

Ready for the Year Ahead

With students back on campus, the preparation of the past several weeks is quickly turning into conversations. The College Office will be a busy place this fall as students meet with counselors, college representatives visit Brewster, and seniors begin moving more deeply into applications and decisions.

The three counselors bring different experiences to that work. Sanders approaches the process through the lens of purpose, self-awareness, and fit. Rosinski brings a perspective shaped by coaching, recruiting, admissions, and a belief in relationships and servant leadership. Oswald draws on her international education and admissions experience to help students understand their options and imagine possibilities both in the U.S. and abroad.

What connects them is a desire to know students well and help each one find a path forward that feels right for them.

“I am especially excited to help students and families approach college planning in a way that feels purposeful, manageable, and even joyful,” Sanders says.

With a new team in place, the College Office is ready to help students and families navigate what comes next—one conversation, one decision, and one student at a time.