Bessie Oster teaches a Freshman Seminar class.
Cultivating Curiosity and Balancing Rigor with Wellness
“There is some kind of magic in the water here,” says Sarah Ross, Director of College Counseling at Gilman. She is referring to the success of the School’s students in the National Merit® Scholarship Program (NMSP), an academic competition that recognizes high scores on the PSAT exam. Approximately 16,000 Semifinalists are awarded annually across the country of 1.3 million high school students who enter, “representing less than 1% of the nation’s high school graduating seniors,” according to NMSP. Gilman’s Class of 2026 lauds eight seniors who were awarded the Semifinalist distinction.
This class isn’t unusual at Gilman; in each of many recent years, five to eight students have been given this honor. So, to what can be attributed for their achievement? To start, “Our students are incredibly aspirational and deeply curious,” Ross says. “They are excited about learning.”
The Gilman curriculum doesn’t directly prepare students for PSAT material, and Randy Liu ’26, a Semifinalist, thinks that’s a good thing. “Engaging discussions in English classes develop our analytical ability,” a skill that is relevant for the exam. “Outside studying was certainly helpful, but Gilman classes provided the base of knowledge that I then refined.”
“Gilman does a good job of introducing concept-based questions that delve into why ideas work.”
–Nikhil Gupta ’26
Science teacher Frank Fitzgibbon with Teo Garza '26.
Other Semifinalists agree. “Gilman does a good job of introducing concept-based questions that delve into why ideas work,” says Nikhil Gupta ’26. He specifically names math teacher Jeff Gouline ’00, who “has a simple way of breaking down answers until I understand the problem.”
Teo Garza ’26 credits Gilman’s intense reading and writing program in helping him understand word problems that appear on the exam, and he points to science teacher Frank Fitzgibbon for guiding him to “follow the ideas that make me curious.” Garza says that the vast number of courses available at Gilman has allowed him to study subjects of particular interest to him, which, “paired with amazing teachers who care about what they teach, has helped me succeed.”
“The beauty of this place is that it’s cool to be smart.”
–Director of College Counseling Sarah Ross
While some parts of their education — like class discussions or tests — more easily connect to the skills important for the PSAT, other aspects of the Gilman experience are at play as well — namely an emphasis on supporting students in mind, body, and spirit, in addition to academic excellence. The school offers “a robust array of PK–12 wellness programs designed to foster belonging and to build skills related to self-care, decision-making, and social awareness,” says Director of Health Education Bessie Oster, noting an intentional balance of rigor with wellness.
The research bears this out. Recently published studies in The Review of Educational Research found that “students in grades 1–12 who participated in universal school-based SEL [social-emotional learning] programs demonstrated better academic achievement.”
Oster thinks the sense of community at Gilman doesn’t hurt either. “It’s so encompassing and reliable that it lifts our boys to achieve astounding measures of excellence — academically, athletically, and artistically,” she says. Ross has observed, over her nine years at the school, that boys show enthusiasm for their peers equally for all kinds of successes, whether it’s a sports team celebrating a winning season at an assembly, a student impressively performing a traditional Irish dance in front of the student body, or the debate team returning from a tournament victorious. “The beauty of this place is that it’s cool to be smart.”
This article was published in January 2026.