On Monday, September 12th, Boston Trinity Academy opened the new school year with its annual Convocation chapel service. And for the first time in 13 years, iconic headmaster and founding trustee Frank Guerra did not lead the service. He, and his wife, Rebekah Guerra, also a founding trustee and later dean of the middle school, retired in June 2022.
Instead, Boston Trinity Academy’s new headmaster, Timothy Belk, opened the Convocation service by welcoming the 235 students at the grades-6-through-12 independent Christian prep school on its 4.5-acre Hyde Park campus as well as its Convocation keynote speaker, Reverend Eugene Rivers III.
Tim Belk did not need to be introduced to the students, parents, and faculty. He has served at Boston Trinity Academy since 2009 – first as a teacher and Academic Dean, and then, starting in 2012, as assistant headmaster. He and his wife, Sarah, a beloved teacher and responsible for the school’s renowned theatre program, have been a critical part of the school’s growing success and reputation over the past decade.
Born in Uganda and raised in Great Britain, Mr. Belk attended Tonbridge School in Kent, England – a prestigious British prep school founded in 1553. After graduation, he went to the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, where he earned two master’s degrees, one in Art History and the second in International Politics and Security Studies.
Mr. Belk has a distinct international aura to him. Born in Africa and educated in the United Kingdom, he lived and studied in Moscow, Russia during the year after his graduation from St. Andrews. Then he worked for a United Kingdom adventure travel company, Exodus International, leading small groups in travel and trekking trips in the Central Asian republics, Pakistan, India, China, Iran, Morocco, and elsewhere in Europe.
Next, he worked in Montana where he was a teacher and coach at Mission Valley Christian Academy. There, he met and married his wife, Sarah. In 1999, they moved to Long Island, where Mr. Belk served as a history teacher and coach at Stony Brook School, one of the leading Christian boarding schools in the country.
When he came to Boston Trinity Academy in 2009 as academic dean, he was asked to “take the school to the next level.” Under Mr. Belk’s academic leadership and in partnership with Mr. Guerra, Boston Trinity Academy has become known nationally for its outstanding faculty and rigorous academic program.
Boston Trinity Academy is currently the only non-denominational Christian secondary school in the city of Boston. It was founded in 2002 by a group of educators, clergy, and business leaders who saw the need for first-rate Christian education in the city of Boston. The founders envisioned a Christian school on par with the best private schools in New England. But unlike other schools in the area, Boston Trinity would reflect the rich diversity of the city of Boston and the world.
Boston Trinity Academy began with only 54 students, grades 6 through 9, in a rented space in Temple Ohabei Shalom in Brookline. The school moved to its current campus in Hyde Park in 2006.
This year, the student body of 235 is 33 percent white, 22 percent black, 22 percent Asian, 16 percent Latino, and 7 percent multi-racial. It may be the most ethnically, culturally, and socioeconomically diverse private high school in New England. The school achieves this diversity by providing $1.8 million in scholarships, financially assisting close to 60 percent of the student body.
Boston Trinity has graduated more than 595 students since its inception. The school has a 100 percent college acceptance rate. Its students consistently go to top colleges, including MIT, Harvard, Columbia, University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth, Amherst, Wheaton College in Illinois, and Gordon College.
Many of these students are the first people in their family to attend and graduate from college. The school is model of racial reconciliation in Boston and is breaking the bonds of educational inequality, preparing students to succeed in college and beyond.
Boston Trinity’s highly qualified and motivated faculty educate the mind, heart, and soul of each student. While students come from many backgrounds, the school teaches from the historic Judeo-Christian tradition. Through weekly Chapel services and courses in the Biblical Studies Department, each student is challenged to determine he or she can be the salt and light of the world.
After learning about biblical literacy in the Middle School, the Upper School curriculum explores the skills and insights necessary to build a spiritual and ethical life. The Advisory System, where students engage personally with an assigned faculty member, allows students to be supported in this growth process throughout their time at Boston Trinity.
While students excel in the classroom, they are also taught how to integrate faith, learning, and service. A Boston Trinity education culminates in seniors engaging in a yearlong course called Senior Honors Symposium. This course challenges students to analyze a topic related to justice through two lenses: moral philosophy and Christian ethics. All students research a topic of their choice, write a 25-page paper, and then defend their writing before a panel of invited judges. Most importantly, the work for this class is not research for the sake of research; it is a critical component of inspiring students to pursue their passions while meeting some of the world’s pressing needs.
Transitions are hard in any school. But Mr. Belk brings 13 years of experience and success within Boston Trinity Academy. He not only understands the school; he has helped made it what it is.
With Mr. Belk’s years of experience as a leader, his commitment to a rigorous academic curriculum, his strong faith, and his dedication to outreach to the Boston community, Boston Trinity Academy continues to be in good hands as the school seeks to fulfill its historic mission of academic excellence, purposeful faith, and authentic community.
Robert H. Bradley is Chairman of Bradley, Foster & Sargent Inc., a $5.5 billion wealth management firm that has offices in Hartford, Connecticut and Wellesley, Massachusetts. He also serves as Chairman of the Board of Boston Trinity Academy. Read other articles by him here.
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Timothy Belk 
