OBITUARY: Remembering BU Academy teacher Jennifer Formichelli

Jennifer Formichelli, a Boston University Academy English teacher, died after being fatally injured Oct. 26 when struck by a school bus at an intersection in Mattapan, where she lived. A candlelight vigil was held at Marsh Chapel Oct. 28. 

Before teaching at BUA, Formichelli joined the College of Arts and Sciences’ Core Curriculum — a program designed to introduce students to classic literature and arts — from 2006 to 2012, as a lecturer. She later taught in the College of General Studies and in 2016, began as an English teacher at BUA. 

Formichelli herself was a BU alum, graduated with an undergraduate degree in literary history in 1996 and from the Metropolitan College in 2021. 

She previously co-edited a volume of T.S. Eliot’s annotated prose and published works on literary history and allusion, Shakespeare and William Empson. Formichelli was also working on a book covering a 2010 four-person homicide in Mattapan.

BUA released a press statement Oct. 26 expressing the Academy’s sorrow for her death. 

“The Boston University Academy community was profoundly shocked and saddened to learn of the loss of English teacher Dr. Jennifer Formichelli in a tragic accident early this morning,” the statement read. “She was a cherished member of our school community and will be deeply missed.”

Chris Kolovos, BUA’s Head of School, wrote in an email that Formichelli inspired many of her students with her passion and care and took the time to get to know them personally. 

“She loved language and literature, but loved working with adolescents even more,” he wrote. “She took their ideas seriously, challenged them, and laughed with them. She will be – and is already – deeply missed.” 

Kyna Hamill, now director of the Core Curriculum said she joined the program as faculty in 2007, soon after Formichelli joined. 

“Our colleagues who were here when she was here have been shocked and very saddened by her death,” she said.

Hamill said on the same day as Formichelli’s passing before they knew of the accident, a colleague had mentioned in a class how “wonderful” a reader and interpreter of literature Formichelli had been. 

“She was on our mind that day, and it was a shock,” Hamill said. “Our colleagues who were here when she was here have been shocked and very saddened by her death.”

BUA has created a website for those who knew Formichelli to post remembrances. In an email to the Core Curriculum Newsletter listing, Hamill wrote that The Journal of the Core Curriculum, to which Formichelli often contributed, will have its Spring issue dedicated to her memory.

She is survived by her fiancé, Fillmore Parris, father, Carl and brother, Greg.