Blog Archives

May 17, 2018

Meet Blair Benham-Pyle ’06, a passionate scientist on her way to solving important scientific questions destined to improve our world. Blair is doing her post-doctoral research in regenerative medicine at the Stowers Institute, a highly innovative center for biomedical research. She’s currently immersed in studying the cute, but highly unusual, planarian flatworm, an organism that exists by breaking apart and cloning itself. Unlike other organisms in the process of regeneration, these worms amazingly do not get tumors or show signs of aging.

“My job as a scientist is to understand—through rigorous study in the lab—how they are able to control stem cell growth so robustly that they can protect themselves against cancer and aging,” explains Blair. “We want to know their life strategies and how a tiny group of cells can be cleaved off without damaging their basic blueprint. In layperson’s terms, we are trying to break apart that black box and apply our discoveries to improve human health.”

Blair has always had the heart and mind of a scientist, recalling her many opportunities to experiment at MPA and delve deeply into subjects of interest with her teachers. She appreciates that she was given freedom to explore across many disciplines, including ethics, constitutional law, and writing. Evidence of these skillsets is seen in her work today.

Students Discovering Their Voices

May 10, 2018

by Dr. Bill Hudson, Head of School

Monday mornings are generally a flurry of meetings at Mounds Park Academy. Both the Lower School and the Upper School begin the week with division-wide meetings intended to keep the respective community informed, share what is happening in the classroom, celebrate milestones and important achievements, and build community. Monday morning meetings also give voice to students and intentionally invite engagement into the life of the school.

Be The Nice Kid Visits MPA

May 10, 2018

Yesterday’s CHAMP assembly was yet another special and memorable morning for the MPA Lower School. Bryan Skavnak, founder of Be The Nice Kid, visited campus and told stories of doing right, having courage, and being the nice kid.

Be The Nice Kid is a community dedicated to spreading positivity and inspiring kids, parents, and educators. The root of their encouragement comes from holding each other responsible for how we treat one another. Be The Nice Kid strives to encourage students to see how kindness leads to confidence, and how to use confidence to spread positivity and happiness.

Thanks For An Amazing #ShareMPAMonth!

May 3, 2018

Thank you for sharing your love of MPA throughout all of April! We received more than 100 reasons why you love MPA and are elated to see all of the things that makes our community special and impactful. Because of how many replies you sent, we will be sharing them periodically on MPA’s social media, so keep an eye out for yours! For now, enjoy a few to share the joy:

“I love how caring and thoughtful the teachers are.” – Lia S.

Teaching Students to Make a Difference

May 3, 2018

by Erica Brewinski ’96, Middle School Director

Editor’s Note: On the first Thursday of each month, you will now find a guest blog post here from one of MPA’s division directors. We hope you will enjoy reading their stories and reflections about life at MPA!

“You can change the world.” When I think back on my education at MPA, these are the words that always come to mind. Maureen Conway, retired Upper School history teacher, repeated them to her students so many times that no one could doubt that we had the ability to shape the future for the betterment of the world around us. After graduating from MPA, I put these words into action by creating a new program in which Brown University students were paired with developmentally disabled adults in the Providence community so that the latter could learn and practice important life skills. While the rest of my college friends volunteered in pre-standing programs or, more likely, didn’t bother with service at all, I felt both empowered and compelled to take action to address a need that I knew would make a difference. MPA provided me with the skills, courage, creativity, and perseverance necessary to create something from scratch, including programming, budgeting, advertising, locating and working with a large number of community partners, and more in a place where I could no longer rely on family and friends for help. It also guided me to choose a career in education, since I could think of no better way to make a difference than by guiding the next generation.

Henry Is The Head For The Day!

April 27, 2018

Meet Henry S., MPA’s Head of School for the Day! Henry is a fifth grader who loves solving challenging math problems and skiing on MPA’s Alpine Ski team. He spent the day exploring the many daily components of the school, from business in the Athletics Office to a tour of the school (including the roof and its solar panels).

To start the day, Henry greeted students arriving at school through the south entrance with Dr. Hudson. They were so delighted to see that their friend was in charge today!

He then visited the Communications and Marketing department, where collected some brand-new MPA swag and quickly mastered graphic design and photography in order to publish his own custom display screen on campus. He even starred in a promotional video that will be shown at the Spring Auction. Read More

Tell Your Friends About Lunch At MPA!

April 26, 2018

Our next upcoming admission event is Lunch at MPA on Tuesday, May 15, starting at 11:30 AM! Invite a friend, neighbor, colleague, or anyone you know who shares your educational values. We can’t wait to meet them!

Guests are invited to campus during a regular school day to meet school administrators over a casual meal and tour the campus to see our students and teachers in action.

Kindly extend our invitation for lunch and have your friends RSVP in advance for this engaging program at moundsparkacademy.org/RSVP. If you have any questions, contact the Office of Admission at 651-748-5577 or admission@moundsparkacademy.org.

Sweet Moments From Grandparents Day

April 26, 2018

We had a wonderful time hosting everyone on campus for the first annual Upper School Grandparents And Special Friends Day! This day developed into an event specially designed for the Upper School division, where all of our visitors experienced a unique glimpse inside our older students’ life at MPA! We had grandparents and friends across all of the Upper School, in classes from Spanish to history and more.

Enjoy these sweet moments and thank you to all who visited and helped establish a new wonderful tradition! See all of the photos here!

Enhancing Play Spaces For All

April 26, 2018

by Dr. Bill Hudson, Head of School

At the dinner table, we have a tradition of sharing our day with one another. Among other topics and questions, we often ask the kids, “What did you like best about your day?” Inevitably, the response is one of three possibilities: phy ed class, lunch, or recess. Obviously, we hope it’s about a riveting discussion about a novel or an exciting discovery during a science experiment. However, as an educator, I am okay with their response. Physical activity, free play, unstructured time, and nutrition are all necessary aspects of a student’s life, no matter the age. This is also true for adults!

In a few weeks, we will gather at the historic JX in Stillwater for our annual Spring Auction. It is our only school-wide community builder solely for the grown-ups in our community and our only fundraising event of the year. The newly opened JX is a beautiful setting with wonderful views and plenty of space for socializing and joy-raising. We will have many items in the silent auction, fun games of chance, and some unique experiences in the live auction. As is our custom, we will end the auction with an opportunity to fund a specific need of the school.

Through this Fund A Need portion of the evening, together over the past several years we’ve raised more than $300,000 to enhance the educational experience of our students. Past projects include the Digital Fabrication Studio (an early iteration of the Makerspace), Virtual Classroom, extensive bathroom renovations, sound, lighting, and seating replacement in the Blackbox Theatre.

Technology, Values, and Advice

April 19, 2018

David Siegel ’04 is a techie, philosopher, and creative thinker. Blending his love of technology with a sensitivity to human flourishing, he is driven to understand how technology affects people. “I’m naturally skeptical of the techno-utopian tenet that technology will inevitably create the world we want,” he shares, “so I’m concerned with building technologies consistent with our core values.”

Currently working as a design leader at Microsoft in San Francisco, he also recently founded a company around his open source project, quicktype.io, which he summarizes in layman’s terms as “autocorrect for data.” After eight months since David began working on quicktype as a side project, it’s approaching 30,000 monthly users and is snowballing in popularity with developers. He expects to reach 100,000 users per month and to build a business on top of the open source foundation this year.

During his years at MPA, David gravitated mostly toward Spanish, film, writing, and critical thinking. He especially loved arguing contentious topics with others, which was encouraged at school. He was also personally motivated to seek knowledge about emerging technologies, and MPA’s laptop program was vital.

After graduation, David attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned dual degrees in philosophy and computer science engineering. Despite graduating summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, he admits he has never used his resume and has reported directly to the CEO at every position he’s held (until joining Microsoft via acquisition in 2016).