November 16, 2022
We are launching a special story series where we profile Dreamers, Doers, Freethinkers, and Right Makers in the MPA community to inspire one another. Do you have an impactful story to share? Email communications@moundsparkacademy.org!
If you spend time at MPA during the summer, you’ll notice the lavish blooms and abundant vegetables and herbs that sprout about every year. You’ll also notice a particular student tending to the flora, ensuring that it is reaching its full potential and seeking out ways to enhance and sustain it. MPA senior Cassie Atkinson, consistently gives her time, dedication, and creativity to the campus gardens during the summer and throughout the year. She has a love for the outdoors, including a deep knowledge of plants and animals, is a leader of the Upper School E-Club, and inspires those around her to consider the environment with the same care that she does. Her work includes the general caretaking of the outdoor space, but it also careful curation and ingenuity when it comes to environmental efficiency. Cassie’s notable passion for sustainability has even produced amazing features such as the medicine wheel garden, a native botanical practice.
Cassie’s commitment to sustainability does not go unnoticed among our community. In fact, it led to Dr. Jurewicz—the interim Lower School director—approaching the senior, asking if she would take on the task of getting MPA’s old aeroponic tower up and running. Since this tower has been unused in the building for decades, Dr. J saw an opportunity to put it to good use and have an experienced student teach younger peers about an important topic. Shortly after, a senior service project was born, as Cassie agreed to use this growing equipment to teach younger students about aeroponics and sustainable growing. Cassie will show students what the aeroponic tower can grow, how it works, and even have some taste tests from whatever is harvested.
Cassie expressed that this is an incredibly important project, because “sustainable living is the future.”
“Especially for young people, who don’t have the financial liberties to make sustainable choices in their energy consumption,” she said.
Through the awareness Cassie is raising, a wide range of socioeconomic backgrounds can have the opportunity to participate in sustainable living by growing their own produce, and protecting wildlife and their habitats. She’s very excited to promote this project and mission to the community.
Although Cassie had plenty of sustainability topics to choose from she says that “aeroponics is becoming increasingly important for humans to acknowledge because the resources and land we live on are critical and limited. Ninety percent of farmland is cultivated for cattle in the U.S.– That is a lot of tallgrass land that should be restored to preserve a natural carbon cycle. It’s also important for people to know that it’s possible to grow your own food in urban settings, with limited or no space for soil. Machines like the aeroponic tower preserve space and make it possible.”
Cassie’s senior service project is one that will impact younger generations to invest in their future through sustainable methods. The project’s initial processes will start this month and take four to six weeks to begin running smoothly.
The following essay is adapted from MPA Class of 2023 member Justin Choi’s Senior Speech.
If you have ever dreamed of a way to experience life at MPA in a day, the PreK-12 Preview is the perfect opportunity to discover why you belong here. You and your entire family are warmly invited to attend the MPA Preview on Sunday, November 6 at 2 PM.
MPA’s Makerspace intentionally provides students with opportunities to construct meaning through making with practical, hands-on, interdisciplinary, problem-based projects. In this space, students of all ages use design thinking to develop empathy with individuals and design creative solutions to problems through an iterative process involving brainstorming, prototyping, and testing. The Makerspace allows for the blend of technical and creative skills conducive to developing a well-rounded individual.
from Dr. Jules Nolan, MPA school psychologist
Homecoming 2022: We Are Panthers was a huge success!
Nastya Vershenya ’01 and Sarah Hanson Salgado ’03 are each other’s chosen family. Their story begins in Sarah’s seventh grade year at MPA, when, as an only child, MPA’s call for families to host an international student was appealing and exciting. Both Sarah’s family and Nastya, coming as an international student to MPA from Minsk, were looking for the same thing, but none of them expected to gain a bonus sister/daughter in the process.
Parent of alumni and fourth grade teacher DeeDee Stacy shares her experience hosting Lyndon Lyu ’20.
Since its founding, MPA has pioneered whole child education in the Twin Cities with a commitment to helping students deepen their understanding of themselves and the world around them. We persistently innovate in alignment with that core value, providing experiences that are challenging to replicate anywhere else.
Class of 2018 alum Pranay Somayajula, now at The George Washington University, shares that he chose to pursue the Global Certificate and “the most valuable part of the program was the way it motivated me to get out of my comfort zone and explore the full range of cultural and foreign-policy opportunities the Twin Cities has to offer.” Maija Olson ’17 reflects on her Global Certificate as well, saying, “The freedom to guide my learning offered a new kind of independence. I enjoyed the ability to deeply explore various world issues and focus on something I was truly passionate about.”
At home, you teach your children values. Shouldn’t their school do the same? Respect and integrity are integral components of the Mounds Park Academy mission, and character development is woven into the MPA experience. Rooted in the idea that the human character is malleable and children are exceptionally capable of positively impacting the world, character has been taught as one part of the whole child at Mounds Park Academy since 1982.