Upper School Archives

Upper School Division News January 11, 2024

January 11, 2024

from Mark Segal, Upper School director

Mark Your Calendars

Friday, January 12: US Class of 2028 Parent Coffee, 8-9 AM, PCR
Monday, January 15: Indexed Tuition Re-Application Deadline
Monday, January 15: No Classes, Martin Luther King Day
Wednesday, January 17: US ACT Prep Class, 5:30-8:30 PM, Room 181
Thursday, January 18: MS Grade 7/8 BIPOC Affinity Group, 2:20-3 PM, Panther Center
Friday, January 19: MS/US End of Quarter 2
Friday, January 19: US BIPOC Affinity Group Meeting, 11:20 AM-12 PM, Room 150-151
Monday, January 22: No Classes, Professional Day
Wednesday, January 24: US ACT Prep Class, 5:30-8:30 PM, Room 181
Friday, January 26: US BIPOC Affinity Group Meeting, 11:20-12 PM, Room 150-151
Friday, January 26: US Winter Show, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” 7-8:30 PM, Black Box
Saturday, January 27: US Winter Show, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” 7-8:30 PM, Black Box
Tuesday, January 30: Senior Performances, 9-9:15 AM, Nicholson Center (in lieu of block 1 classes)
Wednesday, January 31: US ACT Prep Class, 5:30-8:30 PM, Room TBD
Friday, February 2: US Winter Show, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” 7-8:30 PM, Black Box
Saturday, February 3: US Winter Show, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” 7-8:30 PM, Black Box
Sunday, February 4: US Winter Show, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” 3-4:30 PM, Black Box
Wednesday, February 7-Friday, February 9: Grade 10 Deep Portage Trip

Important Information

If your student will be absent, late, or needs to be excused early from school, please reach out to the Upper School office via cwilliams@moundsparkacademy.org.
Class of 2028 parents are invited to attend a coffee for rising ninth-grade parents to learn more about the Upper School at MPA, ask questions, and share the excitement of this next important step in students’ educational journey. Please mark your calendar for Friday, January 12, 8-9 AM. No RSVP is required, and coffee, tea, and light refreshments will be provided at the gathering. We will meet in the Porter Conference Room (PCR) within the Head of School suite.
Student work for quarter two/semester one classes is due by the end of the day on Friday, January 19. On Tuesday, January 23, students will start attending their quarter three/semester two courses.

A Makerspace Twist On National Novel Writing Month

December 22, 2023

One of the most memorable seventh-grade traditions at MPA is completing NaNoWriMo, which stands for National Novel Writing Month. NaNoWriMo is a national effort where participants write a novel throughout November. “It’s one of my favorite units to teach,” said Maddy Wolfe ‘12, seventh-grade English teacher at MPA. “They create well-rounded characters, complex story worlds, and a plot laced with tension, all while learning and incorporating language rules and mechanics.”

This year, in addition to their novels, the seventh graders created 3D frames depicting a scene from their stories. They chose a scene from their novel to highlight, and they needed to define the details that make up the scene in its entirety, translated onto a foreground, midground, and background.

“We used a multi-plane camera process—an old-fashioned way of creating 3D space by painting on glass frames as in the early King Kong movie—to create the illusion of space,” commented Keith Braafladt, MPA’s Makerspace coordinator. “It was a surprise how interested and passionate the students were, especially in terms of using color and painting techniques with paint markers, which is a painting tool we just started using last year with our Gunpla model-making activity. The students had so much more control than learning to use a brush in small spaces.”

When the models are held up to a projector, a 3D image is projected onto the wall behind.
“They turned out really incredible!” said Ms. Wolfe. “Their scenes included so many details from their novels, and it was cool to watch their visions come to life.”

“It was a wonderful collaboration using digital fabrication tools to make the frames and the transparencies using a historical perspective technique that came from filmmaking and animation and building this all around the notion of the creation of the narrative for the students’ novels,” commented Mr. Braafladt.

See photos from this exceptional project here.

A Day In The Life Of An MPA Student

December 19, 2023

This message is from MPA’s Office of Admission from the December 20, 2023 issue of InsideMPA. Click here to get in touch with Admission and learn more!

What is a day in the life of an MPA student? What do they learn? Where do they study? How do they feel?

To answer all of the above and more, we invite you to join us for the opportunity for to experience life at MPA. Our PreK-12 Preview on January 25, from 8:30-10 AM, gives an inside look at MPA on a school day. This is the perfect opportunity for your family to see yourselves here at MPA. Experience the comfy, cozy library spaces, the Makerspace as bright as your ideas, and the wide-open, welcoming Lansing Center. Your family will be led on a tour by community members and experience delightful surprises that make MPA so special along the way. In addition to exploring our state-of-the-art spaces firsthand, you will also meet the people who make our community the family that it is.

At the Preview, you will discover something remarkable–the type of learning that MPA students do each day. If you have any questions, contact the Office of Admission at 651-748-5577 or admission@moundsparkacademy.org. We hope to see you there!

RSVP Today

How We Learn

The Admission Process

We’re Using Robots to Build Kids—With Your Help

December 15, 2023

It’s been 35 years since I graduated from Mounds Park Academy. Had you asked me then, I would never in a million years have predicted my eventual return as both a parent of a senior and, equally incredibly, as a mentor for the school’s FIRST® robotics competition (FRC) Team 3926, the MPArors.

How I came to mentor robotics is a long story. But it’s so much fun, full of energy, intensity, and camaraderie. I’ve watched in real-time as students grow in confidence and leadership. “We’re using robots to build kids” is how FIRST founder Dean Kamen once described it. While the team wisely keeps me away from actually building the robot, I mentor a lot of the other team’s activities: community outreach, public engagement through social media, preparing for regional competitions, fostering inclusivity in STEM, and raising funds to pay for it all.

It turns out that running an FRC team isn’t cheap! Last year’s expenses included $16,000 in robot supplies, $8,000 in registration fees for two competitions, and $14,000 in travel-related costs. The team also has to regularly update aging tools and equipment.

This is our busiest time of the year for fundraising, and I’m touched by all the generous alumni who have supported robotics at MPA. Did you know that roughly half of the team’s funds come from individual donors? We are so grateful that you have helped us start the season strong.

However, there is still a ways to go before we meet our financial goal. So, this giving season, I’m reaching out to my fellow alumni to ask for your help. Perhaps you yourself were part of the robotics team, or (like me) wished the team had existed when you were a student at MPA. Or maybe you simply appreciate the profound impact that FIRST® Robotics has on our kids.

We’d love to hear from anyone interested in supporting the team – or is able to introduce us to potential new business or corporate sponsors (who make up more than 40% of our funding). Learn more at www.team3926.org or the QR code below, or call (651) 777-2555 x462.

Thank you! Go MPArors!

Sirid Kellerman ’88

The Good Fight

December 14, 2023

from Jennifer Le Varge, Lower School director

Editor’s Note: Periodically, you will find a guest Head’s Message here from members of the administrative team. We hope you will enjoy reading their thoughts and reflections about life at MPA.

Many years ago, near the start of my career when I was teaching in Lebanon, I worked with a wonderful human who became my mentor. Sadly, they recently passed away. In June of this year after yet another move to another new place—this time from Luanda, Angola to Beirut, Lebanon to St. Paul, Minnesota—I opened the cover of the book “Making Thinking Visible” found in a battered cardboard moving box, where this mentor had scrawled in blue cursive letters:

Jennifer—
keep fighting the good fight.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago, I was fortunate to join colleagues and student diversity leaders from Mounds Park Academy, alongside 8,500 other participants at the National Association of Independent Schools People of Color Conference (PoCC) in St. Louis. The theme of the conference was “Gateways to Freedom: A Confluence of Truth, Knowledge, Joy and Power.” As a first timer at PoCC, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I know that my experience was like no other professional learning opportunity I have encountered.

Firstly, this was not just any conference. Long-time attendees lovingly call PoCC the “family reunion,” and it truly felt like it even as a first timer. Since 1986, this annual gathering of like-minded yet diverse educators holds space for participants to fully see others and to feel seen in a real way. In a non-judgmental way. In a more genuine way than some of us might encounter in our daily lives and in our schools. I had the chance to attend various leadership sessions with a focus on people of color, hear from world-famous yet down-to-earth keynote presenters, laugh and learn with the Latinx affinity group, and lend my voice to the volunteer choir. As I reflect on my PoCC journey, certain themes come to the fore, which I share here in the spirit of collaboration. Read More

Upper School Division News December 14, 2023

December 14, 2023

from Mark Segal, Upper School director

Mark Your Calendars

Tuesday, December 19: Class of 2028 Parent Coffee, 6:30-7:30 PM, PCR
Wednesday, December 20: MPA Caroling, 7:30-8 AM, Family Commons
Thursday, December 21-Tuesday, January 2: No Classes, Winter Break
Wednesday, January 3: Classes Resume
Friday, January 5: Alumni Meet & Greet with Class of 2024, 8-9:15 AM, Family Commons
Tuesday, January 9: Grade 11 Parent College Counseling Night, 6:30-7:30 PM, Recital Hall
Wednesday, January 10: US ACT Prep Class, 5:30-8:30 PM, Room 181
Friday, January 12: Class of 2028 Parent Coffee, 8-9 AM, PCR
Friday, January 12: US BIPOC Affinity Group Meeting, 11:20 AM-12 PM, Room 150-151
Monday, January 15: No Classes, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
Friday, January 19: US BIPOC Affinity Group Meeting, 11:20 AM-12 PM, Room 150-151
Friday, January 19: End of Quarter 2/First Semester
Monday, January 22: No Classes, Grading Day
Tuesday, January 23: Quarter 3/Second Semester Begins
Wednesday, January 24: US ACTP Prep Class, 5:30-8:30 PM, Room 181
Thursday, January 25: Admission Preview
Friday, January 26: US BIPOC Affinity Group Meeting, 11:20 AM-12 PM, Room 150-151
Friday, January 26: Parents Association Family Trivia Night, 6-9 PM, Family Commons
Friday, January 26: Winter Show—The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, 7-8:30 PM, Black Box Theatre
Saturday, January 27: Winter Show—The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, 7-8:30 PM, Black Box Theatre
Sunday, January 28: Winter Show—The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, 2-3:30 PM, Black Box Theatre
Friday, February 2: US BIPOC Affinity Group Meeting, 11:20 AM-12 PM, Room 150-151
Friday, February 2: Winter Show—The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, 7-8:30 PM, Black Box Theatre
Saturday, February 3: Winter Show—The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, 7-8:30 PM, Black Box Theatre

A couple of years ago was the first time that I heard the term “cuddle puddle.” It was used to (positively) describe the mass of humanity gathered at our monthly Monday Morning Meetings, where students gather closely together to learn about the happenings in the upper school. According to medium.com, a cuddle puddle is a “fairly new term ubiquitous for non-sexual, touchy friendly happenings.” As the upper school director, I see the students huddled together as a way for students to foster a supportive and nurturing environment from which a strong sense of community is built. Building community happens frequently at MPA, yet last week, several opportunities stood out. Read More

Parents Association News and Events December 14, 2023

December 14, 2023

Thank You!
Thank you to all MPA community members who volunteered to wrap gifts for MPA staff on December 11. This is a beloved tradition at MPA where volunteers wrap the personal gifts of MPA Faculty and Staff, giving them the gift of time during the Holiday season. This Monday, we wrapped 229 gifts for 25 staff members! We took 0 lunch breaks and had 0 reported paper cuts. It was quite a day! Thank you again from Tara and the MPA PA!

Book Festival Success
Last week, during the 2023 Book Festival, the MPA community celebrated our love of literature in a big way! We raised money for the library, supported student literacy, and discussed so many wonderful books with each other. Thank you to our community for participating in this effort, and we would like to extend a huge thank you to our amazing volunteers who helped make the MPA Book Festival a success.

Dr. Hudson’s Book Club
February 12 at 6 PM
One more announcement for our parent readers! Dr. Hudson’s Book Club will return to the MPA Library on February 12 at 6 PM. We will be reading The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James Baldwin. Childcare will be provided. Sign up here to get your copy of the book.

Nominations Sought for School Committees and Board of Trustees

December 13, 2023

Each year, the Governance Committee of MPA’s Board of Trustees identifies, considers, and invites a small number of people within the MPA community to become new trustees. In soliciting and evaluating nominees, the Board seeks to match the board’s needs with the nominees’ professional and leadership skills and broad personal, cultural, and experience backgrounds. Before becoming trustees, many members first served in various capacities at MPA, such as on school committees, committees of the Board, in the Parents Association, or in other volunteer positions where they have been able to demonstrate and share their capabilities, personal experiences, and leadership skills.

The Board continuously seeks to broaden the diversity of experience and background of its membership. In addition, this year, it seeks to identify, among other things, those with professional capabilities in development, facilities, the arts, HR and personnel management, finance, education, and strategic planning. If you know someone who might be a strong candidate for the board or other school committees, or if you are interested, please submit a simple nomination form. The Governance Committee of the Board will be reviewing and vetting nominations during January and February and bringing a slate of candidates to the full Board for consideration at its spring meeting.

A detailed explanation of the Board’s work and a description of the Board’s active committee’s work can be found on the Board of Trustees MPA webpage.

Feel free to contact Board Vice-Chair and Governance Committee Chair Jeremy Drucker ’97 at Drucker.Jeremy@gmail.com if you have any questions.

Please complete this form to nominate yourself or someone else.

Talented Sophomores Achieve a Harmony of Accomplishments

December 11, 2023

Congratulations to sophomores Grace Nelson, Chali Yang, Warner Reid, and Truman Wilgocki, who auditioned and were selected to be members of the American Choral Directors Association of Minnesota 9-10 State Honor Choirs. Grace will sing in the Soprano-Alto (SA) choir under the direction of Maria Ellis, owner of Girl Conductor, LLC. Chali is a member of the Tenor-Bass (TB) choir and will sing for Chris McGinley from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Warner and Truman will sing in the SATB choir conducted by Kira Haler Knutson from Valley City State University. The daylong Honor Choir event will culminate with a concert at the Minneapolis Convention Center in mid-February. Grace, Chali, and Warner were sponsored by Mr. Habermann, while Truman auditioned as a member of the MN Boychoir. Great work, everyone!

Transformative Initiatives And Compassionate Support

December 11, 2023

As Mounds Park Academy continues its commitment to providing a holistic and supportive learning environment, the recent addition of Jeanne Doyle as our Lower School Counselor brings forth a wealth of experience and fresh perspectives. In a recent interview, we explore Jeanne’s initial impressions of MPA, her unique insights, and the innovative programs she has introduced to enhance the Lower School experience.

In your experience, how is MPA different from other organizations you’ve worked for?

“One amazing, unique quality I noticed about Mounds Park Academy right away is that Dr. Hudson truly knows every child’s name! He knows and cares about each student and each MPA family. His love for the children is so genuine. If I were a parent of a child at MPA, this depth of care from the top would be so reassuring to me. As a counselor, I appreciate that feeling seen, known, and loved can foster a strong sense of self-worth in children. Everyone wants to belong in their community. This level of care is echoed throughout the teaching faculty and the staff at MPA, and that is truly a hallmark of our school. Read More