August 23, 2022
What position will you be holding at MPA?
10th Grade Western Literature Long Term Substitute
From what school/organization are you coming?
Community of Peace Academy
Tell us about your education and past experience.
I attended the Johnston Center for Integrative Studies at the University of Redlands for my undergraduate. The Johnston Center was a program that allowed students to design their own majors and craft courses to meet their specific interests. I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Giving The Past A Voice: Bringing the Ancient World To Life In A Modern Classroom. I then attended Pepperdine Graduate School of Education and Psychology where I got my master’s in Education and a teaching credential in English and Social Studies. I have spent the past five years teaching middle school Social Studies and middle/high school English. I most recently taught 10th grade World Literature.
What did you find appealing about MPA?
What I find so appealing about working at MPA is getting to be part of this wonderful community. I attended a school very similar to MPA, and what I loved about my school was the strong sense of community. Teachers wanted us to not only succeed in our academic lives, but they also wanted us to thrive in our personal lives too. They pushed us to be the best version of ourselves inside and outside of school. I see this same sense of community and support at MPA. MPA is a school where everyone cares deeply about the quality of the education and that the students have every opportunity to thrive. In the past five years, I have taught at various schools in the area, and I can say I have found none like MPA. I am excited to be part of this special place.
What’s your big dream?
I want my students to find success in whatever form that means to them.
What are you (and your family, if you so choose) passionate about?
If I had to pick something in our lives that my family is passionate about it would have to be exploration. Exploration is so important to us that my husband and I actually named our son Odysseus (we call him Odys for short). Our journeys have taken us from attending weddings in India and Colombia to hiking in Switzerland and New Zealand. We also love to explore locally. We are members of the State Park Passport Club and Hiking Club. So far we have racked up over 150 miles hiked in the state parks and have visited just over half the parks. Now that Odys is two, he has also started to explore the world. While our adventures aren’t taking us too far, I am finding new places every day with Odys that I wouldn’t have seen before. I can’t wait to see where we go next.
What’s a fun fact about you that our community would love to know?
I was once bitten by an anaconda.
What position will you be holding at MPA?
Samantha Sanchez
What position will you be holding at MPA?
What position will you be holding at MPA?
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.
Meet Amina Brewer, an MPA junior entering her third year at MPA!
What position will you be holding at MPA? 
If you’ve been on campus lately, you’ve probably noticed something different about MPA’s pond–and not just the seasonal algae. This summer, the pond is adorned with trucks, cranes, bulldozers, gravel, and boulders. We have an exciting update about all of this action and commotion around our beloved outdoor learning lab.
Meet Frances, who will be beginning her third and senior year at MPA this fall.