Upper School Archives

Upper School Division News September 1, 2022

September 1, 2022

from Mark Segal, Upper School division director

I can’t express the pure joy and excitement felt last Wednesday when almost 240 upper school students descended on the MPA campus for the first day of school. Like most students, and many parents I am sure, I found it challenging to get a good night’s sleep as I kept running through my figurative and literal “to do” list hoping that everything that needed to get done was done. Adding to my angst was the fear that all students will be where they need to be and that their first day schedules were correct. It is hard to believe, but between the day that student schedules became available and this afternoon, more than 500 (not a typo) schedule changes were made. This equates to more than two changes per student. Thankfully, the students and their parents showed patience with me as I learned the “behind the curtain” nuances of the scheduling system and did my best to meet their scheduling requests.

Over the past couple of weeks, I have enjoyed spending time with the new and returning upper school students and families. Hearing about summer journeys, seeing students return for the start of athletics and classes, hosting the upper school Back to School Nights and new family/peer leader BBQ, and planning for the Upper School State Fair field trip has energized me for the 2022-2023 school year and the return to “normalcy” and routine.

I look forward to seeing you on campus soon. Read More

Only At MPA

August 25, 2022

from Dr. Bill Hudson, Head of School

I was taken aback yesterday morning when I drove into the north parking lot at 6:10 AM and saw it was filled with cars. I am used to being the first one at school in the morning and was completely disoriented. Then I remembered that this year’s senior class began a new tradition, gathering in the Benz Courtyard together at sunrise to launch their senior year. My first reaction was, “Only at MPA!.” This new tradition, initiated by the seniors, is a wonderful example of what makes MPA such a special school.

I want to officially welcome you to a new school year! I especially welcome our new families who have recently joined the MPA family. It was wonderful to meet and greet so many of you at the Back To School and New Family Orientation event. The deep-seated spirit of joyfulness and community was palpable, and although I was exhausted, it was hard for me to fall asleep Monday night. After two years of health and safety restrictions, it was gratifying to be back together and in person.

In my welcoming remarks to new families, I spoke of the strong partnership between parents and the school. In many independent schools, this special relationship tends to be transactional, built upon the expectation of reciprocity, of both parties getting what they want from one another. I have long felt that the relationship between MPA parents and school is more transformational. In a transformational relationship, there exists a mutual trust built upon shared values and a belief that an MPA education is a partnership in our children’s ongoing growth and development.

Welcome to MPA, Samah Fahmy!

August 25, 2022

What position will you be holding at MPA?
Middle and Upper School visual arts teacher

From what school/organization are you coming?
Woodbury Leadership Academy / St. Croix Prep

Tell us about your education and past experience.
I hold a B.A. in Fine Art. I have worked for the past 17 years in the South Washington County School District as a community ed. art teacher, for levels K-Adult. I have designed a curriculum that both pleases students and follows state art standards.

What did you find appealing about MPA?
MPA has a wonderful community and is known for its outstanding academics and development of the student holistically.

What’s your big dream?
To see my daughters prosper in a diverse and equitable world.

What are you (and your family, if you so choose) passionate about?
We are passionate about travel, art, music, swimming, golf and various felines. We feel strongly about giving back and volunteering at school, and spend on average 20 hours a month volunteering.

What’s a fun fact about you that our community would love to know?
We have traveled to many countries and love to share our experiences.

Welcome to MPA, Justin Quam!

August 25, 2022

What position will you be holding at MPA?
College Counselor

From what school/organization are you coming?
St. Paul’s Schools, Brooklandville, MD

Tell us about your education and past experience.
I have been working in education for a year as an English teaching assistant in Austria in 2010. After finishing graduate school at Georgetown, I taught German and global politics at the St. Paul’s Schools near Baltimore, where I also served on the college counseling team. I just wrapped up my first summer co-directing Waldsee, the German summer camp at the Concordia Language Villages in Bemidji where I have taught since 2005.

What did you find appealing about MPA?
I was struck by the earnest curiosity of the students I met at MPA; they seemed intrinsically motivated by their own desire to learn and grow, rather than by external markers of success.

What’s your big dream?
At the moment, I’m most excited to connect (and reconnect) to communities I was isolated from throughout the pandemic, and to help students do the same.

What are you (and your family, if you so choose) passionate about?
Singing fills the gaps in my soul. I joined a choir when I first moved to DC in 2011 (before even finding an apartment), and that community has been the one constant in my life through a decade of moves, grad school, teaching, and job hunting. I hope to find a similar musical avenue in MN!

What’s a fun fact about you that our community would love to know?
I can fold just about any origami creature out of one square of paper, given detailed instructions. (Hedgehogs are my white whales, so to speak–too many spines–but almost any other animal is fair game.)

Welcome to MPA, Chad DeBruzzi!

August 20, 2022

What position will you be holding at MPA?
Upper School Math Teacher

From what school/organization are you coming?
Anoka Hennepin Public Schools

Tell us about your education and past experience.
Nineteen years of teaching in public and charter schools, as well as higher education. I hold a Masters in education focused on teaching math. I also hold a principal license and an education specialist degree.

What did you find appealing about MPA?
I fell in love with MPA when I saw my children start to flourish for the first time in their school careers. Before MPA they couldn’t tell you what their strengths were. Now, they know their strengths and how to help others with those strengths!

What’s your big dream?
I always wanted to travel the world and meet wise people from different cultures and record their wisdom.

What’s a fun fact about you that our community would love to know?
My family and I love playing board games, video games, jackbox tv: anything that involves playful banter and unpredictability! I am also passionate about Minnesota sports!

Welcome to MPA, Jane O’Halloren!

August 16, 2022

What position will you be holding at MPA?
Part-time Upper School English Teacher

From what school/organization are you coming?
Rosemount High School

Tell us about your education and past experience.
I taught in Chicago for six years before relocating to Minnesota for my partner’s job, and I taught for five years in District 196 at Rosemount High School. My undergraduate degrees are in English and French from St. Olaf College, and my M.A. is in Rhetoric and Composition from DePaul University.

What did you find appealing about MPA?
The pairing of intellectual ambition and global responsibility appeals to my sense of idealism. What is our responsibility to ourselves and others as we become better readers, writers, and thinkers? I’m excited to see what this looks like in the classroom.

What’s your big dream?
Chasing curiosity–staying thirsty for knowledge and connection.

What are you (and your family, if you so choose) passionate about?
I’m passionate about going on adventures. This might look like family adventures (road trips, camping trips, day trips) or intellectual adventures (reading a challenging book, taking a new job) or physical adventures (running challenging races, joining a new workout class).

What’s a fun fact about you that our community would love to know?
I make my kids’ birthday cakes every year from scratch.

From Host Family To Chosen Family

July 25, 2022

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.

“Twenty some years later, she’s still a part of our family,” Sarah said. “Her [Nastya’s] daughter calls my parents her grandparents, and my parents refer to Nastya as their bonus daughter. We truly did gain a family member from the experience.”

We were able to connect with Sarah and Nastya together to share their heartwarming story as a host family and bonus family member.

How did you meet and become family?

Sarah found what she was searching for in a sister and friend in Nastya. “I’m an only child. When I was preschool age, my parents had done a couple college student homestays at our house. As a three, four, and five-year-old, that was really fun for me! I remembered liking that, and the summer after seventh grade, MPA sent out a newsletter looking for host families. I called my mom at work to say ‘Mom, you have to call MPA right now, and we’re gonna do this!’”

Nastya was drawn to MPA after her family’s experience with Friendship Force. Friendship Force connects families with others, staying with each other as host families for weeks at a time. Her family happened to connect with an MPA family, and they presented an opportunity for the international program to her.

The day Nastya was supposed to arrive in Minnesota, there was a massive airline workers’ strike. She couldn’t get to MSP, and had to reroute to Chicago as the closest available airport. Sarah’s family was so adamant about not delaying Nastya’s arrival, that at three in the morning they made the drive to Chicago to personally pick her up. Read More

Meet Amina Brewer ’24

July 20, 2022

Meet Amina Brewer, an MPA junior entering her third year at MPA!

What do you love about MPA?
One thing I love about MPA is how fast people can make connections with each other. Since the class sizes are relatively small, it’s pretty easy to form relationships with classmates. A lot of times when schools are huge, people get anxious about speaking up in class, and MPA does a good job at preventing situations like that.

Why do you believe your teachers teach the way they do?
The teachers at MPA all seem to actually care for their students. There aren’t times when I feel like a burden to them, or like they’re just trying to get through the day because they all seem to truly enjoy being an educator. Part of the reason why I think they teach us this way is so we can not only succeed in the future, but also so we can change the future for the best.

How are you encouraged to dream big and do right at MPA?
Seeing my hardworking friends is really what motivates me to try my very best for the future and career I want most. Without them, I wouldn’t be half as motivated.

If you have attended another school, how has your experience here been different?
I probably wouldn’t be as determined to do well because not many schools have this many students that are as motivated as they are here. Read More

Welcome To MPA, Jay Dean!

July 13, 2022

What position will you be holding at MPA?
Interim assistant Upper School director starting August 1, 2022.

From what school/organization are you coming?
The Blake School

Tell us a little bit about your education and past experience.
I earned my B.S. in Producing for Electronic Media from Syracuse University and earned my M.A. in School Counseling from Loyola Marymount University. My teaching and administrative experience includes time at The Crossroads School for Arts & Sciences in Santa Monica, CA (2002-11) and The Blake School (2011-2022). At Blake, I served as Middle School director for five years.

What did you find appealing about MPA during the interview process?
I am drawn to MPA’s focus on the whole child, its progressive approach to teaching and learning, and the recognition of the importance of social-emotional learning and DEIJ work. I know that MPA is a “transformative” partner for students and families and I am excited to be a part of that. Read More

What’s Happening To MPA’s Pond?

July 13, 2022

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.

MPA has a long-standing partnership with the Ramsey-Washington Watershed District. Several times per year, they visit our Upper School biology and environmental science classes for lessons regarding the health, importance, and sustainability of water. Many of these lessons use our campus pond as the source of their research and data collection. This summer, we are ecstatic to be continuing our work with them to embark on improvement project for our campus pond, supported by the Watershed District themselves. One of our amazing alumni, Andrea Wedul ’95, is the architect who designed this renovation for us. With the help of Andrea, the Watershed District, and the vibrant ecosystem of the pond, this initiative will enhance a signature space at MPA to become a more advanced and accessible outdoor classroom.

Currently, the renovation crew is removing a row of parking spaces from the west lot to install filters and extend the growth of native plants in that area. This will help protect our pond from harmful runoff throughout every season. We are still in the early stages, but are loving the progress taking shape right before our eyes! See the action for yourself here!