Upper School Archives

December 28, 2020

The following essay is adapted from MPA Class of 2021 member Evan Esch’s Senior Speech.

Playing one of America’s greatest pastimes has been one of the greatest privileges of my life. When I was younger, baseball was always the most fun and something I’d look forward to in the summer. Being an athletic kid, it came particularly easy to me. I was fast, I could also hit the ball pretty well, and I was exceptional at catching and throwing. On top of that, I’m a lefty, among the most desired traits in baseball players. As I continued to progress through youth baseball, my team won a lot of games and tournaments. We had a great coaching staff that was knowledgeable and brought tremendous energy. They really wanted us to succeed. However, when high school came along, and the pressures of the recruiting environment began to ramp up, my relationship with baseball began to change.

Being noticed as a high level baseball player in Minnesota was great, it felt affirming to be one of the best. However, it sometimes made me complacent. That complacency was, at times, detrimental to my game because it made me too comfortable. It was easy to do things that came naturally to me, and they fulfilled me in the short-term, but looking back, I realized I did not accomplish much in those comfortable times. Read More

Meet Sammie Garrity ’23

December 22, 2020

How many years have you been a student at MPA?
I started at MPA in the fall of my ninth grade year, so I have been here for a year and a half.

What do you love about MPA?
I love so many things, but two really stick out. The first is the community, and the second is how my teachers push me to be the best I can be.

How are you encouraged to dream big and do right at MPA?
I am encouraged to dream big and do right at MPA because of my teachers. They expect a lot out of me, and that makes it rigorous, but in the long run, it’s making me a better student.

Why do you believe your teachers teach the way they do?
The moment I walked into MPA, I immediately saw that my teachers knew what they are doing. They have so many amazing stories and it’s clear that their teaching style is based on all of their many years of experience. Read More

Finding Light, Warmth, Joy, And Growth

December 17, 2020

by Dr. Bill Hudson, Head of School

In a few short days, the winter solstice will be upon us. Literally and figuratively—a few short days. Monday will be the shortest day of the year, the longest night, and the first official day of winter. The increasing darkness over the last several months has resulted in six additional hours of nighttime. Darkness seems to have also crept into our psyche as we experience the impact and uncertainty of the pandemic, the economy, and the social and political discord. A long winter break is needed now more than ever.

The heaviness of the dark is coupled with what seems to be more anxiety, more stress, more work, and less time to unwind. It has been proven that we have more time for leisure than we did 50 years ago, and it doesn’t seem to be any more relaxing, in part because of the pandemic, the fuzzy line between home and work, and the disintermediating effects of our screens. According to behavioral scientist Ashley Whillans, emails, texts, and social media aren’t just eating 10% of our free time—they’re fragmenting it into tiny pieces of “confetti” that we can’t enjoy. Whillans recommends blocking out uninterrupted time for leisure, just as we do for deep work. (You might enjoy Whillans’ article “Time Confetti and the Broken Promise of Leisure.”) Read More

MPA Board Of Trustees Seeking Nominations

December 17, 2020

MPA’s Board of Trustees collaborates with the Head of School to guide the school’s strategic direction, to protect its mission, to support the school’s development efforts and to safeguard the school’s financial stability.

Nominations for Trustees
We are pleased to share that the Governance Committee of the Board is launching its annual process to identify potential trustees.

If you, or someone you know, could be a strong contributor to the MPA Board of Trustees, please provide the name of your nominee and a short description of their experience and background, directly to Wendy Marko Odeen, Trustee and Governance Chair, MPA Board of Trustees at wendy.odeen@ellester.com by January 16, 2021.

In addition to strong leadership skills, nominees will bring a broad diversity of experience and backgrounds, and a passion to advance the mission of MPA. Areas of desired professional experience include: finance, accounting, investment, banking, business, communications, construction, education, law, governance, scientific training, the arts, IT, human resources, strategic planning, development, marketing, and community service, among others. Read More

Invite A Friend To Discover Something Remarkable

December 17, 2020

Invite a friend, neighbor, colleague, or family member to join us for MPA’s final PreK-12 preview event of the year. Held virtually on Sunday, January 31 starting at 2 PM, this event will be a structured program that allows prospective students and parents to get a sense of what makes MPA an exceptional place to learn and grow. From participating in hands on classes offered by our expert educators, to seeing 17 campus spaces via a virtual tour, prospective families will get a detailed overview of Mounds Park Academy.

Kindly invite your friends and neighbors to 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. We can’t wait to meet them!

Socratic Seminars And The Path To Making Meaning

December 15, 2020

Sixteen faces appear on Zoom as Upper School English teacher Lauren Drake begins her Western and Global Literature course. It’s a Wednesday afternoon and these tenth graders listen patiently as Drake explains how the main item on today’s agenda will work; the class’ first Socratic Seminar of the quarter. Today’s Socratic Seminar is a comparison of Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein”, Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”, Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay “Nature”, and a collection of William Wordsworth poetry. Drake explains the grading rubric, recaps the seminar’s norms, and reminds students to think about the space they inhabit in group discussions. Then it’s go time and students jump right in, starting with an examination of prompt one, a comparison of the uses of light and dark imagery in “Allegory of the Cave” and “Frankenstein”.

Different schools have their own unique way of engaging students in learning through classroom discussion. For some, there’s the Harkness Table, for others, the Fishbowl Model, and still others use the Jigsaw Method. At MPA, Upper School humanities teachers use the Socratic Seminar to create engaging, hands on, discussion based learning opportunities that facilitate deep dives into complex content knowledge. Read More

MPA Math League Team’s High Scoring Meet

December 15, 2020

The MPA Math League team participated in their third virtual meet this week, scoring very well with 89 points overall! MPA’s top individual scorer was sophomore Anthony Troullier, earning 12 points, including a perfect seven in event A. Four team members earned ten points: junior Amy Xiang (including a perfect seven in event B), senior Lareina Gu (including a perfect 7 in event B), senior Sean Park, and senior Steve Min (filling in nicely for Qiya Zhang, who was unable to attend). Freshman Ella Li also earned a perfect 7 in event B. The team overall did extremely well in event B, earning 26 out of a possible 28 points.

The team earned 16 points on the team round, and once all the other teams in our division and section complete the meet, final results will be announced. Some non-official team members did very well, including senior Sean Davis, earning eight points. Junior Samantha Forgosh also earned 8 points. The bench on this team is mighty deep! Congratulations, Math Team!

MPA Quiz Bowl Secures Spot In National Tournament

December 14, 2020

This past Saturday, the MPA Upper School Quiz Bowl teams couldn’t take celebratory pictures together quite like the one featured here from 2019, but their smiles were just as big! Three MPA teams competed at the RATRACE tournament (Really Awesome Thumb-Racing Academic Competition Event) Quiz Bowl competition, which was held virtually.

The A-Team, comprised of seniors Isak Dai, Ryan Ghose, Hana Miller, Ellen Vergin, and Tanner Gasteazoro, finished in the top 16 teams and secured a spot in the National Tournament this Spring! The B-Team, comprised of tenth graders Anthony Troullier and Gabe Messner, and ninth graders Zain Ali and Ian Frankel, missed making the top 16 by a very slim margin. The C-Team, comprised of ninth graders Ben Murr, Akshay Somayajula, Soumya Raman, Molly Vergin, and Fawzan Aslam, had a great showing with a 3-3 record.

Individually, out of nearly 300 players on 64 teams, Isak Dai finished third and Anthony Troullier finished sixth! Congratulations, Panthers! We can’t wait to cheer you on at the National Tournament!

A Dream And A Shoestring

December 10, 2020

Thirty-nine years ago this week, 13 people from throughout Minneapolis and St. Paul gathered with Bob and Lois (now Sandy Kreischer Smith) Kreischer to articulate their shared dream of founding an independent school in the east metro of St. Paul. In his introduction that evening, Bob said, “We are aware that this could be the start of something big and equally aware that this could totally end in a month or so.” At the end of the meeting, a vote was taken to officially establish Mounds Park Academy. The Articles of Incorporation were filed on December 11 with the State of Minnesota designating Mounds Park Academy as an educational nonprofit on December 14, 1981.

Bob had been the Middle School director of Breck School and Lois was an artist. Both had a dream of a school that would educate the whole child (before the term became popular) and a different kind of college-prep program that while focused on academic excellence, was committed to helping each student reach their potential. They also knew the importance of a teacher that “enjoys and really cares about their students” and a curriculum that “best meets the individual student’s needs.”

Bob understood, and Lois knew, the integral role of the arts in developing the whole child. The early foundations of the school were built upon a diversity, the joy of learning, independent thinking, curiosity, interdisciplinary learning, developing a sense of responsibility, and global awareness. These values may not seem out of the ordinary now, but in 1981 they were groundbreaking and innovative. Read More

The Importance And Power Of Outdoor Play

December 10, 2020

This interview with Amanda Janquart and MPA parent Amy Lemieux provides parents reflection and ideas for incorporating unstructured outdoor experiences into family routines. Amanda and Amy also share insight about how outdoor experiences foster children’s emotional and physical health.

Janquart’s formal education includes a B.S. in environmental education, natural resource management and biology, and Master’s work in early childhood education. “But I’ve learned the most through teaching at nature based preschools and raising my own children. What matters is being the person that shares the wonderment of discovery, encourages seeking, and allows for play,” Janquart says.

Upper School parent Amy Lemieux has a B.A. in psychology and elementary education from St Thomas and an M.A. in counseling from the University of Wisconsin. She taught elementary school for eight years and supervised student teachers for five years. Early in her career, she developed a passion for intergenerational programming, relishing the benefits of pairing the oldest and youngest in society.