October 14, 2019
Join Us For Culture Day At MPA! On October 23, 3-6:30 PM, travel 12,000 miles in one evening! Enjoy Peruvian, Armenian, and Korean-pop dances while sipping masala chai and munching on mini quiche. Try your hand at American graffiti art or relax to beautiful instrumental music while getting a henna tattoo.
You don’t want to miss this hands-on experience! Sign-up for a cooking demonstration in our new kitchen:
Learn how to make Gata–an Armenian sweet bread, 3:30-4 PM
Learn how to make Idli’s–savory Indian rice and lentil cakes, 4:30-5 PM
The kitchen can accommodate a maximum of 10 people, so please sign-up in advance by emailing seema_anwar@hotmail.com
Food and drink tickets ($1 each) will be sold at the event. Try drinks and delicacies from around the world, have fun making crafts, enjoy the cultural entertainment and fashion show, and learn about our world–bonus points if you can identify all the flags decorating the hallway!
Help make all this possible by signing up here.
Parents of alumni and alumni, we would love to have you on campus for Culture Day at MPA as well! Join us to experience the brand new commons, cafeteria, and kitchen on campus in an experiential, fun, and delicious way!
The MPA Debate Team headed to Rochester Mayo High School for its second tournament of the year. This week, sixteen students received awards!
Lower and Middle School Grandparents and Special Friends Day will be held on Wednesday, October 16. If parents plan on attending with their child please RSVP by emailing 
The MPA swim team had a fantastic meet this week! The Panthers won seven of the 11 total events at the Tri-County Meet.
Invite a friend to join us and experience the joy at MPA’s largest PreK-12 admission event, the MPA Preview! Held on Sunday, November 3 at 2 PM, this event will be a structured program that will allow prospective students and parents to get a sense of what makes MPA an exceptional place to learn and grow.
Do you remember the days of the Drive-In Movie Theater? Lower School families are invited to join us for a night of family, friends, and movie fun as we celebrate “National Lights On Afterschool” day with an MPA “Drive-In” Family Movie Night!
Kathryn (Etzold) Dampier is currently in her third year of enlistment at Marine Corps Base Head Quarters Quantico, VA. She is serving as a Foreign Weapons Instructor at Precision Weapons Section, Weapons Training Battalion and recently got promoted to Platoon Sergeant. Her husband Anthony is also a Sergeant in the Marine Corps. They got married last January.
Michael Guggenheim is entering his second year at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, where he is a co-President of its Entertainment & Sports Law Society, and has been interning this summer in the Legal & Business Affairs department of Universal Studios International Parks & Recreation, where he will continue working during the fall of the school year. He continues to find time for concert-going, scuba diving, snowboarding and friends!
Madeline Sobalvarro is attending Hamline University and majoring in Digital Media Arts. She also free-lances in video editing and runs tabletop games for fun.
Ralph Dunn graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in Kinesiology. In college, he worked as a fitness coach. After, he wanted to help people by making them more fit before they ever needed to go to physical therapy. Working alongside physical therapists, it was obvious to him that the majority of people end up there from not exercising appropriately. And that what is “appropriate exercise” is specific to the individual. He is working towards opening an “OPEX Fitness” gym, focusing on individualized functional fitness coaching. The gym is opening this January in Woodbury. 
Beautiful weather and a variety of activities brought more people than ever to campus on September 28 for our community-wide Homecoming festivities. Sports games included a varsity volleyball tournament with the Panthers as the overall winners and several soccer games and tennis matches. We hosted My Burger food truck, which is owned by MPA alum Mandy Abdo-Sheahan ’92, and concessions were made possible by our MPA Spirit Committee. Our third and fourth grade Lower School students sang the National Anthem for the volleyball and soccer games; three types of inflatables were there for the students including a bounce house, axe throwing, and mini golf; additional lawn games; several goodies and giveaways; community gathering around the fire pit; and face painting and chalk art in the parking lot. We had additional alumni-focused events including a tour of our renovated spaces attended by approximately twenty people, an alumni soccer scrimmage, and reunions on Saturday evening.
The Mounds Park Academy debate team attended its first tournament of the year at Eastview High School last weekend. Out of 44 students that competed at the tournament, 15 won awards!
The MPA Blood Drive is coming up on October 24! The MPA first grade class and Upper School Student Council are joining together again to host this year’s blood drive for a joint community service project. Please take note of the date and begin thinking about how you can contribute to our event. We are asking for an hour of your time to donate blood on Thursday, October 24. And if you know that you are unable to give blood, please be sure to ask as many friends or relatives as you can to take your place! You may sign-up by going online to