October 3, 2024
There’s a current TikTok trend that involves high school teachers reading emails that they’ve received from their students out loud. They often start with “Hey,” or “Whatsup,” if they contain a salutation. And let’s just say that rarely do they close with a “Thank you.”
While perhaps entertaining, this trend illustrates a disheartening disparity in how young people are being prepared for the workplace of the future. Rapidly changing trends and expectations shape how progressive independent schools like Mounds Park Academy equip students with essential workplace skills for life beyond the four walls of a classroom.
The trend popped into the head of admission and communications director Natalie Waters Seum recently, when she was chatting a newer MPA student. They were talking about how she might navigate the academic bumps in the road that will inevitably come in a rigorous college-prep school. Natalie encouraged her to reach out to her teacher for clarification and support and asked her if she knew how to do that well. While it shouldn’t have been, her response was pleasantly surprising. She retold with great detail what she had learned during the “How To Write An Email To A Teacher” lesson in Mr. Dean’s ninth-grade seminar class. The lesson covers topics such as formal letter structure, salutations, tone, attachments, and more. Notably, the lesson also teaches MPA students to share the solutions they’ve already tried—helping encourage them to take responsibility for their own academic journeys. This lesson is one of the hundreds of ways that MPA intentionally prepares MPA students for a new workplace daily. Read More
from Dr. Bill Hudson, head of school
from Jennifer Le Varge, Lower School director 
from Mark Segal, Upper School director 
from Paul Errickson, Middle School director
Discover something remarkable at the PreK-12 MPA Preview on Sunday, November 3, 12:30-2 PM!
It all started last fall, with more than 1.3 million juniors in high schools nationwide taking the 2023 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) and then entering the 2025 National Merit Scholarship Program. Based on PSAT performance, a nationwide pool of about 16,000 Semifinalists was announced recently.
Get ready for the Rainbow Club! The Rainbow Club is for any Lower School parents, faculty, and staff members who identify or have children that identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community. The group is being organized by MPA parent Rachael Weber and exists to have important conversations, create a close-knit community, and share resources with each other throughout the year.
from Dr. Bill Hudson, head of school