September 24, 2018
What are you currently doing, professionally and/or personally? I graduated from college last spring, and I am applying to medical school for the fall of 2019. However, I am currently spending two gap years abroad in the southern French port city of Marseille, where I’m taking full advantage of all the opportunities this city and country have to offer. I spend two days a week working as an English language assistant for a preschool and primary school, where I teach English lessons to little ones. When I’m not in the schools, I’m either in the hospital or laboratory and take part in a weekly shadowing internship with a French neonatologist. I’ve even started to sit in on births in the operating and delivery rooms! I also volunteer weekly at another local children’s hospital, where I play board games with patients. The rest of my time is spent working in a neuroscience lab at the local university, where I will start conducting spatial navigation experiments on rats. The best part of my time in France is that I can do all of things I love in the clinical and laboratory settings all while speaking French!
How did you get there? Where did you attend college? Are there some career moves or other key experiences or relationships that have inspired you? I received my undergraduate degree from Barnard College, the women’s college of Columbia University in New York City, where I majored in neuroscience and behavior and minored in French. I spent one semester abroad in France in a program that emphasized cultural integration into the community and placed me in a homestay. This experience solidified my decision to take a few years off before medical school and return to France to seek opportunities to interact with people different than myself. I am adamant that homestays are one of the best ways to learn about and live like the local population. Read More
by Dr. Bill Hudson, Head of School
There is only one more week until Homecoming, and the joy begins at the starting line of the Homecoming Fun Run on Saturday, September 29! The MPA Cross Country team is hosting a 200M run at 8:30 AM. It’s the perfect opportunity for our younger students to participate in the festivities and run with the Panthers! Immediately following the 200M Fun Run, we are hosting a 2-mile race that is open to the entire community. All run participants will receive a limited edition aluminum MPA water bottle, energizing snacks, and plenty of water!
We are so excited to share a recent opportunity brought to MPA students to engage with and assist the local arts community. MPA alum Kelly Turpin ’04, founder of the Arbeit Opera Theatre, was awarded the Artists Initiative Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board to produce her own production of “The Consul,” an opera that premieres on November 29 and November 30, 2018. She reached out to MPA to assist in building the set, wanting to directly involve students, since MPA is the place where her passion for art, music, theatre, and singing all began.
MPA Talks is an annual, meaningful, and fascinating event that is completely unique to MPA. Featuring presentations by some of our community’s most intriguing members on inspiring and relevant topics, everyone is invited to come, listen, ask questions, and leave with new lengths of knowledge. Held in the fall and in the evening this year, dinner will be provided.
Two MPA Class of 2015 alumni recently made NCAA headlines! Sisley Ng ’15 and Evan Ferlic ’15 were both named team captains for their 2018 athletic seasons. We are so proud to call them Panthers and to celebrate their leadership!
Do beautiful colors and fabrics grab your attention? Are you interested in learning how to knit, crochet, quilt, or sew? Is there a project that you have neglected, but want to get back on track and finish? Do you simply want to make some friends and learn something new along the way? We have the perfect group for you! Join the MPA Fiber Friends in the AnnMarie Thomas Makerspace every Friday starting September 7 from 11 AM-12:30 PM! 
We all belong here! All families PreK-12 should save the date to come and celebrate MPA Homecoming 2018 on Saturday, September 29!
Upper School social studies teacher Ms. Murr recently traveled to Washington, DC to meet with the coordinators of the “History Unfolded” project at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. This is the project to which MPA alums Maija Olson ’17, Eloise Berdahl-Baldwin ’17, Bennett Winga ’17, and Ben George ’17 made significant research contributions. In fact, one of the articles they discovered is being used in a new exhibition, titled “Americans and the Holocaust.” It is an incredible honor to have their work displayed in one of the most renowned museums in the country. Additionally, historians moving forward will have access to their articles and thousands of others found by citizen historians. This will allow more people to ask difficult questions about what Americans knew, when they knew it, and what they did with that knowledge when it came to the Holocaust.