October 8, 2018
On Sunday, November 4, at 2 PM, prospective students and their families are invited to Mounds Park Academy’s campus for its fall Admission event, the MPA All School Preview! This will be a wonderful opportunity to get to know the people and the spaces that inspire students to dream big and do right. It will be similar to an Open House in that there will be time to explore, however a formal program will also help participants get to know MPA.
Lower School (grades PreK-4) families will start with a hands-on learning experience in the AnnMarie Thomas Makerspace, the only Makerspace of its kind in the Twin Cities for students in grades PreK-12. Newly opened, this space is a contemporary and physical manifestation of MPA’s long-standing belief that learning should be hands-on, experiential, and joyful. Following that activity, parents will move to an adjacent space to hear from Dr. Bill Hudson, Head of School, and Renee Wright, Lower School director, about what differentiates this division, while the children continue their activity. Parents and children will come back together and then head off on a student-led tour that will include visiting with homeroom teachers and specialists in their cozy classrooms. Read More
by Renee Wright, Lower School Director
by Dr. Bill Hudson, Head of School
by Dr. Bill Hudson, Head of School
Parents are all too familiar with navigating the stress of everyday life. From getting children ready for the day and out the door in the morning, to helping with homework at night and everything in between, there is a lot to manage. As a parent, it can be easy to forget that even the youngest people in our lives can become overwhelmed and stressed. In our fast-paced world, learning to cope with challenging situations is just as important as learning how to read and write. Research has shown that mindfulness programs can help students of all ages learn to deal with everyday stress. More schools across the country are integrating mindfulness into their curricula to teach students to be present and better able to identify how they’re feeling in order to manage their stress.
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.
by Dr. Bill Hudson, Head of School
by Dr. Bill Hudson, Head of School
by Dr. Bill Hudson, Head of School
Needless to say, race and social justice are important topics of conversation these days. Headlines related to police brutality, the legacy of slavery, the expansion of hate groups, and mass incarceration appear frequently. To explore these issues and, in particular, the role of the civil rights movement in American history, 21 MPA Upper School students and two MPA teachers traveled more than 3,000 miles on the “This Land is Your Land” bus trip. They saw sights ranging from one of the segregated schools associated with the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision to the Lorraine Motel and the National Civil Rights Museum to the new National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. Additionally, they visited six presidential libraries and homes and other major sights, including the World War I Museum in Kansas City and Graceland.