Diversity, Equity, Belonging and Antiracism Archives

Thank You For A Special Culture Day At MPA!

October 30, 2019

Culture Day at MPA was made possible with help from our wonderful faculty, staff, parent, and student volunteers and participants. We are incredibly lucky to have such an amazing community at MPA! On behalf of the Parents Association, thank you to everyone who was involved.

Thank You MPA Faculty & Staff!
Language teachers Evelyn Johson, Maria Jose Johnson, Martha Castellano, Liz DesLauriers, Kari Kunze-Hoeg, and Marisue Gleason for providing artifacts, information and participation; Nicole Koen for crafts in the Makerspace; Jenn Milam for procuring volunteers and MCing; Sarah McFarland for planning and coordination; Hannah Lawson for preparing the musicians; Lauren Hernandez and Natalie Waters Seum for all the marketing materials and advertising; Jennifer Rogers-Petitt, Ashley Goetzke, and Ilse Larsen in Development for help with logistics and getting the word out; Jake Eibon for A/V logistics; custodial staff Vern Kissner, Thomas Connors, Andy Gilbert, and Pat McLees for set up, take down, and clean up; Sage Dining Services, Chef Doug Pittman, and his staff for the delicious food!

Thank You Parents!
Tina Jain for donating drinks; Melissa Tuura-Johnson for the awesome decorations; Sunderraju Ramachandran for the idli cooking demonstration; Lizabeth Lane, Yukiko Miyokawa, Gayane Manukyan, Chris Weimholt, Lucia Gray, Eliza Auyeung, Christine Daves, Deborah Crutchfield, Weijun Tanya Liang, Samrina Mapara, Anastasia Mastrogiorgis, Alan Troske, Kristin Gasteazoro, Jim Saliba, Raphael Coffey, Karlyn Peterson, Adrienne Risner, Fabiola Grubhofer, Amy Cowen, Christine Larson, Sally Richie, Mikki Williams, Susan Mercer, Anudeep Rahil, Marian Hassan, and Misty Tandon for help with the parade, decorations, serving food and cleaning up.

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Travel 12,000 Miles At Culture Day!

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!

An MPA Student’s Passion To Change The World

October 2, 2019

This past summer, MPA senior Misk Khalif was selected to serve as a 2019-2020 Girl Up Teen Advisor. Girl Up is a national advisory board made of young advocates working to promote gender equity for girls globally. As a campaign of the United Nations Foundation, Girl Up works to provide the tools and platform for girls globally to lead on a number of issues that affect them from education to health.

Misk had the honor of attending the 74th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) high level week, where world leaders met in New York City to discuss the world’s most pressing issues, from climate change to access to healthcare. UNGA brings together a variety of stakeholders from government officials, civil society, and business leaders.

“The most complex global issues requires all facets of society to collaborate and help us realize the sustainable development goals by the year 2030,” Misk said. She had the opportunity to participate in a variety of key discussions, ranging from increasing universal access to education for millions of children globally who remain out of school, to providing better access to healthcare for women and girls who continue to lose their lives from preventable illnesses.

Meet Tiffany Scott Knox & Clarence Knox

October 2, 2019

What do you love about MPA?
We underestimated the value of being in a PreK-12 learning environment, especially all on one campus. It has been beneficial for our kids who admire so many of the Upper School students. In addition, our kids have met other kids who are extremely gracious and kind.

Another reason we love MPA is the class size. As we were searching for a school, we wanted a learning environment that encompassed more opportunity for one-on-one interactions. At MPA, teachers have the capacity to tailor their instruction and ability for our kids to build community with classmates. Rigor was also a must as we wanted a learning environment that cultivates and pushes our kids’ intellect and abilities.

Lastly, we love how there are many opportunities to get involved and participate in various after-school activities. My son earned his yellow belt in karate, came in second place in chess, participated in a summer school theatre production, and most recently sung the national anthem with his classmates at a Saint Paul Saints game.

How is your child encouraged to dream big and do right at MPA?
Over the course of our son’s four years at MPA, he learned that continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection. In addition, he’s learned how to be inclusive and that you can learn and have fun at the same time. Last, he’s learned, “Don’t let anyone stop you from your dreams,” and “You can do anything you set your mind to,” hence our oldest wants to be a professional athlete and in the off-season explore a career in chemical science. Read More

Be A Part Of Culture Day At MPA!

September 26, 2019

Save the date for Culture Day at MPA on Wednesday, October 23 from 3-6:30 PM! Join us for a gastronomic tour around the world as we share sweet and savory delicacies from 10 countries and an international drinks bar. Attend a cooking demonstration in our wonderful new teaching kitchen, go home with some cool body art from an expert henna artist, and try your hand at global crafts like “worry dolls” from Guatemala and Origami, the Japanese art of paper-folding. You will also be able to enjoy musical and dance performances by our talented students! This day full of food, community, and fun is hosted by the MPA Parents Association. Read More

A Piece Of History Visits Middle School

September 26, 2019

Seventh and eighth grade students read “Refugee” by Alan Gratz this summer. The book follows the journeys of three different children, fleeing their home countries in order to save their lives. But one character in particular, Isabel, is a Cuban refugee in the 1980s, who told a captivating story that would follow the students from their summer reading and into Ms. Atchison’s classroom this year.

To enhance their class-wide discussion of “Refugee,” Ms. Atchison invited a special visitor to speak to students. Her next door neighbor, Carlos Espinosa, came to MPA to tell his story to them. Though he fled Cuba nearly 20 years earlier than Isabel in the 1960s, they were both escaping Castro’s rule. He arrived in the United States when he was just 13 years old–relevantly, the same age most of the students listening are now–as one of the children in Operation Pedro Pan. The students researched Operation Pedro Pan, learning all about the program Carlos grew up in after escaping Cuba’s communist government that limited the rights and freedoms of the Cuban people. Called “a leap of faith for the sake of freedom,” Operation Pedro Pan was reportedly the largest recorded exodus of unaccompanied minors in the Western Hemisphere. Read More

Helping New International Students Feel At Home

September 9, 2019

As the rest of us were squeezing the last bits of summer out of August, the new MPA international students were already hard at work. Ten days before the rest of us walked through the doors of MPA, our new students arrived from four different countries to get settled into their host families’ homes, to get acclimated to their new school, and to have some fun with their new classmates.

While taking math placement exams, discussing plagiarism, and figuring out their locker combos, there was time to build community, too. Several returning international students and domestic MPA students volunteered their time to pile into a 15-passenger van that took everyone off-campus for a bit. Between school supply shopping, bowling, and sharing meals together, the students exchanged stories, answered questions, talked candidly, and shared laughter. By the time the first day of school came around, our new international students felt comfortable with the school and, more importantly, comfortable walking through its doors on day one. Their courage is admirable, and their daily victories, small and large, are awe-inspiring.

Welcome To The Family, Mr. Harris!

July 11, 2019

Meet Rich Harris, who is joining MPA as a Physical Education teacher. Mr. Harris graduated from Southwestern College in Kansas in 1996 and has been following his passion of teaching ever since. He taught for two years in Kansas, 10 in Massachusetts, three in Qatar, five in London, and the past three in Saudi Arabia. He has also coached a variety of sports, but always basketball.

What did you love about MPA right away?
The communication was fantastic and the people, especially Mr. Segal, are so nice and kind.

What’s your big dream?
To coach college basketball some day. Read More

Deepening Our Global Connections

May 22, 2019

by Dr. Bill Hudson, Head of School

Planes, trains, and automobiles—and even a boat. I write this message while flying over the northern Pacific Ocean on my way back from a one-week trip to China. It was a fantastic experience and I thoroughly enjoyed the warmth and hospitality of the Chinese people and delighted in the wonderful culture and cuisine. Together with several other heads of school from the Midwest, I visited a number of schools in Nanjing, Beijing, and Guangzhou to learn more about the Chinese educational system.

The Chinese educational system is very different than ours in a number of ways. The National College Entrance Examination, Gaokao, is required for college entrance and the score dictates a future path for each student. There is tremendous pressure to earn a high score and get into a top college. Teaching is focused on preparing students for the exam, particularly in math and science, leaving much less time for other subjects or critical thinking. Curriculum is limited, and Chinese pedagogy is very teacher-centered. There is far less attention paid to student engagement and agency. Read More

Pa Chia Thao ’13 Speaks At Booyah Bash 2019

May 20, 2019

MPA alum Pa Chia Thao ’13 was a featured speaker at this year’s Breakthrough Twin Cities annual gala, the Booyah Bash. Pa Chia is a Mount Holyoke College Class of 2017 alumna majoring in astronomy and physics. She shared about the impact of Breakthrough Twin Cities and Mounds Park Academy during her remarks.

This fall, Pa Chia will be pursuing a Ph.D. in Astrophysics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow, and a Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Graduate Scholar. Her current research is in understanding how planets beyond our own solar system formed and evolved throughout their lifetime. Congrats to Pa Chia as she continues to make an impact on the world through her studies and research! Read Pa Chia’s full speech here.