{"id":14385,"date":"2019-10-31T11:40:38","date_gmt":"2019-10-31T16:40:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/?p=14385"},"modified":"2019-10-31T13:55:14","modified_gmt":"2019-10-31T18:55:14","slug":"the-essence-of-joyful-giving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/2019\/10\/31\/the-essence-of-joyful-giving\/","title":{"rendered":"The Essence Of Joyful Giving"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-14386 alignright img-responsive\" src=\"https:\/\/nclhx5yj.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/botwpstory-400x267.jpg\" alt=\"lower school student presenting in the tech lab\" width=\"400\" height=\"267\" \/>by Neelu Boddipalli, MPA Parent and Trustee<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m a firm believer that education is the best gift you can give a person\u2013especially a child. Education has played a defining role in my life and I am grateful for the opportunities it has opened for my family. It was education that rewrote my father\u2019s destiny from the ancestral life of a rice farmer to that of a prolific and celebrated innovator. It was education that gave a voice to my mother\u2013a high school dropout\u2013who self-taught English, earned a high school diploma and Bachelor\u2019s degree to become a successful working mother. I watched how education transformed my extended family\u2013urbanizing and globalizing us and increasing our intellectual capital.<\/p>\n<p>So, when it came to my own children, there was no question in my mind that education would\u2013must\u2013play an important role in their lives. But why a private education? As our boys embarked on their K-12 journey, we leaned toward Mounds Park Academy for one simple reason: the love of learning. MPA invests in exceptional leaders who are committed to nurturing the love of learning in growing minds. MPA also invests in creating an environment\u2013such as the Makerspace and the virtual classroom\u2013that fosters the love of learning. These benefits, which I\u2019m grateful my children get to enjoy, were the result of generosity long before we came to MPA.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>It wasn\u2019t until I became part of the Board of Trustees that I realized MPA depends on the giving of donors to bridge the gap between revenue generated by tuition and the costs of providing a meaningful educational experience. While it may seem like tuition should cover all expenses, it doesn\u2019t. And yes, it is an additional expense, but it\u2019s not <em>how much<\/em> we give, but whether we give. Our school is stronger when we all participate\u2013each as we are able\u2014similar to how 100% of trustees typically give. Each gift is an endorsement for the school\u2019s mission and signals to the outside world how much we\u2013parents, faculty, trustees, alumni\u2013value the <em>education<\/em> at MPA. Each gift has a direct impact on every child and their <em>love of learning<\/em>\u2013whether it is new library books, classroom technology or athletic equipment. Each gift leaves a legacy and serves as a reminder to future families to continue to pay it forward.<\/p>\n<p>This is the essence of joyful giving. This is why my family gives to MPA.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-blue\" href=\"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/support-mpa\/mpa-fund\/fall-campaign.shtml\r\n\">Make A Gift <span class=\"glyphicon glyphicon-chevron-right small\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Neelu Boddipalli, MPA Parent and Trustee I\u2019m a firm believer that education is the best gift you can give a person\u2013especially a child. Education has played a defining role in my life and I am grateful for the opportunities it has opened for my family. It was education that rewrote my father\u2019s destiny from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":14387,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,28,24,9,12,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-current-families","category-featured-posts","category-lower-school","category-middle-school","category-upper-school"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14385"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14399,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14385\/revisions\/14399"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}