{"id":19192,"date":"2021-02-18T14:43:14","date_gmt":"2021-02-18T20:43:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/?p=19192"},"modified":"2021-02-23T08:11:12","modified_gmt":"2021-02-23T14:11:12","slug":"what-googles-discovery-means-for-an-mpa-student","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/2021\/02\/18\/what-googles-discovery-means-for-an-mpa-student\/","title":{"rendered":"What Google\u2019s Discovery Means For An MPA Student"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Kindergartenby Dr. Bill Hudson, Head of School<\/em><\/p>\n

Not long ago, Google decided to do some self-reflection. Cofounders Sergey Brin and Larry Page set out to determine the eight most important qualities of Google\u2019s top employees. As a company that mostly hired top computer scientists, I imagine they were more than a bit surprised to find that of these eight qualities, expertise in STEM was not first nor second, but eighth! The top seven were: being a good coach; communicating and listening well; possessing insights into others (including others\u2019 different values and points of view); having empathy toward, and being supportive of one\u2019s colleagues; being a good critical thinker and problem solver; and being able to make connections across complex ideas.<\/p>\n

What can we learn from Google about the future of creating smart, successful, in-demand graduates? The skills that students learn from the humanities and liberal arts are in high demand. In addition to the skills listed above, Google\u2019s follow up research identified having curiosity toward teammates\u2019 ideas, harboring emotional intelligence, valuing equality, being generous, and cultivating emotional safety as additional key skills for their employees.<\/p>\n

Gone are the days when technology, though important, can alone be thought of as sufficient to solve the problems of the 21st century. In fact, after asking anthropologists and ethnographers to sift through their data, Google expanded its hiring to include artists, humanities majors, and MBAs, groups that Brin and Page previously preferred not to consider.<\/p>\n

When I first saw the results of Google\u2019s self-studies, I couldn\u2019t help but notice the uncanny resemblance between Google\u2019s eight most important employee qualities and the Six C\u2019s of 21st Century Education that MPA holds dear. It\u2019s no wonder then, that so many MPA alumni have gone on to work for Google and other tech companies. These Six C\u2019s, critical thinking, communication, collaboration, creativity, culture and connectivity, are hallmarks of an MPA education.<\/p>\n

The Six C\u2019s are alive and well at MPA, even with the challenges that the pandemic has brought throughout the last 11 months. In the short time since we\u2019ve returned to school from winter break, I\u2019ve seen a number of remarkable examples of our Six C\u2019s in action.<\/p>\n

Critical Thinking<\/strong>
\nI\u2019m always very proud when MPA competes with schools many times our size. That was the case earlier this month when MPA\u2019s Math League team<\/a> placed in the top 15 in this year\u2019s competition, up against 160 of the largest schools in the state. Math League competitions force competitors to think through incredibly complex and rigorous math problems, allowing MPA students to show off their well-honed critical thinking skills.<\/p>\n

Communication<\/strong>
\nI am often asked why MPA\u2019s Speech and Debate teams are particularly strong. In my estimation, it\u2019s a number of factors: great coaches, high participation rates, and a strong culture of success on the team. But it\u2019s also because we’re a school that cultivates tremendous communicators. So this past weekend, when a number of MPA Speech team members competed in the Harvard Tournament<\/a>, I was elated, but not surprised. MPA has been churning out champion speech and debate participants for many years, and I\u2019m sure that our emphasis on communication as a 21st century skill is no doubt a factor.<\/p>\n

Collaboration<\/strong>
\nAs I write this, MPA seniors are right in the middle of their bridge project. In this project, they work in pairs to create a bridge from 15 sticks of basswood and a tube of glue. These bridges often hold hundreds, and even thousands of times their own weight. This whole week, I\u2019ve seen groups of students spread out across the Upper School Commons making last minute tweaks to their designs and consulting with each other on everything from truss placement to bridge names. This year\u2019s bridge testing hasn\u2019t yet started, but these pictures<\/a> from last year\u2019s event bring me great joy.<\/p>\n

Creativity<\/strong>
\nI have been so impressed with the amazing creativity displayed by the actors and directors of the Middle School play and Upper School\u2019s Winter Show. Faced with the tough task of pulling off virtual shows, both productions brought ingenuity, resourcefulness, and significance beyond my wildest expectations. Don\u2019t forget to check out episode four of the Middle School play \u201cSome Good News\u201d tomorrow at 7 PM<\/a>!<\/p>\n

Culture<\/strong>
\nWhether it\u2019s Lower School students learning about Mardi Gras<\/a> in the Makerspace, or Upper School Spanish classes connecting with Dr. Julio Ruben Torres<\/a>, Director of the Spanish Language Program of the University of California Irvine about Latinx voters and the 2020 elections, culture is all around us at MPA.<\/p>\n

Connectivity<\/strong>
\nSince the AnnMarie Thomas Makerspace debuted on campus in the 2017-18 school year, MPA\u2019s Maker Fest has brought students, faculty members, alumni and parents to campus for a celebration of making, design thinking, and creativity. In 2021, Maker Fest<\/a> is going virtual, and I can\u2019t wait for this Saturday to see how our community comes to together to virtually celebrate our makers. In a year in which academic institutions have been plagued with a high level of disconnect, I am so proud to see MPA stay connected, and our virtual Maker Fest is another example of this in a year full of connectivity.<\/p>\n

One part of my role as Head of School is ensuring that MPA graduates students with the tools to make an impact on their world. I think long and hard about how best to prepare them. More and more, I have come to find that equipping students with a balance of all types of skills lays the best groundwork for graduates to continue dreaming big and doing right beyond MPA\u2019s walls.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Dr. Bill Hudson, Head of School Not long ago, Google decided to do some self-reflection. Cofounders Sergey Brin and Larry Page set out to determine the eight most important qualities of Google\u2019s top employees. As a company that mostly hired top computer scientists, I imagine they were more than a bit surprised to find […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":19196,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,19,26,28,24,10,14,29,8127,9,12,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-admission","category-alumni","category-blog","category-current-families","category-featured-posts","category-fine-arts","category-heads-message","category-homepage","category-international","category-lower-school","category-middle-school","category-upper-school"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19192","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=19192"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19204,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19192\/revisions\/19204"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}