{"id":21733,"date":"2022-04-21T13:22:25","date_gmt":"2022-04-21T18:22:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/?p=21733"},"modified":"2022-04-21T13:22:25","modified_gmt":"2022-04-21T18:22:25","slug":"mpa-moments-that-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/2022\/04\/21\/mpa-moments-that-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"MPA Moments That Matter"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"from Natalie Waters Seum, director of admission and communication<\/em><\/p>\n

One Thursday per month you will see a guest Head\u2019s Message from a member of the Institutional Advancement Team. We hope these additional perspectives will help you catch a glimpse inside the inner-workings of your school.<\/em><\/p>\n

In honor of the conclusion of MPA\u2019s treasured Book Festival, I want to share with you a book I\u2019ve been listening to on my commute. I believe this book should be required reading for everyone in the business of people: \u201cThe Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact,\u201d by Chip Heath and Dan Heath, the bestselling authors of \u201cSwitch\u201d and \u201cMade to Stick.\u201d Like all great books, it was recommended to me by a trusted friend and colleague as one that directly applies to our work in admission and communication.<\/p>\n

The premise is that moments matter\u2014our lives are defined by moments\u2014and through intentionality, some moments can matter much more than others. The opportunity lies in our ability to engineer moments that will have a lasting impact on those we serve. They describe in detail the four elements impactful moments often contain and how to build in these elements:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Elevation: This involves \u201cturning up the volume\u201d on reality, raising the stakes by adding an element of \u201cproductive pressure,\u201d and\/or \u201cbreaking the script\u201d or challenging expectations. Think Senior Walk, Vocabulary Bee, or even Senior Prank Day.<\/li>\n
  2. Insight: This involves learning something about oneself or others, to \u201crewire our understanding.\u201d Think Senior Performances, Senior Dinner, or CHAMP Assemblies.<\/li>\n
  3. Pride: This involves celebrating \u201cmilestone moments\u201d on our way to a larger goal and\/or publicly recognizing achievements. Think College Choice Day, Moving Up Ceremony, or Volunteer Breakfast.<\/li>\n
  4. Connection: This involves \u201csharing the moment with others\u201d because, research shows, when we do this the moments are strengthened. Think Spring Auction, Commencement, or Lower School Monday Morning Meetings.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    A few weeks ago, the six members of the admission and communication team were together at one of our weekly \u201cJoy (Half) Hours\u201d sharing with one another what had brought us joy that week. Thanks to one staffer\u2019s very bright idea, we went from talking about joy to planning a party. A Panther Party, to be specific. Instead of hand delivering gift boxes to all of our newly enrolled families, an idea born during COVID-times to help build connection from a safe distance, we could hold a Panther Party on campus with all the pomp and circumstance we could muster.<\/p>\n

    As a department that is never short on ideas but chronically short on time, I was skeptical at first. How could we pull it all together, on top of everything else? Who would be willing to volunteer at the end of a long week in May? Would any of our new families come? But it was an opportunity to create a more impactful moment that was too good to resist.<\/p>\n

    Fast forward to today and we\u2019re almost ready for the Panther Party, which will be held May 6, 4-5:30 PM. With the Parents Association enthusiastically stepping up to partner with us, we are well on our way to creating some very powerful moments for our 101 new students and their families\u2014moments that will matter. If you want to join in, please reach out to me at nwatersseum@moundsparkacademy.org<\/a>. Just as they always do, our students, staff, and faculty have enthusiastically volunteered their time to welcome new families at this event. And yes, our new families are coming\u2014the vast majority of them!<\/p>\n

    Between now and the end of the school year there will be countless more MPA moments that matter for every member of this community. From big moments like the Spring Auction, Senior Walk, and Commencement, to more simple moments like signing a yearbook, giving a farewell hug, and winning a match. Let\u2019s create these moments. Let\u2019s linger, together, in these moments. Let\u2019s not allow these moments to pass us by. Because these are the moments that create joy. And because, as Gavin Thorson said in his Senior Performance this morning, \u201cThese, right now, are the good old days.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    from Natalie Waters Seum, director of admission and communication One Thursday per month you will see a guest Head\u2019s Message from a member of the Institutional Advancement Team. We hope these additional perspectives will help you catch a glimpse inside the inner-workings of your school. In honor of the conclusion of MPA\u2019s treasured Book Festival, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":21758,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,28,24,14,29,9,12,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-school","category-current-families","category-featured-posts","category-heads-message","category-homepage","category-lower-school","category-middle-school","category-upper-school"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21733","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\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21733"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21766,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21733\/revisions\/21766"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}