{"id":28680,"date":"2025-07-22T13:39:34","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T18:39:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/?p=28680"},"modified":"2025-08-08T08:48:56","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T13:48:56","slug":"welcome-to-mpa-ms-meg-wilkening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/2025\/07\/22\/welcome-to-mpa-ms-meg-wilkening\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcome To MPA, Ms. Meg Wilkening ’18!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MegWelcome to MPA, Ms. Meg Wilkening \u201818! With a well-established connection to Mounds Park Academy, also having been on the speech and debate coaching staff, Ms. Wilkening now joins the Lower School as a fourth-grade teacher.<\/em><\/p>\n

From what school\/organization are you coming?<\/strong>
\nI have been coaching debate at MPA for the last five years. This will be my first year as a full-time teacher!<\/p>\n

Tell us about your education and past experience.<\/strong>
\nI have a degree in political science from the University of Minnesota. I attended law school for a year at St. Louis University, but realized I missed working with students at MPA. After completing my first year of law school, I switched to a master’s in education program at the University of St. Thomas. I am scheduled to graduate with a master’s in elementary education in 2026.<\/p>\n

What did you find appealing about MPA?<\/strong>
\nHow much time do you have to listen to what I love about MPA? Seriously\u2014I graduated from MPA in 2018, have coached at MPA for the last five years, and am beyond excited to start teaching here. I have lifelong friends from my graduating class and use skills I learned as an MPA student every day. I have been blown away by the passion, talent, hard work, and intelligence of MPA’s students in my years as a coach (and have enjoyed winning several state debate championships!) MPA feels like home to me.
\n<\/p>\n

What lasting impact do you plan to have on MPA and its students?<\/strong>
\nI hope that my classroom will be a place of joyful learning, where every student will feel seen and valued. I really believe that MPA students can change the world, and I want to help them along the way. I want to foster a habit of curiosity and lifelong learning in my students.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your big dream?<\/strong>
\nTo coach former fourth-grade students in Upper School debate!<\/p>\n

What are you passionate about?<\/strong>
\nI love to spend time with my family! We love to play card games, go for walks, spend time at the lake, and watch all the sports! I am also a big animal person and have two cats, a dog, and a horse.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s a fun fact about you that our community would love to know?<\/strong>
\nIn March of this year, my husband and I welcomed our beautiful baby daughter to the world. Also, I’m a big Vikings fan!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome to MPA, Ms. Meg Wilkening \u201818! With a well-established connection to Mounds Park Academy, also having been on the speech and debate coaching staff, Ms. Wilkening now joins the Lower School as a fourth-grade teacher. From what school\/organization are you coming? I have been coaching debate at MPA for the last five years. This […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":28634,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,28,10027,29,9,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-current-families","category-faculty-and-staff-experience","category-homepage","category-lower-school","category-my-mpa-experience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28680","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\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28680"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28751,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28680\/revisions\/28751"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}