Eighth Graders Take on Big Data
Grade 8 students are talking loudly in class. Today’s math teachers welcome that. Nancy Anderson, Milton’s K–8 math coordinator and Grade 8 math teacher, is reshaping the curriculum to optimize the value of talking. “Discussion in class is a huge topic in math education,” says Nancy, whose doctoral degree is in math education. “The data are clear that you want to get students talking, but it’s very hard to do that well — to use students’ discussion to move the class forward. “If we believe students learn by talking — a concept in our vision statement, and...
Read MoreKQED Is Executing a Pivot: Anne Avis ’77
“Part of the value and the beauty of the public media system,” Anne Avis says, “is that it reaches 99 percent of the country through this network of independently run local stations.” Not only in hip, urban centers but in remote, rural areas, NPR stations air news that is intensely local, as well as regional, national and global.“We need all of that news,” Anne says, “to make real and important decisions about the people and issues that affect our lives. That’s why public media is so important to democracy.” Anne recently completed eight years as a board member at KQED and...
Read MoreDiscovery: A Personal Model, a Business Model Ashley Fouts ’94
Last December, Ashley Fouts moved away from a lab bench. That is, away from her own lab bench. At Genentech, she began a new job keeping track of a molecule and the teams working on it. As a project manager, she facilitates the myriad decisions that are necessary to turn breakthrough science at the bench into life-changing drugs for patients. Genentech’s business is discovery. Genentech wants to be “the leading biotechnology company, using human genetic information to discover, develop, manufacture and commercialize medicines to treat people with serious or life-threatening medical...
Read MoreRecraft a Company to Create a Lifestyle Brand: David Pun ’99
Everyone has a favorite pair of jeans. Whether it’s a worn pair that has seen better days or a designer pair that fits just right, jeans are a personal wardrobe staple. David Pun’s jeans are works of art. He is the enthusiastic chairman and CEO of Evisu, a Japanese lifestyle fashion brand best known for producing jeans with high-quality craftsmanship, vintage buttons and hand-painted details.Six years ago, David was working for a private equity firm and Evisu was one of the portfolio companies. According to David, Evisu was “grossly mismanaged and the brand had lost its identity.”...
Read MoreHeaded for Mars, On Schedule
Ryan Sebastian ’06 and Harry O’Hanley ’06 of SpaceX are designing and executing breakthrough aeronautics. Ryan Sebastian and Harry O’Hanley, graduates in the Class of 2006 who were also Class IV roommates in Goodwin, are among the designers, engineers and fabrication specialists working on breakthrough aeronautics at the massive SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California. Ryan and Harry are immersed — for many intense hours every day — in the design and operations of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. Reaching beyond what many of us may have considered the outer limits of human...
Read MoreThe Power of a Posse: Lamont Gordon ’87
Growing up in Washington, D.C., son of a single father, Lamont Gordon ’87 attended seven different schools through eighth grade. Most of his family didn’t graduate from high school; no one had gone to college. When he discovered Milton through a summer enrichment program, boarding school was an unknown concept. Buoyed by an admission brochure and encouragement from his father, Lamont applied and earned a full scholarship. Move-in day was the first time he set foot on Milton’s campus. “Milton was a great opportunity for me, but it was also my only opportunity,” he says. “I had no...
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