The Opinion Department Invites Yours
When Jason Spingarn-Koff ’92 headed for Brown University after Milton, he thought he would get involved in storytelling somehow, and perhaps in medicine. “So maybe I’d become a doctor who writes plays,” Jason laughs in hindsight. “I wanted to integrate my creative side with caring about the world,” Jason says. “I wanted to make an impact.” He did pursue filmmaking, science and journalism. A video journalist and filmmaker, Jason directed the feature-length documentary Life 2.0, about people consumed by a virtual world, which...
read moreThe Listing Wars
The blue whale swimming in the waters off the California coast, the Houston toad hopping around the woodlands of Texas, and the piping plover skittering around the dunes of Cape Cod. Three species share one distinction: They are officially endangered. You’ll find them among more than 1,000 animal and plant species on the Endangered Species List. The list is a storied point of contention among political, business, environmental, and scientific groups, and Ben Jesup ’82, an attorney with the Solicitor’s Office of the Department of the...
read moreCan We Talk about Solutions?
Be part of the conversation driving economic policy. Heather McGhee ’97 argues from a national pulpit for an authentic conversation about shaping economic policy. She is talking about policy that will yield deep, comprehensive economic growth and strengthen every sector of the population. Heather urges everyone to move past ideological standoffs and to face the fact that underlying policy does affect who the winners and losers are, over time. Determination and hard work alone aren’t sufficient. She argues that the exponential expansion of...
read moreThe Public Meets Imagination’s Cutting Edge
What do today’s artists and viewers make of one another? “My work is more diplomatic than transactional,” says Molly Epstein ’00 about her role as a director for the Gladstone Gallery of New York and Brussels. The Gladstone Gallery represents a host of contemporary, internationally celebrated artists. Five of those artists know Molly as the fulcrum between ongoing artistic production and the public. “Serving as a connector and translator,” Molly says, “is a way to characterize a lot of what I do.” Molly’s introduction to art...
read morePursuing a Dream All the Way to Brazil
It was my first day of practice with Santo André and I sat quietly on the team bus, staring out the window as we rode to a practice center. I had no idea where we were going or what kind of soccer I was in store for. As the bus veered through the winding hills and favelas of São Paulo, one of Brazil’s largest cities, I wondered what was ahead of me. Having graduated from Princeton in 2006, I was now in the second year of my quest to become a professional soccer player. I spent most of 2007 in San Francisco, playing in the United Soccer...
read moreLove of Language
Miltonians love language, whether in the form of Shakespeare’s sonnets, Cheever’s short stories or Lady Gaga’s lyrics. The natural adoption of new words and the fading of old ones is evident in listening to today’s students. Their rapid repartee incorporates irony, humor and emotion as they chatter in the hallways or hang out in the Student Center. No surprise: Milton students have developed a few words and phrases to claim as their own. Milton Made miz |miz| adjective – a shortened version of miserable, the worst possible: Mr....
read moreDune Thorne ’94 Joins the Board of Trustees
Dune Thorne ’94 is a partner at Brown Advisory in Boston. Dune founded the nonprofi t venture Invest In Girls (IIG). With Chelsea Mehra ’11, Dune established the Milton pilot of this nonprofit that helps girls achieve financial literacy. Dune participates on several boards, including the Harvard Business School Women’s Association, and Boston Women and Finance. Dune graduated from Dartmouth College and earned her M.B.A. at Harvard.
read moreCommencement Slideshow
Click through the slideshow below for candid shots of Commencement 2012 ...
read moreCarlotta Zilliax, Member of the faculty, 1992-2012
A champion of literature and literary history in Milton’s Upper School English department since 1992, Carlotta Zilliax began her career with 17 years as a primary and elementary teacher. Not many could successfully cover the scale from The Runaway Bunny to King Lear, but Carlotta has done so with brio and with a wise appreciation of the Möbius-like continuum that connects the very young with the not quite so young—the let’s-play-grownup first graders with the how-sillycan-we-be-today high-school seniors. At either end of the spectrum,...
read more2012 Awards and Prizes
Cum Laude Class I Nicole Elizabeth Baker-Greene Katherine Margaret Ballinger Adam Lawrence Beckman Maxwell Burgess Bennett Natasha Ankita Bhasin Kathryn Margaret Broderick Christine Young Cahill Hsuan-Wei Matthew Chen Anna Emily Childress Haeyeon Cho John Christopher Fay Jonathan Ralph Franco Hannah Elizabeth Grace Henry Streit Green Christine Marie Kalpin Vincent Churchward Kennedy Jeong A. Kim Juwon Kim Louis John McWilliams II Caroline Everett Moot Stephanie Tsz Yan Ng Jesse Davis Pagliuca Catharine Passavant Parker Elisabeth Baron...
read moreGraduates’ Weekend 2012
Click through the slideshow below for candid shots of Graduates’ Weekend 2012 ...
read moreAnne Foley, Member of the faculty, 1987–2012
Just like the North Star, Anne Foley is trusted, steady and constant. A number of constellations circle around her: students, faculty and library colleagues, and family members. We have all been the benefi ciaries of the tireless and conscientious manner in which Anne performs her duties. We have seen her retrieving a wayward piece of trash to beautify the campus. We have noticed her at sporting events and performances, supporting her advisees or former students. Slouching or goofing off when Anne is around is difficult; instead, trying a...
read moreLenna Dower, Member of the faculty, 1973–2012
Passing by Lenna Dower’s seventh-grade classroom, you might hear her say “Confucius said, ‘I want you to be everything that’s you, deep at the center of your being.’” This statement epitomizes Lenna’s values. She has served as a supreme mentor and teacher to many students and faculty during her 39 years at Milton. In her 22 years as head of Hathaway House, Lenna gave selflessly of her own life and that of her family members—Rick, Lara and Graham. As Middle School head and revered history teacher, she changed the curriculum to...
read moreCarolyn Damp, Member of the faculty, 1978–2012
After teaching in the Concord Public Schools for seven years, Carolyn Damp assumed her destined role teaching Grade 4 in Greenleaf Hall more than 30 years ago. Carolyn was the consummate professional, ably instructing her charges in math, social studies, literature and reading. Many years ago she narrowed her focus, pursuing her passion for the culture of the Middle East. She worked tirelessly to develop a comprehensive and rich curriculum embracing the Mesopotamian and ancient Egyptian civilizations, as well as the modern Middle East. Her...
read moreCommencement Speaker 2012
Graduation is rich with traditions and rituals— formal and informal. For instance, the longstanding practice of electing the student speakers assures seniors that at their last Milton gathering, they will hear messages from classmates they chose. More recently, Class I students have been inviting accomplished Milton alumni to be commencement keynote speakers. This year, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, Class of 1974, talked with graduates in Straus Library, prior to the formal commencement ceremony. Brad Bloom, president of Milton’s...
read moreRace France to France: Leave Antarctica to Starboard by Rich Wilson ’68
Race France to France: Leave Antarctica to Starboard by Rich Wilson ’68 sitesALIVE!, August 2012 In 2008–2009, Rich Wilson became only the second American to finish the Vendée Globe, deemed the “most grueling and dangerous prolonged competition on the planet.” (Garry Emmons, HBS Bulletin, 2009) The senior skipper at age 58, and a severe asthmatic, Rich finished ninth of 11 finishers, out of 30 starters, racing 29,000 miles over 121 days in his 60′ boat, Great American III. Rich Wilson’s book brings you onto his boat in the...
read moreThe Pocket Guide to Woodstock: An Insider’s Guide by Michael Perkins and Will Nixon ’75
The Pocket Guide to Woodstock: An Insider’s Guide by Michael Perkins and Will Nixon ’75 Bushwhack Books, 2012 Join Michael Perkins and Will Nixon, authors of the best-selling Walking Woodstock, for a personal tour of places they’ve explored on foot for years. Learn about the early Dutch settlers and witches; the bluestone quarries and tanneries; the bohemian arts colony; the historic hotels on Overlook Mountain; the concert that didn’t happen here; the sixties rock ’n’ rollers, including Bob Dylan and Levon Helm; the promoters and...
read moreCharles Dickens’s Networks: Public Transport and the Novel by Jonathan H. Grossman ’85
Charles Dickens’s Networks: Public Transport and the Novel by Jonathan H. Grossman ’85 Oxford University Press, March 2012 The same week in February 1836 that Charles Dickens was hired to write his first novel, The Pickwick Papers, the first railway line in London opened. Charles Dickens’s Networks explores the rise of the global, high-speed passenger transport network in the 19th century and the indelible impact it made on Dickens’s work. The advent first of stagecoaches, then of railways and transoceanic steamships made round-trip...
read moreintimate geographies: poems by Bo Thorne Niles ’62
intimate geographies: poems by Bo Thorne Niles ’62 Finishing Line Press, 2012 “Although its title may call to mind Elizabeth Bishop, the poems in intimate geographies conjure the alert, lucid spirit of May Swenson as they shape their way toward emotional heights and depths. In this collection, which is also recollection, the poet’s formal and verbal inventiveness is deftly balanced with a tender attention to sensory details. The resulting poems map, and honor really, lives that are dear, vivid, all-too-swiftly passing, and therefore, in...
read moreA Weaving of Cultures
For more than 60 years, Jacquetta Nisbet ’46 has been learning, practicing and teaching the ancient textile traditions of Native American and First Nation cultures. One of North America’s premier weaving artists, she has created works represented in collections around the world, from a 15-foot double-woven light form for Pasadena’s California Design X show, to a ten-footwide wall hanging for Nordstrom. Born in Malaysia and raised in Edinburgh, she emigrated to the United States and now lives in British Columbia. Jacquetta embodies...
read more5 Voices from History
A daily pleasure of mine is listening as students react to the primary texts we read in class. Though the vocabulary of colonial English and the complex sentences of offi cial texts present challenges, students engage. Why did Jefferson blame King George and not Parliament for the abuses listed in the Declaration? Why did the authors of the Constitution set up the electoral college and need urging for the Bill of Rights? Other readers connect with the humanity—sometimes cloaked, sometimes fully expressed—in the words left behind. We use...
read moreA 14-Minute Talk For Seniors: A Reflection on Spending Time
By Lisa Baker Some of the very best moments of my year have been running with Malia. She’s my daughter, 10 years old and coltish, limby and awkward, ankles poking out of her pants, her foot already a women’s size nine. But she’s all-girl, too—breathless and silly, amused by her sister’s potty humor and still willing to snuggle. “Wanna go for a run, honey?” I say to her after school, and she says, “Sure,” every time. Running had become a tedious routine, the washed-up athlete in me needing to hold on to the daily run, an...
read moreTalking It Out in Grade 2
It can start with a simple misunderstanding over whose turn is next. A child whispers to another and someone feels left out. A ball is grabbed playfully, or not so playfully, and there is foot-stamping outrage. Every day in classrooms, hallways and playgrounds, conflicts big and small play out between children of all ages. Equipping them with the tools to manage these conflicts is an important part of early childhood education, particularly in second grade. “Second grade is a big year, socially,” says Sachiyo Unger, Grade 2 teacher in...
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