Lisa Miller, Ph.D.
A professor of psychology and education, Dr. Lisa Miller ’84, this year’s Class of 1952 Speaker for Religious Understanding, described the connection between happiness and spirituality among children and adolescents. Such spirituality may come from organized religion, nature, or an activity like yoga or music. Dr. Miller directs the Clinical Psychology Program at Columbia University Teachers College and founded the Spiritual Mind Body Institute—the first Ivy League graduate program in spirituality and psychology. Her innovative research...
read moreArmond James
Armond James encouraged students to learn from their failures and spend time outside their comfort zones, urging them to become involved in politics. Mr. James—a 2014 congressional candidate for Pennsylvania and teacher in the Philadelphia public school system—visited campus in honor of Black History Month, sponsored by the student club Onyx. Mr. James was born and raised in the Mount Airy section of Philadelphia, and credits his parents for providing him a strong foundation, and teaching him about hard work, respect and the importance of...
read moreWhen Clutter Gives You Joy
by Mary McCutcheon ’65 That infernal book by Marie Kondo has been on the best-seller list for months. I haven’t read it. I haven’t opened its cover. I haven’t touched it. I haven’t even seen a copy, but I am already barricading my mind against its painful message: decluttering. When I first arrived at Milton in 1962, I had one Samsonite suitcase (no wheels), a portable typewriter, and a copy of Webster’s Sixth Collegiate Dictionary. Aside from children’s books and teddy bears, the only other thing I owned was my nascent and...
read moreLet Us Snap Your Style!
And they did. During a break between classes, on a game day, in the depths of winter, Milton students shared the looks that make them feel good. Predictably, denim makes a solid showing, along with khakis — but so does so-called “elevated activewear,” neat and comfortable pants, tees and jackets that work for class and field, and tout the Milton logo. On their feet: Converse and Vans, iconic L. L. Bean boots, work boots unlaced just so, and classic black high boots topped by socks. Plaid is the rage and “groutfit” is the...
read moreHungry? Here’s One Solution. Helson Taveras ’14 and Israel Moorer ’16
Helson Taveras, a sophomore at Columbia University, strides along West 116th, the heart of campus, passing students whose lives he has already helped to change. At an institution with a $9.6 billion endowment, students are hungry, and Swipes is a solution. Last spring, Helson and his friend Julio Henriquez watched classmates turn to Facebook to connect with other students who had extra meals on their meal plans, asking for an opportunity — coordinating times and locations — to be “swiped” into a campus dining hall. The two were...
read moreThe Big (Green) Room Ophelia Wilkins ’97
“I have always loved making things, craft-y sorts of things,” Ophelia says, “clothes, furniture, pottery — I was really into ceramics at Milton, for instance.” Slight and strong, both understated and definitively stylish in a textured black-on-black dress (“I wish I’d made it, but I didn’t,” she says), Ophelia explains how and why every detail matters in what she’s “making” today. An architect with the firm Kuth Ranieri in San Francisco, Ophelia is working on creating a space where ideas will ignite, and moving...
read moreTaking Risks and Keeping Cool, Jennie Dundas ’89
Making ice cream can be messy, albeit delicious, work. Jennie Dundas ’89 is dressed for a production day — jeans, sneakers, and a pink sweatshirt with the hood pulled up over a required hairnet. Large bags of organic sugar, tubs of pure maple syrup, and boxes of organic pecans line the walls. On this day, 44,000 mini-cups will be filled with four different seasonal flavors of ice cream for JetBlue’s first-class service. Jennie, CEO and co-founder of Blue Marble Ice Cream, based in Brooklyn, is at the production facility in Rhode...
read moreBuffering the Consumer from Hard Work, John Tucker ’96
In 2009, Trunk Club launched online. Its mission: create a better way for men to shop for clothes. Trunk Club wanted to make it easier for men to show up at work and on weekends looking good, especially if they had little time and even less inclination to shop. An early player in a burgeoning field, “Trunk Club was a problem solver when it launched, which accounts for its early success,” says John Tucker, co-founder and vice president of member experience. Trunk Club isn’t a designer-to-customer direct sales company. Nor is it a digital...
read moreCounting on You, Day and Night: The Look and Feel of a Boarding Faculty Member’s Life in 2016
“There’s something remarkable about getting to know a teenage boy over four years,” says Joshua Emmott, Wolcott House head, “to see him as a full person so completely that when life’s key questions come up, it’s natural for him to knock on my door and say ‘I just don’t see how it all connects.’” This year is Joshua’s twelfth — in the history department, and in Wolcott House. “I started on the fourth floor and have lived on every floor,” he says. “This is my third year as house head.” Fortunately, some adults...
read moreThe Milton Incubator for Advanced Programmers
It’s Thursday afternoon during exam week, and a computer lab in the Art and Media Center thrums. Milton’s programming students, laptops spread, are tweaking, honing, perfecting independent projects — it’s noisy “independent” work. Students probe and answer each other’s questions, review lines of friends’ code, wildly gesture to punctuate both frustrations and “aha!” moments. Chris Hales (computer programming faculty) roams the classroom — an open session for exam support that looks and feels like a startup...
read moreWhat Did You Say Your New Job Is? Seeding an Openness to Technology Option
Projecting exactly how to integrate new and newer technology into teaching and learning over the years ahead, Milton created a definition of an ideal facilitator. The ideal facilitator, as the concept goes, is an experienced teacher who loves technology — who would seed a culture among educators that routinely considers, tests and supports technology that could be transformative in the teaching and learning process. Mark Connolly and Josh Furst are Milton’s first instructional technologists. They work with faculty across all...
read moreBuilding on Virtual Connections: Faculty Advance the Lower School Curriculum
This past fall, four Lower School faculty visited classrooms and children whom they’d only met over Skype. The Milton teachers spent six days in Spain, eager participants in the activities of Colegio del Pilar, a K–12 school in Madrid, and longtime exchange partner for Milton’s Upper School Spanish students. They were excited to explore possibilities for expanding the connections between Milton’s Lower School and El Pilar’s youngest learners, now that Milton is teaching Spanish in the elementary grades. El Pilar’s service-learning...
read moreJazz: Real Time, Real People
Milton students are busy. Tests, papers, plays, sports and activities compete for finite time in a Milton day. So, when students answer the call to volunteer their time and talents, it’s a big deal. Last October, Milton jazz students answered that call many times. Early in the month, ten student musicians performed a spirited set of South African tunes for an audience of hundreds at “Celebrate Milton,” an event hosted by the Town of Milton and supported by our community service program. Mid-month, Class IV jazz students offered their...
read moreVarsity Football Upends Nobles to Earn Bowl Bid
Milton’s varsity football team capped off the storied Milton-Nobles rivalry weekend with a 24–13 win, finishing the season with a 6–2 record. That success earned the team the number two spot in the Independent School League and a NEPSAC Bowl bid. Solid defense and an excellent ground game were key components in the Mustangs’ victory over the Bulldogs. The bowl game invitation was also enabled by a come-from-behind victory over perennial powerhouse Governor’s a week earlier. Trailing 14–13, with time running out, Milton drove the...
read moreTrustees Elected to the Board in 2015
Eleanor Tabi Haller-Jorden ’75 is president and CEO of The Paradigm Forum GmbH, a global think tank and consultancy focused on inventive communications, proactive branding strategies, and experiential learning techniques that help transform organizations. Previously, Tabi was senior vice president of global learning strategies at Catalyst, responsible for initiatives focused on inclusion and innovation in diverse cultural contexts. She earned her bachelor’s degree at Bryn Mawr College and her master’s in industrial relations at the...
read moreOne Perfect Season, Two Classy Teams
Today’s soccer programs showcase Milton sports tradition: sportsmanship; old-fashioned hard work out on the field, rain or shine; practicing skills; working as a team. They also reflect the growth of youth soccer, specifically club programs. Many of today’s players come to Milton with a high level of play and talent. Overall, the mission for boys’ and girls’ teams is to play good soccer. Scoring goals is great, but that is only one part of the game. The boys’ varsity soccer team had a perfect season. They were undefeated and earned...
read moreLynsey Addario
Lynsey Addario Award-winning photojournalist Lynsey Addario was both the Margo Johnson Lecturer and Melissa Dilworth Gold Visiting Artist this fall. Ms. Addario won the Overseas Press Club’s Award for Veiled Rebellion, which documents the plight of women in Afghanistan. She was awarded a MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellowship, and in 2009 she was part of the New York Times team that won a Pulitzer Prize for her photographs of “Talibanistan.” In 2015, American Photo magazine named her one of the five most influential photographers of the...
read moreTravis Roy
Travis Roy Twenty years ago, Travis Roy became paralyzed from the neck down when he hit the boards 11 seconds into his first college hockey game. Mr. Roy spoke impassionedly to students about setting goals, meeting challenges, showing respect, and the power of love. He established the Travis Roy Foundation in 1997, to help spinal cord injury survivors and to fund research toward developing a cure. He is the author of Eleven Seconds, and he travels the country sharing his story and message with audiences of all ages. “There are times in life...
read moreProfessor Warren McFarlan ’55
Professor Warren McFarlan ’55 Professor Warren McFarlan ’55, who has a long and distinguished career in business education, was the 2015 Hong Kong Lecturer. Professor McFarlan earned his A.B. from Harvard University in 1959, and his M.B.A. and D.B.A. from the Harvard Business School in 1961 and 1965, respectively. He became a full professor at HBS in 1973, and he has held diverse leadership positions at the school since. He is currently a guest professor and co-director of Case Development at the School of Economics and Management,...
read moreProfessor Bonnie Miller
Professor Bonnie Miller Professor Bonnie Miller was this year’s Henry R. Heyburn ’39 Speaker. Professor Miller earned her Ph.D. in history at Johns Hopkins University. She is the author of From Liberation to Conquest: The Visual and Popular Cultures of the Spanish-American War of 1898, in which she argues for the importance of visual images in shaping the political debates surrounding the Cuban crisis and the imperial aftermath of the Spanish-American War. At UMass Boston, she teaches courses in visual culture /media studies and American...
read moreLieutenant Ben Pariser ’06
Lieutenant Ben Pariser ’06 Nearly ten years after graduation, Lieutenant Ben Pariser spoke with students as the 2015 Veterans Day Speaker. Mr. Pariser graduated from Brandeis University in 2010, before earning his commission as a second lieutenant in the United States Army Reserve. From 2011 to 2013, Mr. Pariser served with the 443rd Civil Affairs Battalion as a battalion human resources officer and a civil affairs team chief. In 2013, he was assigned to the Headquarters, United States Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command,...
read moreCarlos Andrés Gómez
Carlos Andrés Gómez Award-winning poet, actor and author Carlos Andrés Gómez challenged students to be their authentic selves and interrogate stereotypes of manhood. Mr. Gómez was this year’s guest speaker at the Latino Association assembly. He is the author of the coming-of-age memoir Man Up: Reimagining Modern Manhood. Nominated for the Pushcart Prize and named Artist of the Year at the 2009 Promoting Outstanding Writers Awards, he co-starred in Spike Lee’s film Inside Man. Mr. Gómez has been featured on NPR, TEDx, Upworthy, MSNBC,...
read moreSteven Tejada
Steven Tejada Actor, writer and educator Steven Tejada performed his monologues for students as this year’s Multiculturalism/Community Development speaker. The stories, which combine comedy, drama and real emotions, are reflections on his personal journeys from the streets of the South Bronx to the boulevards of exclusive worlds. Mr. Tejada has performed and spoken at venues throughout the country. He is currently dean of diversity initiatives at the Noble and Greenough School. He also serves on the board of directors of De La Salle Academy...
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