Embedded. In the Lives and deepest hopes of the Arab Spring protesters, Robert Worth’s stories illuminate an inaccessible world, Robert Worth ’83
Looking professorial in a soft blue shirt and unstructured corduroy sport jacket, Robert Worth speaks quietly and intensely. Robert’s book, A Rage for Order: The Middle East in Turmoil, from Tahrir Square to Isis, was published in April 2016 to significant acclaim. He is both erudite and unpretentious, answering questions with patience. Imagining Robert perched in the back of a pickup truck among exuberant Libyans who are shooting into the air and hurtling at top speed across a “debris-strewn” desert is a stretch. Likewise, you must work...
read moreLove Plying the Sky. Already a pilot in Class I, Nancy Harkness Love founded the World War II Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron, Nancy Harkness Love ’31
by Mary McCutcheon ’65 Imagine enjoying a beautiful autumn afternoon on the Quad. Suddenly your tranquility is shattered by an airplane descending perilously low over the chapel and rattling off the top of one of the crenellations. This happened one Sunday in the fall of 1930. The usual suspects were the daredevil Fuller brothers, both of whom had pilot’s licenses. But, to the astonishment of the administration, the culprit proved to be a girl! It was the demure and pretty senior, Nancy Harkness. I remember my Class I year at Milton. It...
read moreIs He Othello Today, or Romeo, or Joseph Asagai? Jason Bowen ’00
“The key is understanding my character’s humanity—his relationships, faults, feelings, choices,” Jason Bowen starts. A stage actor, Jason depends on his ability to engage hundreds of people, radiate energy, and elicit buy-in from the start. “I need to recognize my character and also understand what other characters think of him, are saying about him—how he affects what’s unfolding, even when he’s not onstage. Attaching real emotions to the words—that’s how you make a character come alive.” Acting ability might have been...
read moreElbow to Elbow with Urban Neighbors: Making cities that work, John Marshall ’86
An assistant professor of law and an urban development lawyer, John Marshall “never ever” wanted to be a lawyer. Helping revitalize a city devastated by one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history was equally outside what John might have predicted for his future. But every story has roots, and John traces his to the family’s Oldsmobile station wagon. On excursions to visit friends and family in cities up and down the East Coast, John’s architect father and educator mother infused their children with stories about the past and...
read moreOn A Frontier, at 18 Years Old
What happens when you take your energy and your passion as far as you can? Many teenagers are driven by a talent or a recently discovered fascination, to pursue new exposure, and follow any lead that opens up. Gabrielle Fernandopulle, Alex Iansiti, and Elina Thadhani, all Class I, are three such adventurers. Rooted in Milton life, they have at the same time sought and seized every opportunity to expand and test the intrigue they feel for math, programming and science. Their personal passions emerged when they were very young, and each has been...
read moreGrowing on Garden Hill
Working in teams, Milton’s fourth graders were assigned a straightforward task: Using toothpicks and mini-marshmallows, develop and execute a plan to build the tallest possible structure in less than five minutes. It sounded easy enough. But halfway through the process, Robert Lightbody, director of multiculturalism and community development in Milton’s Lower and Middle schools, began shaking things up. He reassigned students, which forced the groups to bring their new teammates up to speed and consider novel approaches. The exercise came...
read moreA Catalyst at Google: Annie Argues for Real Conversations – Annie Jean-Baptiste ’06
Silicon Valley, arguably the most innovative corner of the planet, is also famously—and perhaps resolutely—homogeneous. The Valley’s mostly male and mostly white and Asian tech workforce unremittingly turns out life-changing tools. Can the mix of minds and hearts that created today’s constantly evolving reality come up with inventions that will work for the next billion users, and solve the problems of our battered planet as well? “Tech companies, regardless of their size, are focused on these ‘next billion users,’” says Annie...
read moreLitigating the Right to Marry – Chris Dusseault ’87
You might predict that a debater at Milton and then Yale would turn up as a lawyer. Chris Dusseault claims an even tighter overlap between his love of music and singing at both those schools and his distinction as a litigator. “Reading your audience, understanding them, what they’re receiving and what they’re not, is much the same as looking a judge and jury in the eye. You come into the courtroom with one conception of how it should go—‘this is what I intended’—but is it working? You need to pay attention to what is resonating...
read moreWhat Don’t You Understand? Making Videos that Tackle the Issues that Confound Us. – Joe Posner ’03
The first of Joe Posner’s videos to go viral, he explains, was a robust, animated description of Europe’s austerity programs—all in about five minutes. He pitched the project, earned a grant from his alma mater, Brown, and collaborated with political economist Mark Blyth to render scholarly ideas about austerity in an accessible, entertaining video. That was 2009. Today, Joe’s videos deliver facts-in-context at Vox.com, where his approach to creating video matches the mission of the Vox digital platform. Vox.com aims to “explain the...
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