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Author: Milton Magazine

Jennifer Hall Taylor ’00, A Practice of Presence in a Life of Movement

Jennifer Hall Taylor ’00, A Practice of Presence in a Life of Movement

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As a child, Jennifer Hall Taylor ’00 was never one to sit still. Looking back, she realizes that the sense of connectivity that came from physical movement may be what brought her to where she is today. A yoga practitioner and teacher, a health and wellness coach, a personal chef, and a mindfulness app creator—Jennifer is all of these, and each aspect of her work incorporates wellness and the love of movement. “I’ve always had a deep interest in physical movement,” she says. “I love the joy and freedom that can come from it.” Jennifer describes her first yoga...

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What We’re Reading

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Fall is the perfect time to sink into a great book. We asked Milton faculty and staff members to share their favorite pleasure reads. Here are their recommendations. Ian Torney ’82 Upper School Visual Arts Chair Color: A Natural History of the Palette, by Victoria Finlay, is a portrait of colors and their histories that is part travelogue, part history lesson, and part science seminar. Finlay shows the rich history behind what so many of us take for granted. emily bargar Upper School Math My most-read and most-loved book came out when I was in third grade, and I’ve reread Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass every two years since then. It’s grown with me, teaching me about love, loyalty, and eventually shades of gray in relationships and politics that went right over my 8-year-old head. As an adult, I find it’s more than just a nostalgic revisit: this book, and the trilogy that grew from it, was such a foundational part of who I wanted to grow into, and I make connections to this day about how it influenced my development. Matthew Fishbein Office of Development and Alumni Relations A Little Life, by Hanya Yanagihara, is incredible, but also incredibly devastating, because it describes sexual abuse and child mistreatment in vivid and at times overwhelming detail. The book follows three decades in the life of four friends as they...

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The Humanities Workshop: A Lesson in Why the Humanities Matter

The Humanities Workshop: A Lesson in Why the Humanities Matter

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Lisa Baker and Alisa Braithwaite like to describe their ambitious new project—the Humanities Workshop—as a “reassertion.” As faculty members in Milton’s English department, they need no convincing about the importance of the humanities to a well-functioning society, but with the intense focus nationwide on STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering, and math), they believed it was time to reassert the humanities’ significance for younger generations. Developed in 2017 by Lisa and Alisa and launched during the 2018–2019 school year, the project-based Humanities Workshop gave students from a consortium of five Boston-area public, private, and charter schools the opportunity to experience...

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Quiet the Mind: Reflect, Forgive, Love

Quiet the Mind: Reflect, Forgive, Love

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I am often asked if I have a favorite building on campus. The answer is easy: the Apthorp Memorial Chapel. I love the building’s aesthetic, its beautifully unfussy neo-Gothic style. Its facade stirs impressions of both church and castle; it speaks to me as a deeply spiritual and powerful edifice. The interior is exquisite in its simplicity: the stained glass window, the wooden pews, and the memorial plaques on the walls. One of those plaques, located on the wall to the right on the approach to the altar, features a plain wooden panel inscribed with a name, dates, and...

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A Focus on Mental Health and Wellness

A Focus on Mental Health and Wellness

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Today’s teenagers are stressed out. This is not breaking news. The reasons are numerous and varied. Pressures are internal and external. Today, at Milton, faculty members, the staff, and most important, students, recognize mental health and wellness as key components to a student’s overall well-being. When new students arrive on campus, many come from environments where they stood out as a scholar, an athlete, an artist, or a musician. Amanda Chapin, one of Milton’s health counselors, says that as these students find themselves with many other smart and talented students, they sometimes struggle to figure out where they fit...

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