Boarder Dinner

The night before boarding students disperse all over the country and world to spend the holidays with their families at home, they gather with dorm faculty and their families to celebrate the beginning of the holiday season and the end of the calendar year at school.  The event marks one of the rare the times of year that most boarding students actually look forward to dressing up nice because of the myriad of photo opportunities throughout the night.  Some, like admissions officer Mr. Natale (pictured with me above) simply can’t contain their holiday spirit and sport...

Spotlight on Neuroscience

At the end of last year, teachers and administrators came together in collaboration with the new Dean of Teaching and Learning, Mrs. Singh, to reinvigorate the curriculum for the 2014-2015 school year.  The result? Eight brand new interdisciplinary courses, usually team-taught by two faculty members of different departments.  This year I am enrolled in one of the new courses, Neuropsychology: Influences of the Brain on Behavior. It’s been one of the most interesting courses I’ve taken during my 13 years at Milton.  (I’m a “lifer,” and have been at Milton since...

The benefits of small classes

Before I started my Spanish 5 class this year, my thoughts regarding small class size were fairly limited. I assumed that small classes simply promoted discussion and individual attention, not much else. Last Monday night, as I sat with my five other classmates on the floor of our Spanish classroom, talking, joking, eating pizza, I reflected on the true impact of a small class. Because my classmates and I are all good friends, it was easy for our teacher to arrange a movie/work night for all of us. We decided to watch a movie about political unrest in El Salvador during...

Mud Week: A chance to decompress

Balancing a top-notch academic program along with extra-curricular activities can take up a lot of your free time. However, Milton Academy has three “mud weeks,” which are breaks from extra-curricular activities. Essentially, this is an opportunity for Milton students to take a step back from our busy schedules and catch-up with friends or homework that we may have neglected. Each mud week happens after a sports season. Right now we are in the fall mud week, which marks the end of the fall season and beginning of the winter season. Milton also offers a game of Gotcha,...

Milton Academy Dorm Life

As a boarder, there are some things about home life that you no longer experience on a daily basis. For example, my family loves to watch football together every time the New England Patriots play. When I came to Milton, I was worried about how I would keep myself up to date on quarterback Tom Brady’s latest accomplishments. Luckily, my dorm Hallowell House was full of football fans just like me. My dorm parents are always willing to invite me over to watch a football or hockey game and my dorm sisters are always eager to learn more about the sports I am so passionate...

Parent’s Weekend

Parent’s Day is one of the most cherished days of the Milton school year. This Friday, parents will join their kids in classes throughout the day, and attend musical performances and sports events all weekend. Whether families are traveling five minutes or halfway around the world, the ability to peek into their child’s day-to-day life is priceless. As I know from personal experience, many parents enjoy taking part in class discussion or working on a project or lab and reminiscing on their high school days. My sophomore year, which was my first year at Milton, my...

Cheering on our friends and peers is a f...

Cheering on our friends and peers at sporting events is a favorite activity at Milton. Last weekend, fans traveled to Lawrence Academy to watch the Milton football team play.  The crowd cheered emphatically as Milton junior, Domenic Cozier, bolted down the sidelines into the end zone for a 65-yard touchdown run, his 3rd touchdown of the game. To many Lawrence Academy fans the sight was astounding; however, to Dom’s teammates his feats are normal. Captain Jeff Brown (I) said, “He’s the fastest kid in recent school history and it shows on the field. All it takes...

Milton Snow Days

At Milton, the sight of snow falling from the sky can be mistaken for Christmas morning. All through the night, as snow piles on the ground, we patiently wait for the call from the head of school, as we constantly refresh the “snow day calculator” on our computers. When the Milton system calls students to notify them of school`s cancelation, shouts of joy can be heard from every room in the dorm. Although day students cannot come to campus, boarders know how to make the best of a snow day. For me, that consists of baseball batting practice in our gym with teammates,...

Roses for Dana Farber

Every February, the girls’ varsity field hockey team organizes a rose sale for the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. Students can buy red roses to represent love, pink roses to represent a crush, and yellow roses for friends. The week prior to Valentine’s Day, students purchase different colored hearts (red, pink, or yellow) and write notes to their friends or valentines. On Valentine’s Day people are excited to read the notes from their friends and to pick up their roses. Most people buy roses for their friends, which takes a lot of pressure off Valentine’s Day. The...

Intro to Macroeconomics

One of my favorite aspects of Milton is the ability to take courses that really interest me. With second semester fully underway, one of my elective courses, “Intro to Macroeconomics,” is just starting to heat up. So far, I love it. The class places a heavy emphasis on current events. Throughout the year, students keep a journal where we write summaries of current events and relate them to economics. I enjoy this assignment because it helps me understand the day-to-day implications of subjects I am studying. After our teacher collects them, he shares some of the best...

Boarder Caroling

It is the day before winter break. Everybody is anxious to go home for two and a half weeks, but for boarders there is one thing left to do. It is freezing outside, but dorm spirits are warm as each of the four boys’ dorms embarks on a journey around campus full of mirth and melody. Tis caroling season! Everyone is bloated after the annual boarder dinner. This year there was roast beef accompanied by various a cappella groups singing everything from archaic hymns to Lady Gaga. The mood is always festive, the food is always good, and the boarder unity is...

“Gotcha”

Last week, the Milton campus was filled with the same adrenaline and nervous excitement reminiscent of childhood playground game, only so much better. The school-wide game of tag or “Gotcha” releases the stress of a heightened pre-break workload and exhilarates the entire student body. At the beginning of the game, the student head monitors send every student an email with a link to their target–the person they have to “get.” The targets are assigned randomly, which encourages students of different classes to interact with one another and form new...