News
With confetti cannons at the ready, Middlesex trustees, students, faculty, and staff gathered on September 27, 2024, to join in an official groundbreaking ceremony for the School’s new Athletic Field House. Situated next to the current athletic complex, the new building – which will include a spacious fitness center, indoor turf field, basketball and volleyball courts, and elevated track – will give Middlesex an outstanding facility that matches the strength of its dynamic program.
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In a West Virginia cave, three teenagers make a startling discovery: a feral “bat boy” – half-boy, half-bat – with a thirst for blood. Can he be educated and tamed enough to adapt to life in a small, rural town?
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To open this year’s celebration of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month on May 3, 2024, the School warmly welcomed back award-winning architect and former Trustee Li Chung “Sandi” Pei ’68, who began his presentation by sharing some of his own fond memories of his student days at Middlesex.
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With Holocaust Remembrance Day approaching in May, the school community heard the firsthand account of Janet Singer Applefield, a child survivor of the Holocaust, who spoke at Middlesex on April 19, 2024. Through recounting her personal story to as many audiences as possible, Ms. Applefield hopes to “provide an understanding of the dangers of hatred and discrimination,” she said, adding, “I hope we will stand up against it.”
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As Science Department Head Steven Mylon noted, Middlesex enjoyed a great week of science, given that the community was able to watch a near-total solar eclipse on Monday, April 8, and then learn about the exploration of Mars on Friday, April 12, from planetary geologist Tina Seeger ’12. Invited to give this year’s Bendheim Lecture – a speaker series established by a Middlesex parent in 2015 to bring inspiring experts in STEM fields to campus – Tina was delighted to “come back to a place that was so formative for me, leading me to where I am,” as she said. “Middlesex let me have lots of interests and pursue them all – and learn it’s OK to find fulfillment in different places.”
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One of the highlights of observing Black History Month this year was the February 23rd visit of Dr. Jarvis Givens, a professor of education and African and African American Studies at Harvard University. A dynamic lecturer who specializes in the history of African American education, Dr. Givens was the third Kenneth E. Whitlock, Jr. Black History Month Speaker, a series that was established in 2021 and named in honor of Middlesex’s first Black faculty member.
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The second semester kicked off on January 31 with Middlesex’s annual Wellness Week, seven days that were filled with a variety of opportunities for students to learn how to optimize their own health as well as support the well-being of others. To that end, the week began with a Mass General Brigham Blood Drive on campus that netted 39 pints – potentially helping 117 people in need since each pint can be allocated to three different recipients.
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On consecutive Thursdays in January, Middlesex was treated to two extraordinary recitals, first by lyric soprano Sarah Cooper ’09 on January 18 and then by violinist Thomas Cooper ’13 on January 25. Each performed first during weekly chapel and then in the Danoff Recital Hall, giving the school community a rare and remarkable opportunity to enjoy their artistry right here on campus.
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When former UN Ambassador Samantha Power last spoke at Middlesex in March 2020, she had recently published her bestselling memoir, The Education of an Idealist, and described for the school community both her career path and her approach to formidable global problems. Now the administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), she returned to campus on January 12, visiting history classes, sharing her journey to this post, and detailing some of the challenges involved in delivering civilian foreign aid and development assistance in more than 80 countries. “I’m hoping to plant a seed to inspire you to make a difference in the world,” she said at the start of her talk.
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Whether or not they had already read portions of the Iliad at Middlesex, students benefited from a scholarly explanation of the work – its origin, evolution, and significance – thanks to Professor Joel Christensen, whose visit on January 5 was made possible by the Mudge Family Fund for the enrichment of the classics. A professor of classical and early Mediterranean studies at Brandeis University, Professor Christensen noted that while the ancient Greek epic poem is attributed to Homer, its true source remains “a bit of a mystery.” Most likely, he said, the Iliad developed throu
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Now an annual autumn event, the School’s Community Life Symposium is an early opportunity for students and faculty to consider, discuss, and address different ways in which Middlesex can be a more welcoming, inclusive place for all its members. This year, on September 23, veteran educator and consultant Rosetta Eun Ryong Lee talked about microaggressions, giving many examples of these everyday slights, insults, and offensive behaviors that people experience in daily interactions – generally with well-intentioned people – while also providing practical, diplomatic ways to deal with them when they occur.
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An appropriate first exhibition for the start of the academic year, when connections that will last a lifetime are just being formed, Befriend: Work by Meghan Morris and Eva Zasloff opened in the Ishibashi Gallery on September 14, 2023. Members of the Middlesex community, along with the artists and many friends, gathered at a well-attended reception that evening, giving students and faculty a chance to view and discuss this second artistic collaboration between Morris and Zasloff.
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In 1926, radium was a miracle cure, Madame Curie was an international celebrity, and glow-in-the-dark watches were the latest rage. Then, the girls who painted those watch dials began to die.
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A veteran English teacher and novelist, Alex Myers noted that he “frames the whole world in terms of story.” Speaking to the School on October 27 – between Coming Out Day on the 11th and Trans Awareness Week in mid-November – he eloquently told his own story of coming out as transgender right before his senior year in high school.
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While back on campus to attend his first Middlesex Board meeting, new Trustee Freddie Pantoja ’85 addressed the school community on September 29 as this year’s Hispanic Heritage Month speaker, generously sharing his own journey to the School, his experience as a student, and his career path in the pharmaceutical industry. Along the way, he also gave students great advice in hopes of preparing them to take advantage of the opportunities that they, too, will encounter at Middlesex and beyond.
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