- Ed Carpenter's '64 Creative Talk: On Sunday, May 20, Ed Carpenter '64 (parent of Luke '12, who introduced his father) spoke at Midland about his public artwork and the creative process in his talk, "Addressing the Heart, the Eyes, and then the Mind: Forty Years of Solving Problems and Finding Inspiration in Public Art." Ed was the final guest speaker in our Guest Speaker Series this year.
- Senior Lunch: On Sunday, May 20th, Alumni/ae President John Martin '66 officially welcomed the Class of 2012 into the distinguished Midland Alumni/ae Association at a Senior Lunch held on Kimpton Field. Other alums present for this occasion included Nick Alexander '60, Jonathan Andrews '64, Dee Hodge '70 and Ed Carpenter '64.
- Spring Board Meeting: This past weekend marked the final Board of Trustees meeting for the academic year. The board met as a whole, as well as in break out committee meetings that included faculty members. School Prefects and seniors Marcus Schmidt and Savannah Bryant also presented to the Board.
- Annual Coffee House: Luke Carpenter '12 and Peter King '12 were the emcees and led the community through a joy-filled evening of acts, including their own production sharing wisdom from their experience about "How to be a 9th Grade Prefect." The acts included student-made movies, story-telling, singing and stand-up comedy. Kudos to the 9th graders who put on more acts than any other class.
- Eclipse Experience: May 20th provided a rare opportunity for students at Midland to observe a partial annular eclipse of the sun (click here for excellent information about annular eclipses ). After dinner, an excited group of students, staff, and dogs poured out onto the field. While tempting, direct viewing of the sun results in burned retinas, so pinhole projectors or backwards binoculars were used to project the image of the sun-in-eclipse onto pieces of paper. There was a great and positive energy amongst the astronomical observers - asked Max Merkin '13, "Can we have an astronomy class at Midland?"
- Spanish Class Banquet: Jose Juan Ibarra's '87 Spanish III students selected a Spanish-speaking country and did extensive research on the country throughout the year. This research project ends with a culmination of a detailed historical and cultural written report, an oral presentation in class and then students prepare a dish representative of their country. On Tuesday, each student prepared a dish, wrote a full description about it and shared it with the class resulting in a colorful and tasty banquet.
- Phoebe's Half Marathon: On Saturday, May 12, Phoebe Stokes '12 finished her first half-marathon in 1:45:37 after training for 11 weeks. She placed first in her division (women under 21), winning a $50 gift certificate to Santa Barbara Running Company. She beat her second-place competitor by over 7 minutes and was only 9 seconds shy of the first-place male finisher in her age group!
- Raku Firing in Ceramics: On Tuesday, visiting ceramic artist Mike McNutt and his wife (and dog) took students through the traditional Japanese method of firing known as Raku. Raku involves firing pots quickly, taking them out of the kiln red hot, and placing them in a can filled with newspapers or other organic combustibles, which is in turn quickly covered to reduce oxygen. The results are always variable and surprising, and everyone had a lot of fun seeing how their pots came out of the can.
- Garden in May: We are getting ready to do our summer plantings--our tomato, pepper, and tomatillo starts arrived from the nursery, and the students on the Spring Farm Crew planted melon and squash plants in the shade house. Midland steers have been grazing down the cover crop, and wildflowers are still blooming in our new wildflower section.
- Ice Cream Social: On Wednesday, May 23, Director of Admissions Amy Graham, and Marguerite Graham hosted an Ice Cream Social at Ireland House to thank the many students that gave admission tours to prospective families this year. Over twenty-five students were in attendance and enjoyed various ice cream flavors, cones, and toppings. Amy thanked each student for their support and explained the vital role they play in the admissions office, "for most prospective students the student led tour is the 'make or break" moment, many make their decision to apply or not based their experience with the tour guide."
- Annual Triathlon: On Monday, May 21st, 12 teams comprised of students and faculty competed in the 7th Annual Midland Team Triathlon. The course consists of swimming six lengths in the Reservoir, a 4.5-mile bike ride and a 2-mile run. The first place team was Kyle Taylor (swim), Bryce Bryant '15 (bike) and Marcus Schmidt '12 (run) while the top record for running was broken by Charlie Lehman '13 who completed two lap courses in 11 minutes and 36 seconds. A special congratulations goes to the five students who competed in the full triathlon. Miguel Provencio '13 won the solo event with the second best time ever. While many of the teams were shooting for first place, some were more interested in style. Team Peru, captained by faculty member Paul Gelles, dressed up in mixture of Incan and modern Peruvian outfits, another team dressed in 50s outfits, while a group of freshmen girls dressed as Team Midland Men.
- Reminder - Closed Campus: Midland's campus is closed as students prepare for and take their final exams. No students may leave campus, and we respectfully request to have no visitors on campus until Awards Night next Friday, June 1st. We look forward to the commencement celebration for the Class of 2012!
- Midland Calendar for 2012-13: To view a calendar of the next Academic Year, 2012-13, click here.
- Upcoming Events at a Glance:
May 27-31: Exams
May 30-June 1: Senior Trip
June 1: Awards Banquet
June 2: Class of 2012 Graduation
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