We need your help! The alumni committee at MCMS is working to develop a portrait of a graduate – a description that articulates the characteristics that distinguish our students after attending MCMS. This survey will help the committee explain and demonstrate what makes MCMS students unique. We are interested in hearing from parents and students. This online survey will take just a few minutes.
To fill out the survey please click here.
REMINDER: We have already received several responses to our survey and what has been shared is of great interest to us. Here is an easy way for you to lend your voice. Please take a few minutes to complete this survey … hearing from both the student AND the parents is most helpful and enlightening.
On June 8th nine adolescent students graduated from 8th grade. This larger than usual graduating class has been together between 8 and 11 years, with MCMS attendance going back to Primary classes or 1st grade. Below is a list of these students and the High Schools they will be attending.
Sophia Musacchio – Verona High School; Kyle Barron – Edgewood; Sam Anderson – Edgewood; Emilio Pinero-Meyer – Edgewood; Henry Vennard – Edgewood; Liam McAleavy – Memorial; Sam McCarthy – Memorial and Keefe Mitman – West. Graduate Ty Pelton-Byce may be moving to Minnesota, but until that time will be attending Memorial.
We look forward to these students and their parents joining “Noodle Run” (see previous Post) to stay in touch, participating in Young Alumni Events and sharing their stories of ”life beyond MCMS”.
Our last entry was in mid-May. Since that time we have continued to make great strides in securing a location for our school for when our building at 4337 West Beltline will be razed for the Verona Rd./Beltline Highway Project. The school’s location as of July 1,2012 will be in Middleton at the intersetion of Airpot Rd. and Ellington Way. The “campus” will border on a neighborhood prairie, and a Town of Middleton park with soccer fields and tennis courts. We have been living with the threat of Eminent Domain for several years so it feels good to have a new site. The task ahead is to build the future MCMS.( Still unsure what to name the new school.) Construction is scheduled to begin by Sept. 1st – so drive by this fall and follow the progress.
Please join us on Saturday, May 21st for the 2011 MCMS Spring Garden Party and Silent Auction.
This year it will be held at Epelgarden’s, 2227 Fitchbury Road from 9:30 to 1:00.
Note: The Annual Montessori Mile Run will be run on the Badger State Trail starting at 9:30. The rest of the festivities will follow starting at 10:00 am. Call the school with your e-mail or mailing address to have us send you a Registration Form for this event.
You do not want to miss any of the following events and activities.
- Games and Crafts - something for everyone
- Plant Sale – Come and selet a wide range of perennials, annuals and house plants
- Food - no kitchen this year, so your choices are Jimmy John’s Subs or Little Ceasar’s Pizza served with sides and drinks.
- Live Music – for you to join in with sing-alongs and dancing
SILENT AUCTION – Come browse through over 70 items and services donated by local businesses.
It will be fun, but it will be MORE fun if alumni and friends of MCMS join us. See you there. Questions. Call 274-9549
As we have done every year for the last six years, we have recent 8th grade grads who are now freshmen and sophomores in high school return to MCMS to share their reflections on their Montessori education and how it prepared them entering and succeeding in high school. This meeting is open to, and eagerly anticipated each year by, parents of children of all ages currently attending MCMS. This year we wish to thank the following Young Alums for participating in this year’s forum held in early January; Sevahn Vorperian, Alex Gariti, Steven Queoff, Abby Gleason and Devin Koetelboeter. Highlights of what they shared were:
- the unique education they received and their appreciation for the support and challenge given by their teachers at MCMS.
- the freedom they had each day to explore topics that were of particular interest to them.
- the trust they were given to make decisions and solve problems themselves, with only the assistance needed or requested from adults.
- the time they had to delve deeply into subjects of interest, to interact with others, to experience things in a hands-on way, to ponder and develop ideas and to take on responsibilities.
Maria Montessori always defined Montessori education as an “aid to life” and who can dispute that after hearing such testimony from our own graduates.
A very nice merger of both the MCMS Alumni (parents) and Young Alums of MCMS ( former students) is a group that has formed just this year. They call themselves the “Noodle Run” since they meet every 3rd Saturday of the month at Noodles Restaurant on Mc Kee Road in Fitchburg. Who are they? At present they are the Adolescent Program 8th grade graduates of the last two years and their parents. They get together to socialize ( separate tables for students and parents) and share stories, especially about experiences moving into schools beyond MCMS where most of the participants have been all their school years. I imagine this group will be growing when our current 8th grade class of 9 students graduate this June.
Dear Friends,
Every time the holiday season comes around we are grateful for the messages we receive from former families. The letters get passed around the staff and with the blog I have a chance to share some alumni news with all of you. This year we heard from Linda Hutchins and her two children Joshua (’91-’95) and Johanna (’90-95′) who have been staying in touch every year since they moved away from Madison in 1995. Joshua just graduated from Caltech with a degree in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and is now employed at Google in CA. Johanna, we were sad to learn had a tough year battling cancer but has had a wonderful and complete recovery, and was able to complete her classes in June. Johanna is a junior at Colorado College majoring in biology.
Another family that regularly stays in touch, much to our delight, is the Bastians, mom and dad Marcia and Don and Eleana (’94-’97) and Alex (’96-’98). This family did a lot of traveling this year taking them to places like Chile and Antarctica. Eleana just graduated from West High School and we received pictures of her with other West High grads and MCMS alums Dan Bunn, Jacob Wolbert, Izzy Spear, Brynna Godar, Ciara Hill and Anna Meteyer. Eleana is now a freshman at Penn State. Alex is a Junior at West High with special interests in science and sports. They also mentioned they were Rose Bowl bound, but we all know what that outcome was, though any trip to Pasadena is a treat. Marcia ends her updates with the comment “thanks to all of you for the great memories.
Once again we were delighted to get an update on the Kopplin family. Kate (’94-’03) is in her junior year at UW Madison working on a degree in psycholoy and a certificate in German, Quentin (’94-’02) graduated from Middleton HS in June where he was Captain of his Rugby team and Courtney (’96-’02) is a senior at Middleton HS where she is having an “excellent year”.
What is missing is your news. You do not have to wait for the Holidays. Just sit down in f ront of your computer and dash off an e-mail with a picture or two, at any time of the year and we will share it with staff and other alumni families.
Happy New Year to all,
Dorothy Z
Happy New Year to All,
Some Young Alums gathered on December 29th at Ten Pin Alley for bowling, pizza and socializing. We had hoped for a bigger gathering but I was informed that any invitation requires a last minute reminder and the invitation by e-mail went out 10 days before the event. SORRY! Derek and Devin Ketelboeter, Sevahn Vorperian and Abby Gleason had a great time, competing and cheering each other on. It was clear however that getting together with this kind of activity is lots of fun so expect more “bowling socials” in the future.
Dorothy Z.
Hi All,
In early December I sent a letter (snail mail) to many young alums which included those who attended our school’s elementary program since it started in 1992. It included a postcard asking for you to send us your e-mail addrress if you wanted to be on our mailing list. The point was made that in the future most communications ( with the exception of Newsletters) would be made using your ( or your family’s) e-mail addresses. My complete list includes 55 names and of those I already have 34 e-mail contacts. Thanks to those who did respond and if you wish to remain on our list and have not responded to date, please do so. I am learning that it is good to send out reminders.
Dorothy Zografi
Please return to the Post dated April 28 and take a few minutes to submit your responses to the survey of alumni families. We have had several responses to date and what has been shared has been most helpful, instructive and gratifying. We would love to hear from YOU, both student(s) and parent(s). It is fun to complete and will provide a few reflective moments of your MCMS experience. For those who have already responded a big THANK YOU!!!
Summer has come and gone and we are in our second month of the new school year. In June we said farewell to five students in our Adolescent Class who moved on to High School. Sevahn Vorperian, Courtney Smith who are now attending West High School, Devin Koetelboeter who is attending Middleton High School, Steven Queoff who is attending Verona High School and Alex Gariti. These students have been added to the ranks of MCMS Young Alums and come June 2011 we will be adding 9 more who are currently 8th graders in our flourishing Adolescent Class.
Our five new graduates and nine more came together in mid August for our second annual summer reunion. Once again Carrie Marlette very generously invited us to use her home and swimming pool for a SWIM PARTY that was attended by 14 former MCMS students: Erik and Steven Queoff, Laura Manley, Camille Zweifel, Abby Gleason, Kathleen Ellis ( not in picture), Eric Bauer, Libby Meier, Courtney and Camille Smith, Devin Ketelboeter, Alex Gariti, Sevahn Vorperian and Max Tripp. It was a wonderful assemblage of former students and they had a SPLASHING GOOD TIME.
Our Young Alums is growing into a cohesive community of former students who love coming together for fun times and times of sharing of their MCMS school experiences which are humorous and heartwarming. Our next reunion will once again take place during the winter holiday break with the hope of catching college students home on break, as we did last year for the sledding party.
We hope to see more of you in the future.
