Managing the International Health Crisis

Much of today’s media coverage of global health issues is misleading. News stories tend to focus on the controversies surrounding AIDS drug pricing or the amount of funding necessary to combat the epidemic successfully. Though these issues are important, they contribute to a myth that HIV/AIDS is the only looming catastrophe in international health and that cheaper drugs or a dramatic infusion of money could soon turn the tide.
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The Quest for What Sustains Us

Food brings us together and—when survival instincts or clashing mores or cultures dictate—food can come between us. What we consume is closely allied to identity as well as health: You are what you eat, the adage goes.

Traditional Chinese consider food in terms of yin and yang. From tomb-paintings, we know that ancient Egyptians prized figs, fish and cucumbers. During the Roman Empire, the senatorial class ate elaborate meals, in a reclining position and using their hands, washing the meal down with wine. Food, as much as love, is an ancient and international language, spoken with many accents.

For some, the quest for food purity rivals the highest levels of religious fervor. For others, food represents good taste or certain values. Some seek food only to stave off hunger. For these Milton graduates, food and its frequent companion, wine, are more than the source of energy and vitality; they are what sustains us.
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Planning for Disaster Response

Certainly the attacks of September 11, 2001, thrust Elizabeth Davis’s focal concern into American living rooms: we could not and cannot escape the need to plan for disasters. We started thinking explicitly about the vulnerability of our workplaces, hospitals, schools and transportation networks as well as our homes. We asked pointed questions about who would spring into organized action to help us in the case of an “incident,” implementing a plan we assumed would be well-designed and fully resourced. Then Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Tom Ridge told us that we owned responsibility for a prepared response, at least at the family level. Since then the issue has only gained momentum as we witness events, natural and manmade, that affect thousands every day.
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Moving Iraq Toward a Market Economy

As deputy general counsel of the Coalition Provisional Authority for Commercial Law Reform, Derek Gilman ’79 mobilized and directed a team of attorneys in developing a body of law, 39 statutes, to undergird a new Iraqi economy. He and his team worked closely with policy makers and economists in undertaking this project. The vision entrusted to him and his team was to set the framework for transitioning Iraq from a managed economy to a market economy.
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Jean Valentine '52 Wins 2004 National Book Award for Poetry

"Letter” is a poem by Jean Valentine ’52 that I found among the new poems of her most recent collection, Door in the Mountain: New and Collected Poems 1965– 2003, the winner of the 2004 National Book Award for Poetry. The poem is unassuming in the space it takes up, quiet in image, in its movement and thought—easy, even, to overlook. But the longer I spend with it, the more I appreciate the work of Jean Valentine.
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Fiction That Captures National Prominence: A Sleeping Protagonist Makes It Happen

Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum ’90 looks much like she did in 1990, and her manner seems about the same, too. She has a sweet round face, a mess of curls in her hair, and eyes that are quick to come alive. Her voice is strikingly high and small and even childlike, but her big gestures and her quick and animated patterns of speech suggest a decidedly adult intensity. In conversation with her, you can’t help but think that there’s a lot going on behind her eyes.
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Producing Maximum Performance from Technology: The Dymaxion Man

Last summer, the U.S. Postal Service issued a stamp commemorating the life of R. Buckminster Fuller ’13. Foregrounded by platonic solids and a lozenge-shaped, three-wheeled automobile, Fuller’s giant head is perched atop a ball-and-socket truss amid gaping onlookers. Spidering across the great dome of his forehead are the signature lines of triangles and hexagons that constitute his geodesic geometry. In the background, more geodesic domes lie on the Euclidean plane punctuated by what appear to be oversized power transformers and a helicopter pulling yet another dome along the invisible vectors of optimum design. Not your typical somber portrait of an elder statesman or groundbreaking scientist, this millennial take on a ’50s sci-fi aesthetic is, despite its winks and overall mood of loopiness, telling of both Fuller’s life and reputation.
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Mathematics Conglomerate is Nimble, Responsive, Maintains a "Just in Time" Inventory

Over the last 10 years, mathematics faculty at Milton have collaborated on an in-house suite of “products” that take “what’s best for the consumer” seriously. Focusing on the math experiences of their consumers—Upper and Middle School students—mathematics department faculty teach, in large measure, with materials they have developed themselves, in lieu of standard texts.
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Championing a Worthy Ideal: No Retreat From Teaching Grammar at Milton

If a student can master the qualities of effective composition—clarity, unity, coherence, concision, correctness and energy—then clear, informative, perhaps even entertaining, communication is the happy, inevitable result. While many schools have retreated from the rigorous consideration of grammar, Milton’s English faculty is still devoted to the pursuit of excellent usage.
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