Seal Harbor, Maine

On Tuesday nights, our advisor group goes to my advisor’s house on campus where he and his wife always have some kind of wonderful homemade dessert waiting for us, and we just sit around the fireplace in his living room and talk: A couple weeks ago we got into a lengthy discussion about the slow foods movement and how it could work in school dining halls. Once, he and his wife even took our advisor group of seven Hallowell girls to his place in Maine for a weekend. It’s great having an adult at school who knows you really well and who is involved with the “whole you”—your school work, extra-curriculars and dorm life. Your advisor helps you balance everything.

Milton, Massachusetts

I had never done acting before. Then, in the transition program [summer program to introduce students to Milton academics] Mrs. Jean Baptiste gave us some basic training. She said I should try out for the Class IV play. I did, and I happened to get a major role, and I’ve been acting ever since—from Auntie Mame in Class IV to Murder in the Cathedral last fall.

Acting in Improv Club has given me some of my other favorite moments at Milton. This year we took this club to what I’d call the varsity level. We made it a weekly club, open to everyone, and we teach whoever wants to learn how to do improv theatre. Several of us practice outside of the club meetings, though, and perform at the Beatniks [Beatnik Cafes: studentorganized, weekend performance events]. You don’t really need skill, but you need to let yourself take a risk, open yourself to the audience, and trust the team members you’re working with. I love it when the whole room is laughing; everyone loves improv.

Hong Kong

I was with the swim team in Philadelphia for a national swim meet. After three days of hard swimming and competition, we settled down on the last day to eat Chinese food, take pictures and enjoy each other’s company. During my four years of swimming before coming to Milton, I’d never had a chance to share a similar moment with other swimmates. We’re a close team, and we can count on each other.

New York, New York

I was at a friend’s house and read his local paper and found out that a senior, someone I see everyday, was a world class ice dancer. Another girl, an intellectual—you might think that was all there was—she is nationally ranked in archery. When I was looking for people to play in my band, there were all these random people everywhere who played guitar, or base, or whatever: Milton has so many people who are really, really good at one or two things. I love that you can be really artsy, and go all out with arts, or be really into sports and go all out with sports. Or you can, like me, do both. I remember being on a soccer bus, going to a game, and half the team began singing one of my songs that I had just played at Beatnik the night before. They appreciated the arts side and liked the song. I wouldn’t do anything to change the balance at Milton.

Boston, Massachusetts

I’m on varsity lacrosse now, but one of my favorite Milton moments happened before I was even on the team. We were tied for first place in the league and the game to decide the lead was huge, so the whole school went out to watch. It was so close; we ended up going into double overtime. We scored in overtime, and won, and the Milton students stormed the field. It was great.

I also play football, and Coach Mac coaches my football team. He’s a truly great coach and a great guy. He really cares about kids, football and sportsmanship. For instance he hates it when we, or anyone else, runs up the score. He always has the attitude: be tough, knock them down, but then extend a hand and help them back up.

Chicago, Illinois

Academics are important to me and my family. That’s one of the major reasons I came to Milton, and I haven’t been disappointed. The discussions in class are amazing, like one we had in World History the other day. We were looking at a Mercator projection of the world. That’s a flat map that shows countries based on the divisions of longitude and latitude, and it ends up distorting the true sizes of countries. It makes Greenland look much bigger than India. Another student said how these maps—where countries look larger or smaller than they really are—have been convenient for world politics. That started a really interesting discussion, and Mr. Pollans let us take it where it was going. It’s good to talk through an issue when one comes up.

Key Biscayne, Florida

In all of my classes, the students sit around the table looking in at each other. In my English class we were reading Steinbeck’s East of Eden, but my teacher wasn’t telling us what to think. She led us as we taught each other. Every single one of us around the table had an opinion; together we discussed themes of trust and good and evil.

I love Milton. It’s tough, it’s challenging and it can throw you off your feet sometimes, but you’re always learning through the amazing people around you. Being here is an experience I can’t imagine missing.

Brookline, Massachusetts

In Seussical, I experienced energy like I’d never felt before. We had a full house and got a standing ovation for every performance, which was interesting because the show didn’t do well on Broadway. I think that the performing arts are strong here because of the faculty and their direction. Last year, I had a tiny part in The Rivals. I think I had just one line – but Mr. Peck treated me like an important part of the cast. Milton faculty encourage students. They “call back” students who’ve never auditioned before: They give students the confidence to discover they have talent. They also strive to do challenging plays. My favorite role was as Gertie in Lot’s Daughters.

Brooklyn, New York

One of my most memorable Milton moments was my very first wrestling match. It was my first time competing in the sport and I was on junior varsity. Of course, as my luck would have it, I was matched up with the one monster person; he quickly came within one point of beating me. I got him down three times in a row, and then pinned him and won the match. It was my “Remember the Titans” moment—it was awesome. Coach Hales brought us all in and was just so proud of me. He told everyone that was the kind of spirit we needed to have as a team; he said he’d never been more proud at a match than he was at that moment. That was one of my best moments here.

Earlier on in the year, when I had first come to Milton, we made a dorm trip into Boston. I was a new kid thrown into a city I’d never been to with people I didn’t know—pretty intimidating. And I’ll never forget—Ned Littlefield, one of the seniors in my dorm, came up to me and asked me if I wanted to go with him into a hiphop store in Harvard Square. I did, and the gesture meant so much to me. Ned’s one of my best friends to this day.

Greenbelt, Maryland

One of my best moments was my first year, being in the dance concert. I was in the dance that opened the show, and seeing the curtain go up with the entire school sitting in the audience was just…wow. I was nervous, but it was so amazing to think that everyone in the audience was there watching and supporting us. They were so excited to be there, even the people who didn’t necessarily know that much about dance—they just wanted to be there to cheer us on and show their support. It was such an awesome feeling.

Another great moment was at last year’s basketball game against our archrivals. Everyone was in the stands cheering on the team—the two schools were all chanting back and forth. There was so much energy and everyone was so into it. I think the enthusiasm of the fans really makes things happen. That was a fun day.

What helps with my overall success here at Milton is that I really feel like I have a connection with this place and with the people here. I was pulled in by the strong dance program, and the strong academics were an obvious draw, but the connections I’ve made here make it such a great place for me. Whatever you want to do here, Milton will help you make it happen.