Milton Academy offers its students a tremendous gift: to try myriad new activities and creative pursuits without pressure or fear, said Nicole Acheampong ’13, the speaker at the 46th annual Laurence S. Persky Memorial Awards. The awards honor the best work in student publications each school year.

“I had a lot of hobbies that I took very seriously,” Acheampong said of her time as a Milton student. “I’ve loved dance since I was young and I performed in the dance concert every year, took a dance elective, and was a member of Milton’s first-ever step team—and I did all of that even though I knew I wasn’t that good at dance or step. I did one of the school plays, in which I had the role of an unnamed old lady, who had maybe two lines. I sang in the gospel choir, and was very happy to sing as part of a crowd—definitely not as a soloist.

“I was OK with not excelling at these hobbies,” she continued. “That was one of my early instincts. If there was a creative activity that I admired, that I wanted to immerse myself in and try out, I did it. Not for the sake of being the best at it, but simply so that I could love it up close.”

“Get comfortable being uncomfortable.” That was one of the many powerful lessons Tonantzin Carmona ’08 shared as part of the 2025 DEIJ Speaker series, where she addressed the Milton community with warmth, humor, and unflinching honesty about her unique journey from Chicago to Milton, and then to the halls of the White House.

Carmona, the youngest and first Latina to serve as special assistant to the president for economic policy on the White House National Economic Council, delivered a deeply personal and motivating talk about her life, her work, and the values that have guided her along the way. She is currently a fellow at the Brookings Institution focusing on wealth inequality, financial technologies, and policy implementation.

Carmona was born and raised in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood, which she describes as “ one filled with some of the hardest-working people I’ve ever met. Inspiring people who had left their home countries to try to live out the American dream, to try to do amazing things for their families.” 

This neighborhood also had its challenges, including  inequities and public safety issues.  “ Because of that, I was always home, and I was always reading. I was learning about the world through books because I wasn’t allowed to leave my house. I think it was that which sparked my curiosity, and I absorbed as much as I possibly could,” she said.