Vol. CXXXII · October 10, 2026
This spring, Facilities Services began a construction project, expected to end this November, to replace three failing roofs across the Student Center (Stu). The construction has disturbed some community members, despite efforts to minimize disruptive construction during the school day.
On Tuesday, September 29, Upper School students gathered in the ACC, Goodwin Room, the RSG, and the FMC for a new Latinx and Hispanic Heritage Month event. In a departure from past formats, students pre-selected their preferred assembly from multiple options: a speech and reading by the poet Amy Alvarez; a Masacote Dance workshop; a presentation from English teacher and Latinx Association faculty sponsor Melissa Figueroa; and a panel presentation from the Latinx co-heads Raphael Rufino ’27, Kamila Ruiz ’27, and Victoria Rivera ’27.
In recent years, Milton administrators and Head of School Alixe Callen ’88 have begun laying the groundwork for a fundraising campaign to combat a roughly $1 billion endowment gap between Milton and its peer schools Phillips Academy Andover and Phillips Exeter Academy. Andover’s and Exeter’s endowments stand at around $1.47 billion and $1.65 billion, respectively, while Milton’s is currently $450 million. Given that Exeter and Andover enroll about 1,100 students to Milton’s 750 Upper School students, Andover and Exeter hold about $900,000 more in endowment per student than Milton. Assuming an annual draw of 4.4%, Callen calculated that the two schools “have about $44,000 more per kid to spend” each year. “That’s a significant difference,” she said.
On Friday, September 25, three student groups held the K-12 Mid-Autumn Festival in the FMC: Hallyu, the Korean culture club; Tang, the Chinese culture club; and Asian Society, the Pan-Asian culture club. Celebrated by many East Asian countries, the Mid-Autumn Festival honors traditional harvest and family reunion under the full moon, and falls on the 15th day of the 8th month in the Chinese lunar calendar. “One of our goals was to make the event something the broader Milton community could experience,” Asian Society Co-head Leo Xie ’27 said.
Head of School Alixe Callen ’88 indefinitely suspended the Japan Exchange Trip, effective this school year. The decision to end the roughly 35-person trip, the centerpiece of a partnership-based exchange between Milton and two Japanese schools, stemmed from Callen’s concerns about the trip’s lack of relevance to Milton's curriculum and its financial and personnel costs. “I never want to take away something that students love… [but] I feel like part of what I’m hired to do is to make tough decisions,” said Callen.
During the first week of school, faculty and students adjusted to a new sign-in and sign-out system through the REACH app, previously used only by boarding students or students wishing to participate in off-campus activities. Under the new system, boarding students must check in three times a day, while day students must check in and out each time they arrive and leave campus.
On Thursday, September 10, the Student Activities Association (SAA) organized the annual Quadival, an eight-year-old Milton tradition that marks the beginning of the school year. Quadival featured games, food for students to enjoy on the Quad, and the return of carnival rides after a year-long absence. SAA Board Member Kleshie Manyo-Plange ’28 observed “high all-around attendance” from both upperclassmen and underclassmen.
This year, Forbes Dining Hall has made another step towards sustainability: removing paper products, a change brought about by the adult Sustainability Committee, Sustainability Board, and Forbes Dining Hall. Unlike last year, when paper plates and bowls were readily available in the Dining Hall, this year the only paper items provided are coffee cups. Now, the sole way to bring food out of the Dining Hall is to check out a Green Container.
The following is a transcript of our 23-minute interview with Head of School Alixe Callen ’88, edited for brevity and clarity.
For students who traveled on one of the three exchange programs this month, learning does not have to live in the classroom. On May 19, 21, and 27, students traveled to Spain, France, and Japan, to solidify modern language skills developed at Milton, to explore new cultures, and to deepen connections between Milton and other schools around the world. All programs partnered with local high schools and host families and featured programming that familiarized with local cultures.
On Friday, May 15, and Saturday, May 16, as Milton students attended classes, 620 alumni, from graduation classes every five years before 2021 (e.g., 2016, 1991), arrived on campus for Reunion Weekend, marking the first time in fifteen years that the event has taken place during the school year.
In 1986, lifer Farah Pandith ’86, now a senior fellow on the Council on Foreign Relations, sat stumped in her senior Middle East elective. It was her first day, and Mr. Proctor, the instructor, just handed out a map of the Middle East without any country labels. Pandith’s job was to fill everything in.
On Tuesday, May 19, around 60 students, faculty, and parents gathered in Straus Library to hear from Bisbee Prize winners who shared their U.S. research paper findings, as well as from students recognized for outstanding work in the social sciences as part of the Social Science Forum.
On May 21, eleven Milton Academy Speech and Debate team members and three chaperones boarded a flight to Washington, D.C., for the National Catholic Forensic League (NCFL) tournament, which brings qualifying speech and debate competitors from across the country.
In Upper School Meeting on Monday, May 11, 2026, Upper School Principal Rachel Stone encouraged students to step back from their devices on Tuesdays and instead connect with the broader community. Dubbing the initiative “Take Back Tuesdays,” Stone suggested students keep the dining hall, library, Stu, assemblies, class meetings, and campus walkways phone-free spaces on Tuesdays.
To Classes II, III, and IV,
On May 9, 162 Milton Academy juniors and 62 guests attended the annual Class II Boat Dance, bringing the grade together amid the early stresses of the college admissions process.
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! Is it a robotic bird soaring over campus? This May, Class I students are working on bringing their dreams to fruition through the Senior Project, a month-long capstone experience, free from the confines of traditional academic programming.
On July 1, Associate Director of Admissions and Hathaway dorm parent Chris Lewis ’15 will succeed Anika Walker-Johnson as Director of Residential Life following her departure at the end of the academic year. His appointment—confirmed in a recent Milton family newsletter and announced at Upper School Assembly on Monday, May 4—marks a transition shaped as much by personal history as by institutional need.
On Monday, May 4, 150-200 students, faculty, and community members gathered on the first floor of the Farokhzad Math Center for the Computer Science (CS) Symposium, a mandatory event for all computer science students, with students in a non-level-one class required to present. CS students of all levels, including middle school representatives, presented their work from the year. According to CS teacher May Blair, the Symposium aimed to provide an opportunity for “all of our computer science students… to show off the work they’ve put in this year… that they’re really excited about.”
On Sunday, May 3, eighteen Milton students, faculty, and family members participated in Project Bread’s 58th Walk for Hunger to raise awareness of food insecurity in Massachusetts. At the annual event, 3,500 people walked three miles around Boston Common, raising one million dollars for Project Bread, an organization that aims to provide Massachusetts communities with reliable food sources.
Hi, everybody! Welcome to Rowan’s Report, the column that aims to inform the wider student body of what’s going on with the SGA. We understand that our meetings and responsibilities generally remain a mystery to those beyond our SGA group, and we see a lack of transparency as a big problem considering our job is to represent every student voice. We hope that this section will allow our community to feel included in the SGA effort.
How did you end up in Milton?
On Tuesday, April 28 from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in the Pritzker Science Center, Advanced Science students presented their Design Your Own (DYO) experiments at the Science Symposium to 111 faculty, student, and parent attendees. DYO brainstorming began before spring break, and for their final product, the students needed to “prepare data, [set up a] website for Science Symposium, make the poster, and write a report,” according to Disease Biophysics student Leah Li ’26. At the Symposium, advanced science students Vickie Mao ’26 and HT Xue ’26 shared opening speeches about how they have explored their passion for science at Milton. Afterward, all students orally presented their posters, pasted around Pritzker's walls, to eager attendees.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity while preserving meaning and intent.
