High School News

From the unconditional love of ashram children, to personal stories of struggle and empowerment, to inspiring leaders working to educate youth and preserve cultures and traditions, the Mount Madonna School seniors who recently visited northern India experienced many enriching moments during their two-week learning journey.

On a recent sunny morning, marine biology students from Mount Madonna School met researchers at Elkhorn Slough near Moss Landing to help count shorebirds, including Snowy Egrets, Short-billed Dowitchers, Greater Yellowlegs, Willets, Spotted Sandpipers, Marbled Godwits, Killdeer, Black-bellied Plovers, Western Grebes, gulls, and many ducks, including Mallards, Red-breasted Mergansers, and Buffleheads.

By Ward ‘SN’ Mailliard, Mount Madonna School faculty

On March 22, thirteen Mount Madonna School seniors will depart on an adventure that will take them half way around the world to New Delhi, India. For the students it will be a significant journey to another culture, where they will experience a society that is far older and quite different from what they are used to: different in language, history, food, religion and social customs. At the same time, it will also be a unique inner journey for each student to discover something about themselves as they engage in the many distinctive experiences and people they will meet on the journey. The students have chosen the name Bodhicitta Project for this journey, meaning “awakening the mind for the good of all beings.”

A new senior honors science course asks students to consider Bioethics as they learn new technology

By Lisa Catterall
Eighth Grade and High School Science Instructor

Last year, I was in the middle of taking a small group of seniors though the College Board AP Biology curriculum. One day, our Biotechnology unit turned into a discussion of Monsanto’s lawsuit against a canola farmer in Canada. The farmer used his own heirloom seeds, but pollen from the farm next-door containing Monsanto’s patented round-up-ready genetic technology blew into his field. Monsanto lawyers successfully put him out of business, claiming he stole their technology.