Mount Prospect Academy Students and Faculty put their best foot forward in last week’s community football game. The mixed teams of students and faculty held their Fall Flag Football Tournament in classic New Hampshire style on semi-wet but cool autumn day to the cheers of onlookers. Four teams competed for more than 3 hours for the coveted right to be called “Champions” of the gridiron.

The day began with- what else!- a Cookout!

MPA Faculty prepared and served food to the competitors in anticipation of the games beginning.

Teams organized their game-plans and students were briefed on the behavioral expectations for the day.

Before the matches started, special emphasis was placed on ensuring and reinforcing the need for maintaining proper sportsmanship, respectful inclusiveness, and the importance of teamwork.

The MPA Flag Football Tournament was designed to be an exercise in healthy competition and teamwork.

MPA faculty and students huddled up before each play, students and faculty subbed in-and-out providing stability and balanced playtime for all the participants.

Intentionally sharing and rotating positions, designing plays, ‘coaching’ each other as to fellow players strengths, and working together to talk through best team defensive and offensive strategies meant the day was therapeutic, educational, and enjoyable.

MPA programs continue to encourage outdoor activities that build on the knowledge that exercise can help reduce stress and anxiety, improve mood, boost self-esteem, enhance cognitive function, and reduce symptoms of depression.

By the end of the tournament the outward displays of comradery and cooperation made the event a W-I-N for all.

A ‘Sweet’ Ending to the day at the Ice Cream Bar!

Last month seven Mount Prospect Students from Ashuelot Valley Academy in Keene applied their classroom instruction in an innovative and enjoyable way. The challenge over a three (3) week instructional period was to successfully construct a solar car and be able to enter the car in a performance race. It was a chance for students to exhibit both their mastery of the technical and construction skills they acquired as well as to showcase their weeks of hard work and determination.

The applied science project focusses on building real-world STEM skills.

The lesson and the project create opportunities for problem solving, creativity, and critical analysis.

Students first built their models and ran battery packs in class. They analyzed the data derived from the tests and troubleshot all kinds of problems including why several cars turned drastically, the varying speeds of the runs, the physical dimensions and environment factors that may have affected the results. Chassis needed to be rebuilt due to alignment or friction on the wheels. Data from trial runs were compared and design decisions were made.  This required some coaching for the students to use their observation skills. The races were held on a smooth, flat basketball court in town, a straight-line course of 56 total feet. The fastest time came in at 5.19 seconds.

“I was very impressed with the fact that no one gave up and there was minimal frustration,” stated MPA Faculty member Chris Flood.  Flood was very proud of the students for persevering [through a lengthy project] and plans to continue to develop lessons and instruction that will encourage the students’ success in the STEM field.

This summer, six Mount Prospect Academy students from the Ashuelot Valley Academy School (AVA) in Keene, NH participated in an equine program at Cooper’s Crossroad Elm Farm. The program, G.L.O.W.E. (Growing, Learning, and Overcoming With Equines) was designed to assist students to gain a better understanding of horses, general horse care, and offered them the opportunity to interact collaboratively with their peers while immersed in a real farm setting. The program, designed by Erin Ballard, teaches and empowers all participants on equine welfare and management as a way to provide them the tools for a future career working with horses.

The eight sessions were entitled: Teamwork and the 5 Freedoms; Horse Communication: How We and Horses Communicate; Horse Anatomy and Conformation; Compassionate Horse Care; Parts of Tack and Riding; Problem Solving and Adapting to Challenges; and Chores.

At the end of each hour-long session, time was put aside for the students to reflect in their journals on the day. Internship Coordinator Annie DiSilva explained that she had the opportunity to hear how the program was influencing the students individually.  Reflecting on those moments, Coordinator DiSilva stated “it was a pleasure for me to observe the teamwork, the joy shared, and the positive self-esteem developed” by the experience.

Students shared their hopes, fears, and feelings in the journals. The overwhelmingly positive results of the student’s G.L.O.W.E. program experience shows the therapeutic value of interacting and caring for animals. One student wrote how, “although they were having a horrible week in which absolutely nothing was going right, because they attended the program and were around the horses, they were leaving the stables happy and with a smile”.  Another student took the time after the graduation ceremony to thank each of the horses, as well as the volunteers for helping him face his fears [of the horses] and could not wait to get “back in the saddle”! A third student shared that “although she is not a “people person”, she realized that she is a horse person and asked for an internship at one of the horse farms and would ask her father to let her take horse lessons.

A Graduation Ceremony marked the end of the program during which each of the MPA (AVA) students received personal awards acknowledging their compassion, commitment, and participation. By the last day, AVA students Chloe and Shade were all smiles as they mounted and rode their new equine best friends “Findlay” and “Faith” one final time.

On Friday, July 19th, 2024, MPA Faculty and Administration hosted an Awards Ceremony to celebrate students who made the 4th Quarter Honor Roll and High Honors. More than a dozen MPA Plymouth Cohort students were acknowledged for their commitment to their academics and their outstanding effort. The students represented were from a range of grade levels and programs.

At MPA, academic excellence is but one of the byproducts of the accumulations of everyday actions, thoughts, and lessons that go far beyond the classroom. The gaining of an award can easily be seen as a purpose rather than a byproduct of hard work.

For Mount Prospect Academy these awards are a recognition of the fact that such individual achievement is equally a reflection of support and teamwork provided by those who may be showing them a way forward in other parts of their lives.

Principal Micheal Sullivan, along with MPA Faculty members Erika Eastman, Megan Blais, and Meagan Nelson honored each student independently emphasizing their unique attributes along with their scholastic achievements.

From the multiple Mount Prospect Academy programs throughout New Hampshire, this year’s graduates totaled seventeen (17). As a group they are diversified by age, gender, ability, personality, hopes, desires, and dreams. Yet together they are united by maturity and determination, confidence, and adaptability. They arrived together on these graduation days having emerged from personal hardships, overcoming adversity, and risen above learning difficulties to don the vibrant blue “Cap and Gown” of Mount Prospect.

One keynote speaker, the famous skiing personality Dan Egan, told attendees of his life’s great successes, and of his great personal struggles. He explained to the graduates that life’s “path for most is hardly ever straight”, but to seize life, “to take chances on their hopes and dreams, to be relentless in reaching their goals.” In a message that resounded with those assembled, he urged graduates to always continue to move forward and make life something worth pursuing, no matter the twists and turns that may appear.

Another speaker, a recent Mount Prospect graduate, made clear the value of their achievement at Mount Prospect Academy. His candid, deliberate, and personalized message to the graduates was that “we are normal.” He emphasized that while MPA schools are different, and the students’ individual challenges can be unique – they are not dissimilar to the experience of any number of teens. In his view, the steadfast connections with staff, the opportunity to focus on both his academics and his well-being, plus the small class sizes and creative learning pathways offered at MPA were the keys to his current success.

In their time at MPA the graduates of 2024 left their mark. MPA Faculty spoke compassionately of the students as individuals. They spoke of the graduate who saved their money to collect sneakers, and the graduate who had a sweet tooth for gourmet chocolate- of the graduate who was a “people person” and conversationalist, to the graduate who enjoyed the great freeing feeling of ice skating. They spoke of the graduate who could repair anything mechanical that had been broken, and the graduate whose painting and drawing abilities led him to design and direct a school-wide art lesson. They spoke of the graduate whose writing ability was distinct from a young age, and who had just recently completed an Advanced Placement Course in Writing at UNH. They spoke of another whose motivation had led to them graduating early, and they spoke of those graduates who found purpose showed and integrity by offering support to their schoolmates that were struggling.

From the north campuses of Pike, Plymouth, and the Karen Langley Learning Center, of the twelve graduates, many have already entered the workforce while students, others are enrolled in Automotive and HVAC Tech Programs, and one will be attending Plymouth State University in the fall.

From Ashuelot Valley Academy, Keene, of the four graduates, two have plans to pursue careers in the medical field, another in construction, and the last graduate plans to use their artistic abilities to open a tattoo studio.

From Squamscott River Academy, Hampton, the graduate will be attending UNH to study Criminal Justice and Psychology.

For each, their time at MPA is noteworthy for the special talents found and nurtured in a safe supportive environment where their pasts may linger but their life began to blossom.

MPA Principals and Directors noted that while the MPA graduates of 2024 have built the ‘hard’ skill sets applicable to ensure independent living, career readiness, and/or to continue formal educational pursuits, they have also shown themselves to have acquired the ‘soft’ skill sets that bring an important social-emotional balance to their lives. “They have learned social skills, to express and manage their feelings and emotions, to develop and maintain caring relationships, and to begin to understand and create their own identities.” One last time, they told the graduates of the need to stay true to themselves and to be diligent in their efforts beyond the boundaries of Mount Prospect Academy.

The connectivity and sense of community forged by the graduates with their schools was self-evident to any observer of the ceremonies. The mixture of tears and smiles from fellow students, the lingering hugs from MPA Faculty, and the emotional and enthusiastic reactions from siblings and families was an inspirational reminder for those in attendance of the journey each graduate took to get here this day.

We wish the Mount Prospect Academy Graduates of 2024 the greatest luck in all their future pursuits, knowing that their time with us, however brief, was time well spent, the goals achieved, and the dreams created.

CONGRATULATIONS to the Mount Prospect Academy Graduates of 2024!!!