MMS Senior Capstone Project: Raising Funds for CMIA in Jos, Nigeria
Hello!
My name is Aimee Hopkins, and I am a senior at Mount Madonna School. I am working to raise money for a school in Africa, named Creative Minds International Academy, for my Capstone Project this year. The school is in Jos, a very poor part of Nigeria. The founder and principal of CMIA, Emmanuel Ivorgba, has incorporated Values-based education in his school to teach universal human values, such as compassion and kindness, to his students. He has also worked to stop the practice of violent consequences traditionally practiced in most schools as punishment for unsatisfactory student behavior. Mr. Ivorgba also works to end tensions between Muslims and Christians.
Dr. Yong Zhao, an internationally known scholar, author and speaker, will be the featured presenter at an upcoming public lecture in Aptos. Dr. Zhao, author of more than 100 articles and 20 books, including Catching Up or Leading the Way ; American Education in the Age of Globalization and World Class Learners: Educating Creative and Entrepreneurial Students will be addressing an audience of parents, educators and others interested in the topic of education trends and innovations.
Cabrillo engineering student, Eric Wells, met with Mount Madonna School (MMS) math and science teacher PD Rohan and MMS 6th grade students and their families at the Watsonville Wetlands Watch Open House on Sunday, Nov. 4. Wells shared with the MMS group about building burrowing owl nests as part of his Eagle Scout project.. The students who attended were reminded of the Western Burrowing Owl, a bird which their class focused on for their award-winning “Give A Hoot” project last year.
Mount Madonna School (MMS) students Milana Beck, 5th, Riley Butler, 6th, and Amelia Busenhart, 8th, will be dancing in Santa Cruz Ballet Theatre’s (SCBT) upcoming production of the “Nutcracker,” December 14, 15, and 16 at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium. 
Gazing out from the stage in the school’s Assembly Room, thirteen second grade students stand together and collectively ask questions and share statistics with the assembled audience: “Don’t all people deserve enough food to be able to live with health and happiness?”(1).jpg)
Mount Madonna School student Brigg Busenhart (7th grade), is featured on the cover of the The Silicon Valley San Jose Business Journal’s 2012/2013 Giving Guide for his work as a Junior Board Member of a small nonprofit, the Tim Brauch Foundation. This foundation oversees The Tim Brauch Memorial Fund and was started by Sessions, a Santa Cruz action sports company co-owned by Brigg’s mother, Cindi Ferreira Busenhart. 
The Mount Madonna School (MMS) Model United Nations (MUN) Club participated in its first meet of the 2012-2013 school year November 9-11 at Stanford University. The current student group is the largest and most participatory delegation MMS has had yet, with fifteen high school students, anchored by senior club mentor Kavi Duvvoori. 
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Mount Madonna School’s current Model United Nations (MUN) contingent is at its largest ever – fifteen delegates, including seven new participants! Club members recently participated in a training session and mock MUN hosted by the University of California, Berkeley.
On a recent sunny morning at Santa Cruz’s Natural Bridges State Beach, some 30 visitors to the beach were Mount Madonna School (MMS) students and parents taking part in LiMPETS (Long-term Monitoring Program and Experiential Training for Students), an environmental monitoring and education program that encourages participation by ‘citizen scientists.’