The reforestation of the MST Garden has been a multi-year educational project that has involved collecting seaweed at a beach, gathering acorn in Arisugawa Park, bundling straw, conditioning the soil and finally planting native trees. The project has included the middle school adolescents on down to the Sunshine gardeners, as well as faculty and parents. Through all the lectures, demonstrations, research and hands-on experience MST may have the largest concentration of forest

All 6th graders in Willow are required to take on a service project. We are a group of four students that are working on a project about reforestation. We each chose one topic that helps us understand environmental issues better. Our chosen topics were: reforestation, deforestation, biodiversity and climate change. We each wrote an essay and we want to share some information with you. Some of you might be wondering what biodiversity is? Biodiversity is all the different kinds

As MST’s “first teacher”, Naoko Kikkawa has guided generations of children over two plus decades in the Sunshine program. She has mentored so many of our teachers over the years. And when she retired from the classroom, Naoko has been our voice of conscience as the Sustainability Lead.  Among the dozens of projects she shepherds are planting a native forest in our Garden, raising awareness of microplastics, introducing non-toxic school materials, coaxing a waste company to co

Is Tomofumi Ito, or Bun as he is known among friends, the most interesting man at MST? We know Bun as the tireless, wise, and joyful facilities wizard, often working weekends, holidays and nights making sure our buildings are safe and repaired. And doing it in style. But before he came to MST, he had traveled the world as an intelligence officer, with stints in beekeeping and drumming and achieving a Guinness record along the way. Most interesting? Most definitely. Edokko Boy

Content note: The following article contains mature references to hardships faced by refugees. My name is Martin Abumba Mkyambe, I was born in 1996 in Fizi, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the youngest of ten children. I was healthy until the age of three, when I contracted poliomyelitis, a serious illness that left my right leg paralyzed. At that time, my country was in the midst of a civil war, which made it extremely difficult for my parents to access proper

Big-hearted Vincent Valdmann cares. The Willow and Ginkgo parent has been involved in many ways to nourish our community and sharpen our vision on making the world a better place for our children.  He has been a vital member of the parent sustainability group, been an important voice in community discussions on the effects of screen time and social media on children through SHIELD (Social Health Initiative for Early Life Development), and has been a vital bridge between MST a

Our ongoing collaboration with Bidii Yetu and MST teachers has been both inspiring and challenging. Through this partnership, we have gained deeper insight into the realities faced by communities working with limited resources—and into the strength and resilience that sustain them. One of the most significant challenges has been resource scarcity . Basic classroom materials such as paper, pencils, crayons, and even natural wood for creating learning materials are not always r

This year for the Willow senior project, we have decided to collaborate with the Bidii Yetu for Change (BYC) community. BYC is an organization that helps make refugees’ experiences better and more comfortable. They are based in Kakuma Camp, the largest refugee camp in Kenya. Our goal for this year is to raise donations for BYC, so that they can afford upgrades and/or materials for their refugees. We decided to host an art exhibition on March 6 to help raise donations for them