Montrose Podcast

Our guest for this episode of Montrose Podcast is bestselling author and pediatrician Dr. Meg Meeker. A leading authority on parenting, teens and children's health, Dr. Meeker has been featured on the Today show, NPR and Psychology Today, and her most recent book is called Raising a Strong Daughter in a Toxic Culture. Recently Dr. Meg gave a talk for the Montrose community as part of the LifeCompass Institute Speaker Series, sponsored by The Elizabeth Schickel Foundation. She joins us to talk more about that topic: The Communication Challenge: How Parents Can Connect with Teens.

Meet Barbara Whitlock, Becky Roberts and Jennifer Bowman: three Montrose teachers who are currently pursuing their Master’s degrees in Character Education at the University of Birmingham, a public research university in the UK. Their studies at the University's Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues are generously funded by the Kern Family Foundation, which supports Montrose's commitment to sharing principles and best practices in character education. Listen in to see what we can all learn from their ambitious approach to continuing education.

In these early days of the much-anticipated new year, how do we deal with everyday life as we live through such turmoil? Being able to talk about our feelings seems like a good place to start. So for this episode, recorded before the events of this new year, we’re talking with Dr. Mark Brackett, author of the New York Times bestseller Permission to Feel: Unlocking the Power of Emotions to Help Our Kids, Ourselves, and Our Society Thrive.

Election night is over. However you voted— and more of us did than ever before— you might be asking yourself, “So now what? Where do we go from here?” In this episode, we’ll talk with members of the History Department at Montrose, where Civics is integrated throughout the History curriculum. In this current climate of widespread division in our nation, and especially against the backdrop of this election, these teachers shed light on the critical importance of having Courageous Conversations and applying historical perspective.

When Montrose Senior Maevis Fahey heard about the crisis in Yemen, she had no idea that she was about to become active in a cause.  "Connecting with empathy," as she says, has enabled her to bring awareness to the plight of the Yemeni people, and to challenge herself and anyone who will listen to put that empathy into action.

Welcome to Season 3 of Montrose Podcast! In this episode you’ll hear highlights from Commencement 2020, a physically distanced, in-person event on the Montrose campus, celebrating this exceptional class as they embark on life after Montrose. Keynote speaker Melanie Francis, Vice President and Chief of Staff in the Office of the CEO at Akamai Technologies and P ‘16, shares her wisdom and encouragement with the graduates. Seniors Sarah Ling and Sophie Kocho also address the audience, sending their classmates forth with hearty laughs, big smiles and thankful hearts.

Welcome to Season 3 of Montrose Podcast! In this episode, Head of School Dr. Karen Bohlin gives us an insider’s view of what it’s like to be opening school in the midst of a pandemic. From the stringent safety protocols to the heightened teacher collaboration to the exuberance of the students, there is certainly more “new” than “normal,” but the Maverick spirit is running strong.

What habits and skill sets do children need to flourish? That’s what our experts have devoted their lives to discovering. Hear what Dr. Marc Brackett, Dr. Karen Bohlin and Louise Dubé have to say about their respective areas of expertise: Social Emotional Learning, Character Education, and Civics Education. The Kern Family Foundation Partners in Character and Educational Leadership (KPCEL) co-Director Dr. Hardin Coleman and colleagues Dr. Ariel Tichnor-Wagner and Deborah Farmer Kris join the conversation as we explore what these areas of learning mean, how they intersect and what makes them vital to our children’s development. 

NPR issued its Podcast Challenge again this year, and Barbara Whitlock’s AP Language and Composition class at Montrose once again answered the call. Earlier this year, these juniors chose the topic of “Breaking Racial Barriers through Courageous Conversations.” It resonates in an amazingly timely way with the extreme racial tensions we’re currently experiencing as a nation.

Like all of their senior class peers, the Montrose Class of 2020 is graduating, but without the traditional graduation that they’ve anticipated. This episode is dedicated to their spirit, their generosity and their joy. Hear from the graduates themselves as well as their grade level mentor, Deborah Farmer Kris.