Matthew M. ’27

I chose Menlo for its sense of community, and focus on every aspect of school. The focus on making students better people, the focus on education, the focus on extracurricular activities, and its focus on improvement for the students and the school itself. 

One of the things I enjoy most about Menlo is the culture of caring for, and supporting others because it creates a positive learning environment for everyone.

 A challenge for me was the homework load because elementary school homework isn’t as rigorous and takes less time than Menlo’s middle school homework. That led to me having to stay up late at night to complete my homework after sporting events and extracurricular things in the evening. As the year progressed I started to learn responsibility with time, and I started managing it much more efficiently, like if I had a long assignment I would do most of it at school so that I had less to do that night.

I have explored baseball, basketball, soccer, flag football, and yearbook. My favorite was probably baseball because I love playing it and it was fun to play with my friends. As well, It was the one thing I was able to get an almost full experience from, since it happened in the spring.

My favorite Menlo class was either art or math. Art because Mr. Hyland encouraged creativity and authenticity, and that made it a really fun class. I also enjoyed math because Ms. Chu always knew how to make us smile and taught math in a creative and effective way.

The thing that makes the community special is, as I mentioned earlier, the emphasis on always caring and supporting other people.

Hometown

Emerald Hills