As China grows in economic power, an understanding of history provides context for the cultural, environmental and trade shifts ahead for the world, said Michael A. Szonyi, this year’s Hong Kong Distinguished Lecturer.

Professor Szonyi is the director of the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies and professor of Chinese studies at Harvard University. During his visit to Milton, he described the global reach of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China’s massive trade plan, as the “largest infrastructure project in human history, by a factor of many.” Current growth rates put China on track to surpass the United States in economic power within the next few decades, Professor Szonyi told students.

Students are back, fully immersed in classes and school life, but only a few weeks ago it was beach, naps and work—lots of work. Many students spent their summer working internships and jobs; sometimes more than one. Here are just a few experiences.

Manciana Cardichon (I), a day student from Boston, and Alex Shih (I), a day student from Newton, interned at Brain Power, a startup in Cambridge that works with Google Glass and other devices to develop apps for kids with autism. They were the only high school students in the office, and Manciana was the only female on the development team. They worked every weekday for seven weeks in July and August.

“Alex and I came in at a prime time in the company’s history, because they were preparing to ship their product to customers in August,” says Manciana. “I worked with Alex to design pages for one of their apps in a game development platform (Unity) that uses C++. I also ran tests on their apps on the Google Glass and ran focus groups to find and fix bugs. I wrote some of their web portal pages in HTML that went live for customers! I enjoyed this because I could see it go live instantaneously. Although I was nervous about fitting in and finding my place at first, everyone was welcoming, treated us like one of the team and held us to the same standards.”

John Albright (I), a day student from Milton, interned for six weeks at the campaign headquarters of Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker. He also interned there last summer. Governor Baker is running for re-election this November.

Every person has the capacity to be heroic, in big or small ways, Upper School Principal David Ball told Milton students during Convocation, a formal School tradition marking the beginning of each academic year.

Recalling acts of heroism by people in wartime and during the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, as well as by those who quietly committed to helping the poor and fighting injustice, Mr. Ball said that kindness, compassion and dedication are the keys to taking action when and where we are most needed.

“Today, before we do anything else, take a moment to look deep inside yourself. When you do, you will find that capacity for compassion, you will find that capacity for kindness, you will find that capacity for courageous action,” he said. “I am convinced that you will find those things in yourselves. And once you do, when you look beyond yourself, you will see in this room 700 people who have, deeply within them, the capacity to do all those things.

Milton’s programming for new students and parents begins on Tuesday, September 4. Opening of school activities are designed to help families start to form an understanding of the community we strive to build, the many people who make up our community, the partnerships and the individual contributions we all make to help form this dynamic learning environment. We know that while new students are surrounded by welcoming faces, they are making their way over unfamiliar terrain.

Our programs in the opening days are geared toward helping everyone get acclimated—to feel confident about who and where they are. These programs are designed by in-house experts—our own faculty and students—who know what being new to Milton feels like and what experiences will be helpful in those first few days. Each person at our School contributes to the Milton environment in big and small ways every day.

For the opening of school schedule, visit the opening of school calendar. Links to your child’s opening of school schedule will also be posted in your myMilton account.

Twenty-one Upper School students traveled to New Mexico with the Community Engagement Program this summer, where they visited Navajo Nation and participated in service projects including working at a local food bank and doing repair work at their host mission, as well as at elders’ homes.

This was the School’s first service trip to New Mexico. The students stayed at the Elim Haven Mission and divided their time between local service opportunities and the Summer Youth Organization, a nonprofit camp co-founded by Milton alumna Claire Opel ’06.

Beginning in May, Class I students went “on project,” spending the weeks before graduation exploring scientific questions, cultural practices, community engagement, career possibilities and artistic endeavors about which they are passionate.

“Senior Projects are an exciting way for students to really explore their passions and interests, or to learn something entirely new,” says Academic Dean Jackie Bonenfant. Often, seniors reveal interests that they hadn’t had the chance to display during their time at Milton.

Numerous Milton students were recognized for their short stories and poetry this year. Senior Jessica Wang’s short story “Child from the Stars” will be published in Hyphen magazine. Founded in 2002, Hyphen is a nonprofit news and culture magazine that tells the stories of Asian America. Jessica began writing the story at the end of her junior year in her creative writing class. She continued working on it over the summer at the Iowa Young Writers’ Studio.

Qualifying among the country’s most competitive math students, Lawrence Kim (IV) recently represented Milton in the highly selective United States of America Junior Mathematics Olympiad (USAJMO).

Lawrence qualified for the USAJMO by scoring high in a series of math competitions. He then sat for the nine-hour USAJMO over a two-day period, where he competed against fewer than 250 other students from the United States and Canada. The test consisted of six questions, for which Lawrence had to present essay-style mathematical arguments, and required him to work in a testing room away from all electronics and outside influences.

Sharing research on topics ranging from the impact of transcendentalism on both the abolition and women’s rights movements to the Iran-Contra affair in the 1980s, 13 student winners of the Bisbee Prize gathered for a discussion and celebration with history department faculty. The students were selected by their teachers for outstanding research on their United States History papers.