From Talent Show to StuCo—Grant LaMartina Describes his MICDS Journey

At our 2024 Open House on Saturday, October 5, MICDS welcomed hundreds of families to our campus to provide an opportunity for prospective students and their families to learn more about our School. To portray the student perspective, at Open House, senior Grant LaMartina ’25 described what MICDS means to him with the following remarks.

Hello, all,

My name is Grant LaMartina and I am a current senior. I joined MICDS in the fall of 2019 as a seventh grader after attending Community School. Coming into middle school felt daunting with new people, places, and expectations. Furthermore, coming into a school that had grades before seventh grade, and, therefore, previously established friend groups, added a layer of unease to my plate. This internal worrying was quickly resolved, however, before the first day of school even started. MICDS’ Middle School Bridge Program brought me together with other incoming students in the weeks leading up to the first day. We did scavenger hunts to find our classrooms, team-building activities to get to know each other, and training on how to use the new technology we rely on. Beyond this, families already at MICDS reached out and created small groups of both new and returning students to get ice cream together — what better way to bring in new friends than a Maggie Moo’s ice cream cone? Coming into my first day of middle school, to take some iconic first-day-of-school photos, I felt confident I could do everything I needed to both socially and academically. This confidence brought me to join the seventh-grade flex football team which was something I had never played before, but we’ll get into that sport later.

In the weeks after my return from winter break in seventh grade, I had one of my most embarrassing, yet character-building moments. With my mother’s encouragement, I decided to do the Middle School Talent Show. After this, look up MICDS 2020 middle school talent show on YouTube—that chubby kid with a too-short tie on the cover, that’s me. I tap danced, sang, and solidified my reputation with the students as a musical theater lover. Not the best reputation for me to have in my early teenage years. Then, COVID happened, so – let’s jump ahead!

The summer before freshman year, I chose to join the high school football team. Now, as someone who both dances and performs outside of school, joining this was a daunting task. Because of full-day theater camps and rehearsals, I found myself thrown into the extra early, advanced-level weight room lifts with only upperclassmen. This was different from the rest of my underclassman peers who got a more guided workout and the community of one another who were starting something new together. Doing something I never did before, with people bigger than me was again, incredibly daunting. To my surprise, however, when in the gym, these upperclassmen didn’t hang me on the pull-up bar with a wedgie like I expected them to in a cinematic way, but rather began to help me. When the coaches, who were also helpful, were busy, I was able to ask the outside linebacker up to the starting senior quarterback questions on something as simple as the right way to curl a dumbbell. This built into the school year with me. Hearing “What up” or “You ready for practice later” from the senior QB as a nervous, post-online school freshman wandering the halls, was a pretty big deal. Let’s just say the street credit when a senior athlete says hi to you in the first week of freshman year feels pretty good.

These cross-grade connections grew later in the spring with both the musical and baseball season. With baseball, I further grew my community, finding my closest friends in my grade in addition to more friendly faces in other grades that I could give fistbumps to in the hall. Building on this, I joined the school musical. Having danced since the age of three and performed nearly as long in shows, this only felt right. The seniors in the cast gave everyone, even the freshman, a friendly face and countless fun memories. From the disposable camera, the food they brought to late rehearsals, or even the backstage workout challenges we would do, the memories these individuals make have lasted. I keep in touch with these seniors to this day despite only doing one show with them. The relationships with my peers in these different groups of friends have carried with me to this day giving me a group I can always sit with at the lunch table or joke around with in the halls between classes. The interesting part of these social groups (sports and arts), is the cross-over between them. At the performances of all the school shows, the community I have from sports attends and supports the arts by watching every show, usually in the front row with some overly demonstrated enthusiasm to support the bond we have made.

All of this is a testament to the people I am surrounded by and strive to be like in the MICDS community. This trend continued for me as I grew through grade levels—meeting new friends, finding new interests, and building connections with teachers of previous years. Being able to go to the football safety coach and ask what is due in science class tomorrow at the end of practice at 10 p.m. is something truly special. Additionally, teachers connecting on a personal level further solidifies the idea of a school-wide community. A week or so ago, my sophomore English teacher Dr. Hansen asked me about my younger siblings. Just this past Wednesday, my choir director D-Self asked me about my older sister in college and how she was doing.

All in all, the first thing that comes to my mind with MICDS is the supportive and engaged community. Whether it be the comfort of talking to those older than me as a freshman or the accepting nature my peers and I bring as upperclassmen to those just starting, there is an unspoken expectation and visible positive outcome of the student body’s efforts. To expand on this, the teachers, coaches, and administrators throughout MICDS are willing to go out of their way to help every one of us with anything we need. In the words of Coach Menneke, my lineman coach as a freshman: “It’s a great day to have a great day” and to me, it’s always a great day at MICDS. Thank you all for your time.