Malden High School Archives - Neighborhood View

Growing for Malden: behind the high school community garden that could

May 30, 2023 Bryan Liu 2

By Bryan Liu In an empire of sawdust, a jungle blooms. Malden High School’s makerspace is a warehouse-sized engineering classroom that doubles as a fully-stocked workshop for hands-on STEM-based extracurriculars — but against the windowsill, a row of lush hydroponics sticks out like a sore thumb — a green one. This is where Malden’s Youth Community Garden trains in the off-season. Malden High School Senior, Jadelini Mora, explains that the makerspace is the perfect nursery for plants to mature indoors during the colder months until it’s warm enough for them to be moved into one of 23 planting beds that make up the garden outside. To expand their planting space, the club built a greenhouse in April. It’s somewhere between professional and DIY. The thermal ‘greenhouse effect’ owes its namesake to the sheets of UV-resistant plastic affixed with only a mile of duct tape and several elbows’ worth of elbow grease. The layers of tarp are just translucent enough to glimpse the sun-kissed gloss of green-ish horticulture from a distance. Now the club can garden […]

Lunar New Year in Malden marked with joy and Chinese cultural flair

February 3, 2023 NeighborhoodView 0

By Jinghe Zhong, special to Neighborhood View MALDEN, MA — The Chinese Culture Connection (CCC) held its 14th annual Lunar New Year Celebration at Malden High School on January 14, 2022. For the Asian community in Malden, this was a momentous occasion. The event was finally presented in person after three years, bringing together hundreds of local residents and businesses of diverse cultural backgrounds. A spectacular lion dance performance by Wah Lum Kung Fu & Tai Chi Academy set the festive mood, and Mei Hung, Executive Director of the CCC, was joined by Malden mayor Gary Christenson to officially open the event. The nearly four-hour celebration featured over 20 performing groups and individuals from across the Greater Boston Area. A major highlight was Thousand Hands Guanyin, a large-scale dance performed by the Boston Chinese United Dance Group, whose members range in age from eight to 80. Together, they harnessed the power of dance to raise awareness of the importance of goodwill and selflessness in today’s society. There were also performances by students from the CCC’s […]

One year later, remembering a life cut short: Jaden Brito White

January 4, 2022 Saliha Bayrak 4

At age 18, Jaden Brito White was shot to death outside of his home in Malden. His family and friends describe what it was like to have him in their lives and mourn his loss a year after his death. By Saliha Bayrak Jaden Brito White was known for his contagious laugh, kind heart, and love for his family and friends that he made abundantly clear before his life was cut short on Dec. 29, 2020. Jaden and his mother, Nicole Brito White, would constantly tell each other “I love you” throughout the day, any time one of them entered the room. “I miss walking in the door and hearing ‘Hi mom. I love you,’” Nicole said. Nicole speaks highly of her late son, not only because of a mother’s bias, but because of the countless people in the community who have approached her after his passing and shared stories of how Jaden influenced them. “I realized that he touched almost this entire city,” she said. “He was an honorable person, he was trustworthy. He […]

BIPOC Alumni Detail Difficult Racial Experiences in Malden Public Schools

October 22, 2021 fremedib 1

Six BIPOC graduates tell stories of racial microaggressions from teachers and administration during their years attending Malden Public Schools and offer ideas for improvement. By Fern Remedi-Brown and Kyla Denisevich Students in the Malden Public Schools – a district with one of the state’s largest percentage of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) enrollments – say they have experienced forms of racism that range from incidents of micro-aggression to unsupportive environments to acts of outright prejudice. The reporters who initiated this Neighborhood View article interviewed six BIPOC alumni of Malden Public Schools. In this article, the alumni recount their experiences and offer ideas for an improved environment. The student body in Malden is diverse: 20% African American, 23% Asian, 28% Hispanic, and 24% white. The teachers in the Malden Public Schools are predominately white. There have been as few as six Black educators in the school system at the same time. Representation of the demographics of the students in the staff is important, said the former students. They say that the lack of diversity in the […]

Malden High School students reflect on a year of remote learning

March 28, 2021 Saliha Bayrak 0

By Saliha Bayrak Having a conversation over the lunch table, waving to your friends between classes, sharing excitement over college admission letters — these are some of the things that Malden High School teenagers yearned for as they attended their classes virtually. As Malden High School (MHS) transitions to hybrid learning with a phased process that started the week of March 15, nearly one year after schools switched to fully remote, students look back on all the ways that online learning has impacted their life. Remote learning uprooted the life of teens around the city and forced them to reimagine what their high school experience will look like. Now they ponder on how they will move forward. Sheilly Patel, a senior at MHS, worries that she may miss some of the big milestones of high school such as senior prom and graduation. But she also misses the small activities that accompanied going to school in-person. Patel says that she often finds herself “missing that kind of little social things that happen in between classes,” and […]

Malden hosts 8th Annual New Citizens Ceremony

December 6, 2018 annedr 0

“I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom, or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen … “ So begins the Oath of Allegiance that is recited at every Naturalization Ceremony for new citizens of the United States. These ceremonies can take place in nondescript federal office buildings, large convention centers or symbolic places like Ellis Island, a national park, or a national historic site. But here in Malden, there is an annual tradition of naturalization, begun in 2011, and spearheaded by The Immigrant Learning Center, Inc. (ILC). The annual ceremony was first held at the Malden Senior Community Center, but has since moved to Malden High School. On Nov. 19, 2018, the annual ceremony naturalized 171 new citizens, who filled the center section of rows in the Jenkins Auditorium. “This ceremony allows us to make an important contribution to our community,” said Diane Portnoy, ILC Executive Director. “Even though more than one-third of Malden […]

Events

Enough: Malden High walks out to advocate for gun control

March 22, 2018 gshamlinmatv 0

A day later than anticipated, but with no less enthusiasm, students from Malden Public Schools walked out of class on Thursday, March 15, to highlight the need for action in the wake of the tragic shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Feb. 14. At about 10 a.m., students assembled in front of the entrance to the high school’s Jenkins Auditorium and heard speeches by fellow students. The walk-out was originally scheduled for Wednesday, but due to snow, the schools were closed. Thanks to social media, student organizers regrouped and held the walkout on Thursday. Angela Soliz, a junior and one of the event organizers, told her fellow classmates that the NRA’s influence was in fact making them all unsafe. “What about the right to live?” she asked. Meghan Yip, a senior and also one of the event organizers, said her life can be measured by the mass shooting at schools. She turned 18 on March 1; she noted that two weeks prior, while Malden was sharing Valentine wishes, 17 lives were […]

Malden Reads kickoff celebrates reading, collaboration and community

March 7, 2018 annedr 1

For the first time in the eight-year history of the Malden Reads program, the 2018 kickoff event was held at Malden High School on Feb. 15. Usually staged in the Converse Memorial Building of the Malden Public Library, the kickoff emphasized the intergenerational nature of the book choice, The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, a young adult novel that can be enjoyed and appreciated by all ages. The Malden Reads committee collaborated with the student-run Black Culture Club at Malden High School to host an event that was inclusive and celebratory as well as profoundly moving, challenging and inspiring, which reflected the book’s topical themes. “One of the things that I think is really exciting about this joint venture between Malden Reads and the high school is the way it’s showcasing student voice and issues that are relevant to students, starting some great conversations among students, educators and community members,” said Sean Walsh, Malden High School English teacher and Drama Director, who was involved in the collaborations. The event featured exhibit tables from a […]

Malden High School Students vow “Never Forget” at New England Holocaust Memorial

September 30, 2017 NeighborhoodView 0

By Lori Ardai and Fern Remedi-Brown with editorial assistance from Marilyn Andrews Just after school began this fall, Malden High School students received a lesson about history — a lesson in how to keep history alive. The lesson began with a painful reminder of prejudice. Twice this summer the New England Holocaust Memorial was vandalized. Each time, one of the panes of glass with numbers representing the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust was shattered. Many Malden High School students expressed concern and dismay over both acts. Their concern was heightened by the timing of the second act of vandalism on Aug. 14, which followed the violent events in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the report that the alleged perpetrator was a 17-year-old Malden male. This infuriated many students of all cultures. The vandalism quickly became a subject of discussion for both the History Club and the school newspaper, The Blue & Gold. The students decided that they needed to take action. So a group began working with Greg Hurley, lead history teacher at Malden High School, […]

Wonder where she came from?

August 17, 2017 jlynnmcclain 3

By Jennifer McClain She has one foot in the past and one foot in the future. Her past is a combination of Greek myth and Amazon speculation. Her future is traveling three thousand per hour on an invisible plane, wielding a “magic lasso” that non-violently compels obedience and she uses science for medical healing. Wonder who she is? Wonder Woman — the super heroine who debuted in DC Comics in 1941, who had her own TV show from 1975-1979, and who took theaters by storm this summer in a blockbuster movie. But who was her creator? He was also a man with one foot in the past and one foot in the future. His past was as a student of the Malden High School. Did he possibly study mythology in one of his classes? His future was “to fight for liberty & freedom for all women kind” through Wonder Woman. He watched the suffragists and used their imagery in his stories. He knew Margaret Sanger when she was a proponent of birth control and still […]