Volume 50 Number 3
Menlo School, Atherton, California
Friday, February 2, 2024
The Coat of Arms Serving Menlo’s Upper School Since 1973
by AMELIE GIOMI
Whether it’s dissecting a cow heart, sequencing DNA from the Biotechnology Research classroom, culturing mammalian cells in the cell culture facility or harvesting glowing proteins, wet labs are a crucial part of Menlo’s science curriculum. Yet none of these labs would be possible without the behind-thescenes work of science lab technicians Midori Hosobuchi and Olivia Sidow, a mother-daughter duo. Hosobuchi and Sidow make it possible for students and teachers to perform wet labs safely and effectively in a classroom environment. Hosobuchi and Sidow oversee the lab portion of the Upper School biology and chemistry classes. This multifaceted responsibility consists of setting up and taking down labs on time, advising and training teachers on safety procedures and storing and disposing of chemical waste. Before Hosobuchi started working at Menlo in 2019, teachers had to prepare and set up labs themselves. “You can imagine how much work that would be for teachers and how difficult that would be for science teachers versus, say, other teachers,” Hosobuchi said. Sidow,
Hosobuchi’s daughter, was hired in 2020 to help Hosobuchi transform the wet labs into kits that students could take home. The mother-daughter duo could quarantine together during the COVID-19 pandemic and package the
labs to be sent home. Advanced Topics in Biology and Biotech teacher Tanya Buxton is grateful for Hosobuchi and Sidow’s behind-thescenes work. “It’s not just putting out materials into a cart,” Buxton said.
Staff illustration: Amber More and Tatum Herrin
“Oftentimes, it’s making solutions and allocating the different solutions so that students can have it all set and ready to go. They do a lot of testing on the experiments and optimizing the experiments, so by the time it gets to the students, the process will work.” Without the help of Hosobuchi and Sidow, Buxton said that she would not be able to carry out either of her advanced biology classes. Hosobuchi spent a total of 48 hours preparing a lab with fruit flies for AT Biology. Hosobuchi, a former Middle School teacher, left teaching because she wanted to use the laboratory knowledge that she learned while earning her Ph.D. in molecular and cellular biology. In this position, Hosobuchi uses her laboratory research skills to advise teachers and students while also helping improve the curriculum for biology classes. She also supports independent projects in the Biotech class, and even manages a cell culture facility in the Whitaker Lab. While Hosobuchi helps primarily with the nine biology classes, Sidow works with the chemistry classes and Anatomy and Physiology class.
Lab Assistants, pg. 19
Alum Runs for Local Congressional Seat by JACOB REICH
From serving in Afghanistan and Iraq as an intelligence and infantry officer in the Marines to working in the State Department battling cartel and gender-based violence, Menlo alumn Peter Dixon (‘01) is no stranger to tackling complex challenges. Now, Dixon is running for Congress in California’s 16th Congressional District, which includes Menlo. The seat has been held by the retiring Anna Eshoo for over 30 years. Dixon was born and raised in the Bay Area, and growing up in the startup capital of the world helped form Dixon’s entrepreneurial spirit. “When you grow up in Silicon Valley, you learn — really at a young age — that if you have transformative ideas, you’re able to leverage technology, build a team around it, assemble the necessary resources and are tremendously persistent, you can have world-changing outcomes,” Dixon said. Dixon, who served as co-editor in chief of The Coat
What’s Inside?
of Arms, joined Menlo School in seventh grade with his three siblings following soon after. He remembers his time at Menlo fondly. “Menlo really creates all these different pathways for people to explore what they’re passionate about, [...] whether it’s working in a maker space or working in journalism, or all of these different [avenues],” Dixon said. After graduating from Menlo in 2001, Dixon attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he majored in political science. During his time at UNC, he was the vice president of the organization Carolina for Kibera, an organization that aims to improve the health and economy of settlements in Africa.
Alum on the Ballot, pg. 2 Peter Dixon, then a first lieutenant in the Marine Corps, speaks at Menlo during an assembly on Nov. 5, 2012. Photo courtesy of Pete Zivkov
SPORTS
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Menlo Sports Spring Into Action
My Dyslexia Does Not Define Me, but It Is a Part of Me
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