Milo Salomone
What is your first memory of Trinity?
I came to the Open House with my family in fifth grade. I remember being very ornery on the drive there: I hated the idea of my parents taking me away from the only school I had ever known. That did not last very long. My parents knew from the moment we wound up in Mr. T's physics lab at Open house that they loved the school. We ended up crashing cars into each other, messing with the sensors, and talking about physics for 45 minutes. I remember feeling that sense of welcome, and almost of intrigue, throughout my sixth grade year.
What classes have you particularly enjoyed? Why?
My top favorites have been Calculus with Mr. Willard and Physics with Mr. Tomassi over the past couple of years. Class is not about just listing out formulas and facts, but creating ways for us to walk through the questions, solving the problems that many great physicists or mathematicians before us worked through. I have gotten to explore beautiful areas of mathematics that I didn't even know existed. Some of my best memories learning math have been talking with Mr. Willard after class about a random question I thought of during class.
What do you think makes Trinity Academy distinctive?
I can say that I have fallen in love with every subject I've taken by being shown the beauty in each of them. I think that this is one of Trinity's biggest strengths. The school really sticks to its ideals of “sense of wonder” and “depth of inquiry” and gives us an opportunity to see the patterns and organizations and nuances in all parts of the world. But the greatest thing that Trinity has done for me has not been to teach me the content of various subjects, but to teach me to dive deeply into everything that I do, and try to find the importance in every little detail.
What have been your biggest challenges at Trinity as a high schooler?
As an eighth grader, I was crushed under the weight of endless homework from Ms. Wegener's Medieval History class… I thought that, in high school, this burden would only get heavier. I hadn’t quite figured out how to get work done. I felt I had to get it done perfectly. I didn’t understand yet why I was doing it. Sometime after ninth grade, when I stopped worrying about getting the homework done and tried to just enjoy it, it got better and I actually did the work faster.
What was your favorite book you read in HL?
There’s a lot I really enjoyed. Each time I’m reading a book, that’s the one I’m most excited about. I really enjoyed how tenth grade Humane Letters combined literature and history. Mr. Gaffney posed a question for the whole course: what is human society, and how can we make it better? All the books could be explored from that angle. Even Pride and Prejudice asks, how do these two people overcome the false views that they have of each other?
What advice would you give to an incoming student (one very much like yourself) about how to get the most out of Trinity?
I was very individualistic for the first half of high school. As a ninth and tenth grader, I hadn’t found my fit yet socially. I identified a lot with my academic abilities and I would show up each day just “to learn.” Now it’s more about coming to school to learn with my peers. I realized learning has always been a group activity. No one person has ever figured out life’s mystery. So my advice would be to figure out how to be part of a learning community.
How have extracurricular activities helped you grow as a high schooler?
I play baseball for Roosevelt High School. Cross country was the only sport I played at Trinity. I loved the feeling of improvement and accomplishment. However, my last year of cross country was the most meaningful one. Coach Todd had been reminding me over the years: “Milo, run with the team.” I wasn’t running that far ahead, but up in my mind, I was up ahead, like I always needed to win. But in my last year, I plateaued at the beginning of the season, and injuries started catching up to me. I realized that just because my own growth stopped, it did not mean that I couldn’t help the team. During the last few weeks of the season, I changed my tactic. We would warm up together, walk to practice together, workout together, talk together. I saw each of them improve massively, even beating me in a race. My goal was to build a family culture on the team.
What’s next for you? What do you hope it will be like?
I have six days to decide where I’m going. Right now, it’s between Colorado School of Mines and the Air Force Academy. I think both would be fun. I’m trying to decide: where will I grow most as a person?
