Since 2004 the M-A PTA has sponsored Challenge Day, a day-long event for the freshman class, both financially and with parent and community volunteers. At the end of the day, the hope is that the students will not only have bonded as a class, but also that the walls of separation will have been torn down, inspiring the students to live, study and work in an environment of compassion, acceptance and respect.

Since 1987, the Challenge Day programs have touched the lives of close to a half-million teens and adults nationwide. In fact, the Challenge Day program was featured on the Oprah show in 2007, in the book Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul, and the Emmy Award-winning documentary "Teen Files: Surviving High School".

Challenge Day is a powerful, high-energy program in which youth and adult participants are guided through a series of experiential learning activities. The overall goals of the program are to increase personal power and self-esteem, to shift dangerous peer pressure to positive peer support and to eliminate the acceptability of teasing, violence and all forms of oppression. The Challenge Day programs are designed to unite the members of the school and to empower them to carry the themes of the program back to the greater school population. For further information on Challenge Day, visit the Challenge Day web site.