Name: Rachael Thrash
MAT Graduation Year: 2002
Current Position: Senior Director of Education & Innovation, Big Bad Boo Studios, Author of Let the Learners Lead: Empowering Student Voice to Co-Create School Culture

Looking back, what was the most memorable or impactful part of your experience in the MAT program?

The most impactful part of the MAT program was how it pushed me to question many of the accepted practices I had experienced as a student and had even unconsciously begun to replicate in my early years of teaching. I cringe when I think about the group work I assigned and graded unfairly, or the quizzes that simply showed whether students had listened to me, not whether they had formed their own ideas. The program helped me recognize how traditional structures can harmfully limit young people, not only in how they learn, but in how they see themselves.

Can you share a specific moment, project, or lesson from the program that has stuck with you throughout your career?

My participation in the Arts Literacy Project at Brown, a program that wove together literature analysis with students’ personal interpretation through collaborative, public performance, set an incredibly high bar for my teaching.

ALP units invited young people to connect text directly to their identities and emotions, motivated by the validation and challenge of sharing their work publicly. That level of engagement and purpose has remained a North Star for the kinds of learning experiences I strive to create.

My former students could tell you about the art exhibits we’ve put up in public cafés, poetry events where they’ve stood up to perform their own work, or reinterpretations of Macbeth that connect Shakespeare to modern power and politics. These opportunities to trust learners to do something slightly audacious have led to some of the most memorable moments in my career. I recently ran into a former student I taught in 2004 who could still recite a jingle she had written for a class project, something that had stayed with her all these years.

Transformative learning must begin with the individual, propelled by a challenge juicy enough to require risk, support, and growth.

What have you been doing professionally since graduating, and how has your career evolved over time?

Since graduating, I’ve worked across a range of educational contexts: internationally at the American School of Warsaw, in the U.S. at a community college in southern Maine, and in an independent school where I built enrichment programming. I later served as a senior leader at the International School of Helsinki, overseeing advisory, student connection, service, and leadership while teaching Language & Literature.

I’m currently the Senior Director of Education & Innovation at Big Bad Boo Studios, where we support schools globally and children in post-conflict settings in developing human-centered skills, helping them become engaged citizens and thriving learners.

Most recently, I’ve brought my ideas about student agency and culture building together in my book, Let the Learners Lead, which explores how schools can move beyond performative models of student voice to truly co-create more inclusive schools with young people.

Which skills or lessons from the MAT program have been most valuable to you in your career, and how have you applied them?

The most valuable lesson I took from the MAT program is that the learner’s experience is far more significant than the teacher’s objectives.

One of the most important questions I learned to ask, especially when a student was disengaged or struggling, was: What am I not doing? How is my approach missing the mark for you? That stance came directly from the modeling at Brown, and it’s a powerful way to invite students into the learning.

Whether in the classroom, designing professional learning, or building programs, I’m always asking: What is the intended impact, and how do we know if it’s happening? How can we work collectively to improve outcomes? That mindset continues to guide my work.

What changes have you seen in the field of education since you graduated, and how do you think the MAT program prepared you to adapt?

There’s nothing as significant as the rise of AI. It’s forcing the field of education to finally confront how formulaic and reductive traditional approaches have often been. I recently heard AI described as “the tyranny of the explicable.” It can reproduce patterns and knowledge, but it cannot replicate the uniqueness of a human learner. That makes it more essential than ever that education emphasizes human-centered skills.

The MAT program prepared me for this shift long before it arrived by emphasizing personalized, meaningful learning. The work of an educator is not content delivery; it’s in helping each learner develop their own voice, perspective, and capacity to contribute.

What’s one piece of advice you’d give to someone considering applying to the program today?

Be prepared to think deeply and in constant dialogue with your cohort. The program will challenge you to unpack your assumptions about learning, success, and what school is meant to be.

I had the unique experience of going through the MAT program with my husband, and that shared foundation has led to 25 years of ongoing conversation about the purpose of education, how to approach it, and how to design systems that truly serve learners. Those conversations would have been far less meaningful without that common grounding.

Even though it’s just one year, it’s a catalyst. It will fundamentally reshape how you approach your work and where you believe you can have impact.