The MA Competencies

Students at MA develop the intellectual and creative toolkit to live life to its fullest.

Profound changes in the workplace and in the social fabric demand additional fluencies in problem solving, collaboration, and global citizenship. We have developed a deeply researched understanding of the competencies that students will need to lead and thrive in a rapidly evolving world.
 
Every facet of an MA education is designed to help students develop these five core competencies:

How do we do it?

To assist our students in developing and strengthening these competencies, our program—academic and co-curricular—focuses on the following:

students writing at table

Critical thinking is a mode of engaging with any content in an analytical and reflective way, where the thinker seeks to understand through an expansive examination of the subject’s or problem’s existing characteristics and larger contextual relationships.

Read More about Critical Thinking
Intellectual Challenge

Intellectual challenge encourages students to cultivate their curiosity; to take risks with their thinking and to learn from failure and perseverance; to open up new perspectives and possibilities; to focus on how to find an answer more than what the presumed right answer may be.

Read More about Intellectual Challenge

Students get personal

student talking into microphone at podium

 

MA seniors have the chance to reflect on their time at MA in a senior speech shared with the entire student body. Every speech ends with specific appreciation for the teachers and students that have shaped that senior’s experience. And a few tears often are shed as students consider what their time at MA has meant in their journey to becoming compassionate citizens of our world.

We are not simply preparing a student for a particular stage in life, but our education is  for life. From that point of view, we imagine that we are educating students to be collaborators, to be leaders, and to be people who care about making the world a better place.

Travis Brownley
Travis Brownley, Head of School