The balance of training teachers and delivering a high-quality experience for local high schoolers is a core principle of Brown Summer High School, said Associate Teaching Professor of Education Katie Rieser, director of the MAT program. 

“We’re preparing future teachers for real classrooms, and we’re giving students a meaningful and engaging academic experience,” Rieser said. “Those dual goals reinforce each other.”

Lively learning in the classroom

This July, nearly 150 high school students are enrolled in Brown Summer High School. Designed to feel like a traditional school day, the program includes everything from breakfast and morning announcements to switching classes between periods and a midday lunch break.

Students choose two academic courses in subjects like English, math, science or social studies, where learning is hands-on, discussion-based and rooted in real-world issues. This year in English, students read “Patron Saints of Nothing” by Randy Ribay, using the novel to explore themes of identity and family, and creating personal zines to reflect their own experiences. In math, students explored how algebra and geometry appear in nature, designing projects inspired by patterns in the natural world.

In 2024, the half-day program expanded to include optional afternoon enrichment activities, giving students more ways to connect, create and grow. This summer, more than half of the participants took part in offerings like woodworking in the Brown Design Workshop, playing soccer and volleyball in Brown’s athletic facilities, and investigating the math behind mosaic art. 

Laura Snyder, faculty director of Brown Summer High School and an associate teaching professor of education at Brown, said the program offers a rare kind of flexible learning environment that allows graduate students to be innovative in their teaching and gives local high schoolers room to learn in new ways.

“Our curriculum is new every year,” Snyder said. “We’re not tied to state mandates, so we can be more creative and in tune with what students need. Unlike many schools, where there’s only enough time to do enrichment with students who are ahead, enrichment is for everyone here.”

Hope High School English teacher Megan Thoma, who returns to Brown Summer High School as a mentor teacher every other summer, said Brown graduate students quickly build trust and connect with the Providence-area high schoolers. 

“I’m always surprised by the depth of the relationships the MATs build with our students — the kids feel so close, excited and connected to them,” said Thoma, who has mentored master’s students for over a decade. “It’s a special environment for everyone involved, where you can really build community. Students are getting quality, standards-aligned education, but they’re also experiencing fun, engaging learning. I think that’s truly great for our Rhode Island kids.”

While Brown Summer High School draws students from across the state, program leaders particularly seek applications from those in Rhode Island’s urban core — Providence, Pawtucket and Central Falls. 

Pawtucket native Freda Adubofour attended Brown Summer High School in 1991 in the summer before she started high school. The experience left a lasting impact, she said, which is why she encouraged her daughter, Candace, to apply this year.

“I remember meeting a whole array of people from all over the state,” Adubofour recalled. “The teachers were truly wonderful, and what I loved most was how different the classroom atmosphere was from what I’d experienced in K-8. It was alive — there was so much group work and class discussion. Just being on a college campus, having access to those buildings, it was a whole brand-new world and I loved every piece of it.”

A generation later, she sees that excitement in her daughter today. 

“Talking to Candace, I hear that same experience, that same excitement about meeting people from all over,” Adubofour said. “She tells me, ‘Mom, they’re just so smart, and I love having conversations with them and learning from them.’ That exposure is so good for her.”

Learning for all

For the mentor teachers, Brown Summer High School provides an immersive opportunity where they are exposed to new teaching techniques and research-driven strategies they can take back to their own schools, Thoma said. And that collaboration between new teachers, seasoned educators, Rhode Island high schoolers and Brown faculty is exactly what the MAT program is built on, Rieser said. 

“Brown Summer High School is a powerful example of what teacher training should be: it’s human work, and it’s complex,” Rieser said. “That means it has to be built around real decision-making, real collaboration and real relationships. It’s not just MAT candidates learning from Brown faculty. It’s MATs learning from mentor teachers, from high schoolers, from each other — and that exchange flows in every direction. That kind of multi-generational dialogue isn’t just helpful — it’s essential to how we train effective teachers.”

Destiny Disla, a rising sophomore at Hope High School in Providence, said she appreciations that aspect of Brown Summer High School.

“The teachers here are incredibly open-minded,” Disla said. “If a student proposes a different way to do something, they genuinely reconsider it, viewing it as a valuable opportunity for everyone to learn.”

Disla said she’s enjoyed the hands-on science lessons and the chance to sharpen her writing skills. But what has struck with her most extends well beyond the classroom. 

“The biggest takeaway for me is the importance of trying new things and welcoming new experiences,” she said. “Brown Summer High showed me how to step out of my comfort zone and grow.”