MAS Releases Its Graduate Profile, a One-Page Portrait of the Student Journey

Before a student walks across a graduation stage, before a cap sails into the air, before the next chapter begins, a school must answer a demanding question: What is this young person prepared to carry into the world?

At Mission Achievement and Success Charter School, that question now has a one-page answer.

The MAS Graduate Profile, just now released as a visual infographic, gives families, students, educators and community partners a shared picture of the kind of graduate MAS develops from the earliest grades through high school. The profile names the abilities, habits and mindsets MAS believes students need to succeed at life long after they have left the classroom.

The profile describes graduates who can recover from setbacks. It speaks of students who are now prepared for college-level work and post-secondary choices. It honors curiosity, collaboration, cultural identity, and civic responsibility.

For families hearing the phrase “Graduate Profile” for the first time, the notion might sound technical. At MAS, it means something much more direct. The Graduate Profile answers a question every parent asks: What will my child be prepared to do after graduating from this school?

A Shared Vision for Life After MAS

A Graduate Profile paints a clear portrait for the community of exactly what it is that students should have knowledge of and be able to demonstrate by graduation. New Mexico has made this work part of a larger statewide effort through the New Mexico Public Education Department (NMPED), which has provided guidance for schools as they build profiles rooted in local communities.

The guidance asks schools to define competencies that reflect their students, families and local context. It also encourages schools to bring community voices into the process in order for the finished profile to grow from lived priorities rather than administrative language.

And MAS has followed that spirit closely.

The school’s Graduate Profile took form through extensive conversations with teachers and school leaders. Parents, business leaders, college and career readiness counselors and other stakeholders also contributed to the work. Together, they helped identify the abilities MAS students need as they continue into college, careers, service, trades, family life and community leadership.

“At MAS, we believe education remains one of the most powerful equalizers available to a child,” said JoAnn Mitchell, Ed.S., Founder and CEO of MAS. “Our Graduate Profile puts that belief into words. It tells our students, our families, and our staff what we are working toward every day: young people who know who they are, understand what they want to pursue and carry the confidence to move forward.”

Rooted in the MAS Mission

The Graduate Profile draws directly from the MAS mission: to empower students to discover who they are, what they want to do and why it matters, through a rigorous college-preparatory program in a supportive learning environment.

That mission has long shaped the school’s approach. MAS places a robust focus on K-12 instruction. Its dual-college credit program gives students early exposure to college-level expectations. Its social-emotional wellness work helps students build self-awareness and resilience.

The profile brings all of these commitments into a single visual framework.

It also reflects MAS’ work with the Choose Love Movement, with teachings that support courage, gratitude, forgiveness and compassion in action, and HeartMath, which offers science-backed techniques and biofeedback technology that helps students understand and control their emotional state, thus leading to improved learning, behavior and overall well-being. At MAS, those ideas appear in classroom culture, student support and the way educators help students manage conflict, stress and uncertainty.

“Our Graduate Profile gives us a shared language for the full MAS experience,” Mitchell said. “It reaches beyond academics because students need more than content mastery. They need emotional strength, self-knowledge, and the ability to make choices that reflect their values.”

A Community Process, Built With Care

For Kathy McClendon, MAS Director of Program Completion and Compliance and the project leader for the Graduate Profile, the finished infographic represents a process that asks people to look beyond the diploma.

“The work started with a simple question,” McClendon said. “When MAS students graduate, what should they be prepared to do throughout their life journey? That question guided every conversation.”

The process mirrored the approach recommended by the NMPED. MAS gathered input from people who see students from different angles. Teachers spoke from the classroom. Families spoke from home. College and career readiness counselors brought knowledge of post-secondary readiness. Business and community voices added their perspective on the habits students need beyond school.

The result became a profile organized around five traits: 

1. Mindfully Resilient
2. Collegiately Prepared
3. Curiously Collaborative
4. Globally Attuned
5. Culturally Inclusive

Each phrase carries a definition. Each definition connects to what MAS wants students to practice during their time at school, and then carry forward after graduation.

“This profile will guide the way we talk about student growth,” McClendon said. “It helps us look at coursework, advising, student support and programming through the same lens. We can ask whether our work helps students become the graduates we say we are preparing.”

Mindfully Resilient

The first trait, Mindfully Resilient, describes graduates who can navigate challenges with emotional strength.

In the MAS profile, high school graduates regulate their emotions, choose compassion for themselves and others, and make choices connected to their goals and values. The wording reflects a reality that families know well: Success requires persistence through difficulty.

A mindfully resilient student has learned to pause before reacting. That student can face disappointment without losing direction. That student can ask for help, repair relationships and return to the work with purpose.

This part of the profile links closely to MAS’ social-emotional learning work, the Choose Love Movement, and HeartMath. It also reflects the school’s belief that strong academic growth requires a strong inner foundation.

Collegiately Prepared

Collegiately Prepared speaks directly to the college-preparatory identity of MAS.

This trait describes high school graduates equipped to thrive in college, careers, the military, and community. It includes early college success, reflective decision-making, career-ready skills, and supportive networks with mentors and peers.

For MAS families, this trait gives shape to a promise the school has made for years. Students should leave MAS ready for the next serious step, whether that step leads to a university campus, a trade program, military service, or another post-secondary path.

The phrase “collegiately prepared” speaks to readiness. MAS wants graduates who can manage expectations, seek guidance, evaluate choices, and persist once they arrive.

Curiously Collaborative

The Graduate Profile also describes MAS graduates as Curiously Collaborative.

At MAS, students are expected to learn beyond the assignment. They ask questions, listen with respect, and work with others — including peers and adults — to solve problems. They know how to think independently while still contributing to shared work.

Curiosity matters because the world keeps changing after graduation. Collaboration matters because almost no meaningful work happens alone.

At MAS, this trait gives educators a way to talk about habits that may not fit neatly into an academic assessment or test score. A student who asks a better question has begun to build intellectual ownership. A student who listens well in a group has begun to practice leadership. A student who chooses to engage in their own learning has started to master an education.

Globally Attuned

The fourth trait, Globally Attuned, describes graduates as conscientious citizens.

The profile calls on students to explore perspectives beyond the familiar, evaluate diverse pathways and opportunities, respond to local and global issues with awareness, and asks them to contribute to community progress.

For MAS, this trait carries special weight in Albuquerque, where students grow up in a city shaped by culture, language, family histories, and economic realities. Being globally attuned begins with learning to understand one’s own community more deeply.

It also asks students to see themselves as participants in a wider world. MAS graduates should be prepared to notice problems, consider different viewpoints, and act with responsibility.

Culturally Inclusive

This final trait centers on identity and belonging.

The profile describes graduates who demonstrate cultural awareness, inclusive action, and confidence in who they are. They recognize multicultural contributions, use inclusive language, and understand their own strengths.

This trait reflects the school’s belief that students produce high-level academic work when they feel grounded in who they are. At MAS, cultural identity gives students a foundation for learning and a source of confidence they can carry into every classroom.

A culturally inclusive graduate can move through difference with respect. That graduate can recognize bias and build relationships across cultures.

A Guiding Star for the MAS Experience

Together, these five traits give MAS a practical tool for planning and reflection. The profile can inform classroom instruction, student advising, family conversations, and schoolwide decisions.

It can also help students see the purpose behind their daily work. A lesson, a counseling session, a college visit, and a discussion about a career choice holds more meaning when connected to a larger vision of who the student can become.

“Our Graduate Profile serves as a guiding star for every part of the educational experience at MAS,” Mitchell said. “It keeps us connected to our mission as the world around our students changes. Excellence requires focus, skill, discipline, and heart. Our students deserve all of that.”

McClendon sees the one-page profile as both a communication tool and a working document.

“The infographic makes the profile easy to understand,” she said. “A family can look at it and see what MAS values. A teacher can use it to think about instruction. A student can use it to think about growth.”

View the Graduate Profile Infographic and Share It

The MAS Graduate Profile (available here for download as a PDF file) now gives the school community a common picture of the destination.

It tells students that MAS sees them as whole people. It tells families that preparation at MAS Charter School reaches from academics into identity and purpose. It tells the community that the school’s work aims beyond graduation day.

MAS invites families, students, alumni, staff, and community partners to view the new Graduate Profile infographic and consider sharing it with others. We firmly believe that every student journey needs a destination. And every destination becomes stronger when a whole community can see it.