Dwayne Allen Thomas

“I applied to the Master of Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) program because I felt I could use the research to help raise African-American bar exam pass rates," says Dwayne Allen Thomas (MAPP ’16), Senior Court Attorney to Honorable Cenceria Edwards in the New York Civil Court of Kings County. "I feel prepared to implement what I’ve learned over the course of the past year to make that happen.” 

Dwayne’s master’s thesis, Channeling the River, combined anthropology, law, history, psychology, positive psychology and data science to propose a strategy for increasing the pass rate of African-American bar examinees. His desire to use positive psychology with law and social impact is just one example of the interdisciplinary possibilities of the MAPP program. He also found that the collaborative nature of cohort learning opened him up to other fields and applications. “There is a lot of interest among everyone I’ve met in this program about the answer to the question, ‘What else can we learn?’”

Reflecting on his time at Penn, Dwayne adds, “MAPP has easily been the best educational experience of my life, not just because of the content, but because of the quality of the instruction. I hope that the program continues to attract students whose ideas may influence the lives of others for the better.”