Rachel Sharrett, M.S., recently graduated from Radford University with a master’s degree in English. Before completing her master’s degree, she spent four additional years at Radford University completing her undergraduate degree in Political Science with minors in Economics, French, and International Relations. While at Radford University, she was awarded the Outstanding Graduate Student of the Year in 2023 for her work in founding the highly decorated Wicked Society of Radford University. For her meritorious work in developing the Wicked Problems Toolkit and mentoring students researching for the project, the United Nations PRME Anti-Poverty Working Group, a global network of distinguished scholars, awarded her the Outstanding Achievement Award at their annual conference in Lisbon in 2023.
While at Radford, Rachel co-founded and presided over the Radford University Wicked Society—an internationally recognized group of student researchers. With the society, she helped develop two successful international conference presentations—one in Lisbon, Portugal and another in Berlin, Germany. Both of these presentations focused on using gamification (in the form of a zombie apocalypse scenario) to teach the concepts of Design Thinking in the context of Wicked problem solving. She also developed her own research project on the relationship between education and patriotism as part of the Radford Amazonian Research Expedition. This research was conducted in both the Amazon Rainforest and other parts of Peru.
In the summer of 2024, Rachel began work for Radford University Governor's School as one of two Resident Life Managers. Working alongside co-RM Matthew Rhoten, she helped prepare for the students arrival on RU campus and assisted in planning many of the activities that students were involved in during the summer such as Opening Ceremonies, Fourth of July festivities, dance, and movie on the lawn. In the fall of 2024, Rachel began working as an instructor of English at Emory and Henry University. She currently teaches classes on topics such as research methodology and foundational writing skills.