Rhett Bradbury’s Master’s Thesis explores how gaming can foster political leadership

Rhett Bradbury has been a crucial member of Envirolutions over the past two years. Our only graduate student member, Rhett started coming to club meetings during his first semester at Pratt. Rhett’s skills as a graphic designer have had a profound effect on how Envirolutions has communicated with the rest of the campus: his posters, logos, and other visual work has helped the club further its goal of making Pratt a more sustainable campus.

Today I went to see Rhett’s final presentation of his thesis, “Leveling Up Leadership”. Rhett did extensive research on how turning important activities into a game (also called “gamifying”) could be used to foster the next generation of political leaders. Based on the completion of political “quests”, participants in Rhett’s “Lead Up” conceptual iPad application would be able to improve their overall scores for political leadership. The idea is interesting, as currently there are very few ways of assessing the integrity, effectiveness, and actual track record of political candidates.

I provided Rhett with a little editing help, and I was excited to play a very small part in his very interesting thesis project.