Dr. Mary Pat Tranter: From Harvard to High School

 

By Victoria Stephenson

Dr. Mary Pat Tranter always had a plan.

As an eighth grader, she knew exactly what she wanted to be when she grew up, and exactly how she was going to get there.

“I remember what I said when they asked me what I wanted to do,” she said. “I told them I was going to Coyle for high school, then to Holy Cross to major in biology, and then I was going to Harvard to get my PhD. After that, I was going to be a scientist.”

Quite the high expectations for a child of 13, one may think, but that’s exactly what Tranter did.

Tranter, born and raised in Taunton, graduated with a PhD from Harvard Medical School in 1991.

However, she is not involved in the scientific field today.

Today, she is president of College and Cassidy High School.

“I firmly believe that God reveals to us what we are intended to do,” Tranter says.

The 52 year old is in her 24^th year of service at Coyle, a coed, Catholic institution on Hamilton Street in Taunton.

Since the earliest days of her youth, Tranter worked tirelessly to follow the premeditated academic path she had designed for herself.

She graduated Coyle and Cassidy in 1980, and headed off to Holy Cross- step two in her plan.

“I was looking for a top-notch biology program that would give me the grounding to qualify to get into Harvard Medical School,” she said. “That was my plan.”

Her plans weren’t strictly academic, however.

“I was also looking for an institution that had the same kind of atmosphere as Coyle. Holy Cross was very much family-orientated. I felt like I was part of a community.”

Part three of the plan came when Tranter was offered admission to the prestigious and selective Harvard Medical School.

For Tranter, it was an entirely new experience.

“Harvard Medical School was extremely rigorous,” she said. “It was a very different climate than what I was used to… I was used to being in a faith-based environment.”

The road to her PhD was filled with sacrifice, difficulty, and triumph.

“When you’re talking graduate school, you don’t go there to have fun,” she said. “It’s extremely demanding work and difficult training, but the end result – the education you receive- is phenomenal. I was trained to be a scholar.”

Tranter also developed a greater world-view.

“What I loved about the experience was the ability to work with people from all around the globe. I was working with people from Israel, India, China, the UK and other countries,” she said. “On Friday nights and weekends we’d go to restaurants of their cultures. I was so lucky to work with people who came from totally different backgrounds and become exposed to their culture, in addition to that city experience.” 

After obtaining her PhD, the next step in Tranter’s plan was to “become a scientist”.

She started her post-doctorate fellowship at UMass Medical School in the physiology department.

Her life was going as planned, but Tranter felt like something was missing.

“When I was in Harvard, I was teaching medical school,” she said. “I never saw teaching as my vocation, but having been given the opportunity to teach at a very high power institution, I realized how much I loved sharing the knowledge I acquired.”

At Harvard, Tranter taught first year medical students Physiology.

“I never thought I’d catch the teaching bug,” she said. “It’s one thing, having all that information in your head… its another to be able to share it. I developed a passion I didn’t know I had.”

Tranter’s fellowship at UMass Medical School required a major commitment.

“You’re talking 14 hour days, weird hours, no social life… I was just doing research, not teaching,” she said. “It’s a very different lifestyle; confined in a lab with only a few other people. You’re there all hours of the day, and you could be there early in the morning or late at night.”

Being a scientist wasn’t quite as simple as Tranter’s eighth grade self had pictured it.

“It required an enormous amount of dedication and sacrifice,” she said. “It was constant learning, and then you have all these papers to write… It took up the majority of my time.”

Then things changed with a phone call.

“It was August of 1991,” she said, “and a science teacher at Coyle had just retired. It was two weeks before school started and they didn’t have a science teacher.”

“I got a call from Mike Donnelly, the headmaster here at the time. Dr. Donna Boyle was the academic principal and I spoke to her too. I had known them both well,” she said. “They spoke to my brother, a former teacher and at that time, the athletic director for Coyle. They had asked him if he knew anybody who could teach science, and he said, ‘Why don’t you call my sister?’”

That’s all it took for Tranter to change course.

“They told me what the need was, and the next day I quit my job,” she said.  “There was something about it that felt right and I was at peace with it.”

Although it wasn’t part of her original plan, the decision to come to Coyle was a welcomed change.

“Research, for me, was a difficult environment because I didn’t want to deal with the business aspect. My goal was to learn and to do research; I didn’t want to have to deal with fighting for money and the stress behind that. I just wanted to be able to share what I really loved,” she said. “To be given the opportunity where I was like, ‘Wow, I can just go teach’, -and specifically teach kids at an age where they are all still sponges and they don’t know it all- that was great.”

Tranter hoped her intense educational experience could contribute to the learning of students.

“I wanted to bring them to a level of understanding that they might not get with a typical high school education,” she said. “To be able to expose high school students to the reality I saw in higher education, and to prepare them for a future in science- that was exciting for me,” she said.  

Tranter moved home during the same weekend Hurricane Bob hit. Two weeks later, she was teaching upper level biology at Coyle.

Although she had previously taught at Harvard, Tranter was surprised at the amount of work that she faced.

“It doesn’t how much preparation you’ve had, or how much education; it’s a ton of work,” she said of teaching. “You’ve got to plan all of your lessons, your assessments, and you’ve got to correct everything. And you have to do this in a way that truly allows students to show mastery of the subject matter. So, it was a huge amount of work because I had to learn, even with the amount of education I had.”

Regardless, Tranter didn’t mind the workload, as she was used to large amounts of work.

“It was an adjustment because I had never worked in an environment like this before. My attention was focused in a different way,” she said.

After teaching, Tranter became chair of the science department for five years. She was the director of guidance for four years, the academic principal for one, and principal for four years until she became president.

“I’ve done everything there is to do in this building,” she said with a smile.

Tranter is in her fifth year as president. Her duties include fundraising, paying the bills, and meeting with donors, among other things.

Tranter enjoys her duties as president, but she does miss the day-to-day interactions she had while being principal.

“Being principle was my favorite because you could be actively present in the lives of the students. You’re in a position when you can really get to know everyone,” she said. “This job I have now is more of an external role; I’m in meetings all the time and I’m dealing with money. I have more one-on-one with parents and constituencies, but not with the kids. I wish I had more time with them.”

What has kept Tranter at Coyle is the strong belief she has in Catholic education.

“I think Catholic education is a national treasure that is underutilized,” she said. “Catholic schools not only provide a high quality and holistic education that attends to the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of its students, but most importantly, Catholic schools can truly can partner with parents. We have an advantage over the public schools that we are able to incorporate moral values and God into everything we do.”

This belief gives her a sense of purpose in being president.

“We are tuition driven, and we don’t receive state or federal money, so those of us responsible for Catholic education have to make sure that every dollar is spent appropriately,” she said. “Somebody has to make sure this continues. If that has to be me, I’m okay with it, because I have to be student centered. It’s all about the kids; I need to make sure their needs are met.”

Despite the importance of her position, Tranter misses the atmosphere of the classroom.

“I miss teaching tremendously, let me tell you,” she said. “I miss that interaction of kids in the classroom. I really do think I was a born teacher.”

Tranter says she focuses on the students and their needs to keep her going each day.

“I find fulfillment when I see new things happening,” she says. “Whether it’s a new program, a renovation, or new fields; I love seeing that constant evolution of the institution for the betterment of the kids. My job is to drive all of that. I may not be the one personally doing that, but my job is to make it happen.”

Although in her 24^th year at Coyle, Tranter doesn’t anticipate a change in career anytime soon.

“I know I am where I’m supposed to be,” she said. “I truly feel like I’m doing God’s work.”