LOUISA MCGRATH ’19
Learning How to Learn — and How to Tell the Story Louisa McGrath came to Cushing searching for academic support and balance — a place where she could grow without being held back by executive-functioning challenges. What she found was a nurturing environment that taught her how to learn. With the guidance of academic support faculty, Louisa mastered time management. Today she still swears by the “five-minute rule,” which she learned at Cushing — if something takes under five minutes, do it now. More importantly, she began to understand how her mind worked. When traditional study methods fell short, she leaned on her understanding of how stories are structured, honed in part by participating in theatre at Cushing. After memorizing pages of dialogue as Maria in West Side Story, she realized she could approach history the same way — not by memorizing facts, but by finding the narrative arc. Encouraged by mentors like Julia Ohm, Louisa learned to cut through self-doubt and trust her instincts. “I was given the option in college for extra time, and I decided to not take it,” she says. “I felt by the time I left Cushing, I had a handle on how I study and how I work.” At New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, Louisa earned a BFA in Film & Television. Today she works in New York as
a freelance production assistant for luxury brands and major productions, while also developing her own projects and content. Her YouTube channel, begun in 2014, now boasts tens of thousands of followers. It became an early laboratory for creative risk-taking. She loves working with makeup brands and fashion companies, especially during New York Fashion Week. “That’s always my favorite time of the year, getting to learn how different brands work together and how I can help them,” she says. As she works, Louisa thinks back to Cushing and how the faculty there helped her build on her strengths. Beginning as a captain of Cushing’s field hockey team and continuing through her work on production sets, she embraces her mediator personality. She recalls recently being on a set where the stakes were high and people started to get uneasy. “I just was so proud of myself at that moment, because I was able to calm everyone down,” Louisa recalls. “That’s the moment I felt like I owned it. And that was right out of Cushing.”
It wasn’t just about learning material. It was learning about how I learn.” —Louisa McGrath ’19, BFA, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University
SCAN ME! Louisa’s tour of her dorm room at NYU has hit more than 1 million views.
SPRING 2026
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