Our co-founder, Philip Bowman, spent 18 years as a learning specialist after experiencing extreme bullying first-hand as a high school student. After not having a teacher in school he could confide in and not receiving needed support, his mission as an educator was to ensure no child falls through the cracks and all students have a voice they can use and a trusted adult they can have conversations with.
MARIO Education equips teachers to facilitate evidence-based one-to-one learning conversations, each lasting 4-7 minutes, supported by professional learning resources and software for seamless implementation. Students complete brief check-ins during advisory or homeroom to self-assess their well-being, academic progress, and readiness to learn. Alerts are sent to specialists if a student is at risk, providing crucial insights for meaningful interactions. Teachers or advisors use that data to schedule short, focused learning conversations. Students leave with a research-backed next step that they can add to their Personalized Learning Plan. Schools can use the MARIO system to build teacher capacity within an advisory system, allow counselors or learning support specialists to focus on Tier 2 or Tier 3 interventions, and promote a culture of care that makes bullying less likely. Schools can supplement the MARIO for Me platform with a full suite of professional learning options, from asynchronous mini-courses to facilitated MARIO Certification courses.
MARIO Education started in Southeast Asia, where our co-founder was based. Originally providing professional development courses on how to implement effective one-to-one learning conversations, MARIO spread rapidly when a 6-year retrospective study of the system's impact was published in NASEN’s Support for Learning Journal and the effect size was measured at Cohen’s co-efficient .91. The Beta-version of the MARIO for Me supporting software was launched in January of 2023, and as of August 2025 is being implemented in more than thirty countries. The MARIO for Me platform was named the Best Student Safety and Wellbeing Solution of 2025 by EdTech Digest.
Schedule a call with Philip Bowman directly at https://meetings-na2.hubspot.com/philipbowman/conversation
Alternatively, you can send an email to Philip at philipbowman@marioeducation.com or Graeme Scott at graeme@marioeducation.com
