Photo: The Hechinger Report

Kelsey DeSmith, 19, is part of a small group of students pioneering what is meant to become a national initiative that recognizes growing impatience with the time it takes to get through college.

There are 10 students in the summer program at the University of Minnesota Rochester, their presence a quiet challenge to two long-held assumptions about getting a bachelor’s degree: that it has to take four years or longer and that students don’t want to go to college in the summer, when most four-year universities and colleges all but shut down.

Illustration: Lars Leetaru

Office hours, baked into just about every course, are probably the most universally available form of academic support. And they can be among the most powerful. They give students struggling with a concept a chance to receive help before getting left behind.

But the potential of office hours often goes unrealized, because of how the time is used—or because students don’t show up. More professors are trying to change that.

Annie Talley Ochoa has always wanted to be a teacher. But as years and then decades passed, her plans to enter the classroom were repeatedly sidetracked and eventually stalled.

At age 44, that’s about to change, thanks to a teacher preparation program that allows aspiring educators to work full-time and earn a full salary—first as substitute teachers and eventually as lead teachers—while getting their credential.