Daily Lumina News 082323

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.

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.

It's Cincinnati's second year in the Literacy Lab's Leading Men Fellowship, and the city is already the largest partner in a program that connects young Black men to preschool classrooms as literacy tutors.
And now, those who complete the program can get major scholarships for an associate or bachelor's degree, too—whether or not they want to pursue teaching.

After being incarcerated for 13 years, Melvin Parson knows firsthand the many barriers of reentering society. He also understands the power of second chances. That's why he wanted to break the cycle of incarceration for others.
Parson's "We the People Opportunity Farm" program hires formerly incarcerated people for paid internships each year, offering support not only on employment but on other reentry challenges.

Every day, academics and the public alike await more clarity on the legality of generative AI outputs.
But this moment is also renewing discussion about influence—one preoccupied not with the law or even machines but with efforts to understand and champion the ways humans influence each other.