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Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Newark High School Students Learn About AI Through Career Exploration
This article was originally published in Chalkbeat. On a recent Thursday morning, Michael Taubman asked his class of seniors at North Star Academy's Washington Park High School: 'What do you think AI's role should be in your future career?' 'In school, like how we use AI as a tool and we don't use it to cheat on our work … that's how it should be, like an assistant,' said Amirah Falana, a 17-year-old interested in a career in real estate law. Fernando Infante, an aspiring software developer, agreed that AI should be a tool to 'provide suggestions' and inform the work. Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter 'It's like having AI as a partner rather than it doing the work,' said Infante during class. Falana and Infante are students in Taubman's class called The Summit, a yearlong program offered to 93 seniors this year and expanding to juniors next year that also includes a 10-week AI course developed by Taubman and Stanford University. As part of the course, students use artificial intelligence tools – often viewed in a negative light due to privacy and other technical concerns – to explore their career interests and better understand how technology could shape the workforce. The class is also timely, as 92% of companies plan to invest in more AI over the next three years, according to a report by global consulting firm McKinsey and Company. The lessons provide students with hands-on exercises to better understand how AI works and how they can use it in their daily lives. They are also designed so teachers across subject areas can include them as part of their courses and help high school students earn a Google Career Certificate for AI Essentials, which introduces AI and teaches the basics of using AI tools. Students like Infante have used the AI and coding skills they learned in class to create their own apps while others have used them to create school surveys and spark new thoughts about their future careers. Taubman says the goal is to also give students agency over AI so they can embrace technological changes and remain competitive in the workfield. 'One of the key things for young people right now is to make sure they understand that this technology is not inevitable,' Taubman told Chalkbeat last month. 'People made this, people are making decisions about it, and there are pros and cons like with everything people make and we should be talking about this.' As Generation Z, those born between 1997 and 2012, graduate high school and enter a workforce where AI is new, many are wondering how the technology will be used and to what extent. Nearly half of Gen Z students polled by The Walton Family Foundation and Gallup said they use AI weekly, according to the newly released survey exploring how youth view AI. (The Walton Family Foundation is a supporter of Chalkbeat. See our funders list here.) The same poll found that over 4 in 10 Gen Z students believe they will need to know AI in their future careers, and over half believe schools should be required to teach them how to use it. This school year, Newark Public Schools students began using Khan Academy's AI chatbot tutor called Khanmigo, which the district launched as a pilot program last year. Some Newark teachers reported that the tutoring tool was helpful in the classroom, but the district has not released data on whether it helped raise student performance and test scores. The district in 2024 also launched its multimillion project to install AI cameras across school buildings in an attempt to keep students safe. But more than just using AI in school, students want to feel prepared to use it after graduating high school. Nearly 3 in 4 college students said their colleges or universities should be preparing them for AI in the workplace, according to a survey from Inside Higher Ed and College Pulse's Student Voice series. Many of the challenges of using AI in education center on the type of learning approach used, accuracy, and building trust with the technology, said Nhon Ma, CEO of Numerade – an online learning assistant that uses AI and educators to help students learn STEM concepts. But that's why it's important to immerse students in AI to help them understand the ways it could be used and when to spot issues, Ma added. 'We want to prepare our youth for this competitive world stage, especially on the technological front so they can build their own competence and confidence in their future paths. That could potentially lead towards higher earnings for them too,' Ma said. For Infante, the senior in Taubman's class, AI has helped spark a love for computer science and deepened his understanding of coding. He used it to create an app that tracks personal milestones and goals and awards users with badges once they reach them. As an aspiring software developer, he feels he has an advantage over other students because he's learning about AI in high school. Taubman also says it's especially important for students to understand how quickly the technology is advancing, especially for students like Infante looking towards a career in technology. 'I think it's really important to help young people grapple with how this is new, but unlike other big new things, the pace is very fast, and the implications for career are almost immediate in a lot of cases,' Taubman added. It's also important to remember the limitations of AI, Taubman said, noting that students need the basic understanding of how AI works in order to question it, identify any mistakes, and use it accordingly in their careers. 'I don't want students to lose out on an internship or job because someone else knows how to use AI better than they do, but what I really want is for students to get the internship or the job because they're skillful with AI,' Taubman said. Through Taubman's class, students are also identifying how AI increases the demand for skills that require human emotion, such as empathy and ethics. Daniel Akinyele, a 17-year-old senior, said he was interested in a career in industrial and organizational psychology, which focuses on human behavior in the workplace. During Taubman's class, he used a custom AI tool on his laptop to explore different scenarios where he could use AI in his career. Many involved talking to someone about their feelings or listening to vocal cues that might indicate a person is sad or angry. Ultimately, psychology is a career about human connection and 'that's where I come into play,' Akinyele said. 'I'm human, so I would understand how people are feeling, like the emotion that AI doesn't see in people's faces, I would see it and understand it,' Akinyele added. Falana, the aspiring real estate attorney, also used the custom AI tool to consider how much she should rely on AI when writing legal documents. Similar to writing essays in schools, Falana said professionals should use their original writing in their work but AI could serve as a launching pad. 'I feel like the legal field should definitely put regulations on AI use, like we shouldn't be able to, draw up our entire case using AI,' Falana said. During Taubman's class, students also discussed fake images and videos created by AI. Infante, who wants to be a software developer, added that he plans to use AI regularly on the job but believes it should also be regulated to limit disinformation online. Taubman says it's important for students to have a healthy level of skepticism when it comes to new technologies. He encourages students to think about how AI generates images, the larger questions around copyright infringement, and their training processes. 'We really want them to feel like they have agency in this world, both their capacity to use these systems,' Taubman said, 'but also to ask these broader questions about how they were designed.' This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools. Sign up for their newsletters at
Forbes
31-03-2025
- Business
- Forbes
How To Learn A $100,000+ Skill Within 90 Days In 2025
Consistency and a strategy will separate you from 83% of professionals who are all talk but no ... More action If you can commit to learning one high-income skill consistently for the next 90 days, this one action can impact the rest of your work life and make all the difference between working in a dead-end job and making a mediocre salary, and working in a six-figure career that you're actually passionate about and enjoy. What you do in the next 90 days could change the next 10, 15, or 20 years of your life--and even your retirement. The problem with many professionals is not their lack of access--after all, we all have the same internet as well as free and readily available resources which are relatively inexpensive compared to a degree. The issue is your mindset--your lack of resourcefulness, goal-oriented mindset, and consistency. It's so easy to say, 'One day I'll do X, Y, or Z.' But it's a totally different ball game to rephrase 'one day' to 'day one.' Moving away from inaction and actually getting started while being consistent with your professional development can get you extremely far in your career, much further than others who take the initial steps (if any) but have no solid plan of action and do not maintain their progress. As a good example, Coursera is a highly popular platform for undertaking free and inexpensive online courses and certifications, including Google's career certificates. Some of its courses, like the Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate, has 2,650,136 enrolled at the time of writing. But the actual student completion rate is a far cry from the enrolment figures. In late 2023, a writer at the Washington Monthly noted that she observed there were 1.9 million learners enrolled, but by the time she reached last module, only 328,000 were at the end--an 83% attrition rate. So what can you do today to shift from being part of that 83% and actually taking consistent action towards your professional development? One reason why most people fail when deciding to implement anything new in their lives, including New Year's resolutions, is that they chase vague goals, such as, 'I want to get into tech,' or 'I want to learn AI skills.' These lack clarity and urgency, and are not enough to motivate you when you feel like quitting. For you to follow through and be consistent with your professional development, you need to have a powerful end goal, one that inspires and motivates you beyond 'This social media influencer promoted it, so I want to join,' or, 'Everyone else is studying this course, so I should do it too,' or, 'This certificate will look good on my resume.' Knowing exactly what you need it for will help you be more structured and focused when learning a high income skill. For example, if your goal is to start a freelance business in digital marketing and land your first client within four months, you could say that your goal is to complete the Google Career Certificate for Digital Marketing and E-Commerce within 90 days. Once that 90-day goal is achieved, you could then work on creating your portfolio and freelance website, so you can start accepting clients by the end of four months. Clear outcomes work well for your brain, and give you something to measure your progress by. Another important step you should take when developing a new skill is to build in public. This serves a dual purpose. Not only are you forming accountability by telling others that you are working on learning a specific skill, which helps you maintain consistency because people know you're doing it, but it also helps attract potential clients and employers and career opportunities by the time you're finished. (especially if you showcase this on your LinkedIn profile as a weekly or daily LinkedIn update). Talk about what you're learning each day. Create sample projects to demonstrate the skills you're developing. Even record a short video to talk about your progress if you feel confident. By the end, people will have already been familiar with you and associate that specific skill with you as a professional, which helps halve the legwork when you're ready to market yourself at the end for career and job opportunities. If you want to learn a skill faster, you need to think outside the conventional approach most people take. Don't be content with just studying an online course. The best way to develop high-income skills is to start practicing and start networking. Join groups of professionals who are engaged on the same subject. Find others who are studying the same course or who have already completed it and are working in their dream careers. Talk to them about their journeys and experiences. Obtain mentorship and seek advice. Get hands-on practice as much as possible, even doing pro bono work, so you can feel confident in your expertise. In a nutshell, you need to find practical, tangible ways to learn outside of the limitations of an online course or certificate. You will find that many course providers, like Codecademy, encourage you to build your own projects outside of their learning environment, as this shows employers that you're proactive and also helps you to learn faster. Start following these three steps today. Begin by defining your vision and goal for the end of your course of study, pace yourself by getting others to hold you accountable, and find multiple methods of learning and developing your skills outside of sticking to a course syllabus. Learn outside the box through undertaking hands-on projects and networking What are high-paying skills? High-income skills are skills that are in strong demand and pay extremely well, usually within the region of $100,000 or above. Learning them can significantly boost your current salary and even help you make a career pivot. These include generative AI, social media marketing, project management, data analytics, web development, and communication and leadership skills. How long does it take to learn a high-income skill? Short courses and certificates offered online usually take around three to six months to complete, but the exact length depends on your schedule and how much time you dedicate to studying each week.
Yahoo
09-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
University of Hawaii offers free AI training, certification
The University of Hawaii has partnered with Google to offer students and faculty across all 10 campuses free access to an online training course in artificial intelligence, Google's 'AI Essentials, ' which also certifies anyone who completes it. The 'AI Essentials ' course, part of the Google Career Certificate program, was first offered by UH in February. It takes about five hours to complete and teaches efficient and responsible use of AI. The online course allows people to work at their own pace using their UH username and password. According to a news release, the Google Career Certificate program offers a foot in the door to employment with over 150 companies that consider Google Career Certificate graduates for roles related to their certifications. 'This is a valuable opportunity for our community to develop in-demand AI skills and stay ahead in today's rapidly evolving technological landscape, ' UH President Wendy Hensel said in a news release announcing the program. Hawaii Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke said that learning about AI goes beyond keeping up with new technology. 'It's about giving young Hawaii residents the competitive edge they need to thrive in today's economy, ' Luke said in the release. Don 't miss out on what 's happening ! Stay in touch with breaking news, as it happens, conveniently in your email inbox. It 's FREE ! Email 28141 Sign Up By clicking to sign up, you agree to Star-Advertiser 's and Google 's and. This form is protected by reCAPTCHA. More than 350, 000 people across the country have received certifications through the Google Career Certificate program. Over 70 % of those who complete a Google course report positive career outcomes including a new job, promotion or raise within six months of certificate completion, according to the release. 'Google is committed to helping students throughout Hawaii prepare for some of today's most in-demand jobs, ' Lisa Gevelber, the founder of Grow with Google, said in the release. UH Manoa communications professor Jenifer Sunrise Winter took the course right away 'because I was curious, ' she told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. As someone who specializes in internet ethics and policy related to personal data and AI use, Winter said she wanted to get a firsthand look at the Google course. After completing 'AI Essentials, ' Winter believes a more detailed lesson on AI ethics is needed to caution users about sharing personal information when using AI. 'My research looks at the ways that we leak personal data through our everyday activities, ' she said. 'It's very easy to be seduced by it and not realize that there could be consequences if people aren't careful with how they interact with generative AI.' Winter said she found the course to be generally informative on how to use AI for things like spreadsheets and increasing work productivity, so she wouldn't discourage others from taking the course. 'I don't think it's wrong that the university offered the course, ' she said. 'People will need to know these things. I just wish there was a more widespread critical discussion.' Garret Yoshimi, UH's vice president for information technology and chief information officer, was one of the first to test the course before it became available to students, staff and faculty. He said UH partnering with Google will give students the chance to learn more about how AI can be used as a tool in their education and future careers. 'The opportunity to put AI essentials in front of all of our community was something really good for us to launch, ' he said.'We're still early in the process, but I think we've seen some really good adoption of the basic training. It's helping to advance our project work across the board.' Yoshimi supports Winter's call for more conversation around protecting personal information and ethical use of AI. 'I totally agree with Jenifer that we need to continue that broad education process to make sure people are aware of not just the benefits, but the things we should be cautious about, ' he said, noting the course does offer a few sections focusing on privacy and security. To promote AI ethics awareness, Yoshimi said UH officials are reviewing a policy for how to responsibly use AI. As AI becomes more integrated into everyday life—with tools like Google's Gemini offering text suggestions and summaries through browser extensions—concerns are growing about the environmental impact of its high energy consumption. Dana Alden, the William R. Johnson Jr. Distinguished Professor in the marketing department at the UH Shidler College of Business, understands concerns about AI's environmental costs. 'The 'dirty energy' sources used to power AI are very impactful, ' he said. 'I think it's very important that we go about using renewable energy sources as quickly as possible, using solar and wind-generated energy to electrify AI.' When he's not teaching, Alden works as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Sustainable Marketing and thinks AI could assist in climate research. 'It also has the potential to help us tremendously in terms of managing climate change, ' Alden said. 'A lot of scientists are using it now to map and track changes in phenomena, such as the Gulf Stream, due to things like global warming.' Alden also is aware of the potential for plagiarism when AI is used to generate reports and other information. 'If we can learn more about it we'll be able to better understand where to draw the line between using it as a resource and plagiarism, ' he said. While he hasn't taken Google's 'AI Essentials ' course himself, Alden thinks it's a good opportunity for learning. 'Kudos to UH for offering free training, ' he said. 'I'm nothing but supportive.'—Free AI training University of Hawaii staff, faculty and students can take the free Google 'AI Essentials ' course by accessing the UH at and follow enrollment instructions.
