Rebecca Koenig

Adults pushing teenagers toward college or career training don't always understand what young people actually need and want. If grown-ups listened, what would they learn? Interviews and portraits of nine American teenagers reveal that they want more than good livelihoods. They want good lives.

In the pandemic, strangers have been gathering on Zoom to read and discuss Homer, Virginia Woolf and bell hooks. No grades involved, no credit — and no universities. The humanities are fleeing campus. Where does that leave academia?

In the 1970s, a university librarian applied her research skills to meet a growing need: helping women find scholarships for college. When she died, she left behind a meticulous database. Can it became a useful tool for college access in the internet age?

Companies selling admissions algorithms say they have a fairer, more scientific way to predict student success. They use games, web tracking, and machine learning systems to capture and process more and more student data, then convert qualitative inputs into quantitative outcomes. The pitch: use deeper technology to make admissions more deeply human.

Several colleges offer new options for aspiring graduates who lack access to enough federal aid.

St. Louis fights to reclaim food waste.

“I’ve never seen an administration, a staff, an agency so supportive of programming for its incarcerated residents. I think they’re a model of what corrections officials around the country should be.”

A prediction from a sci-fi master. A secretive tech company. A nonprofit in search of "cyber consciousness." All of these helped to create a robot teacher who loves ethics and the Eagles.