Transforming Adult Students into Scholars
After decades away, adults return to college to embrace their curiosity and conduct research.
Rebecca Koenig
Features, news and data journalist in Washington, D.C.
I cover the future of higher education for EdSurge as an editor and reporter. I'm interested in community colleges, alternative credentials, learning science, workforce training, affordability and efforts to improve access for students who have been locked out of higher ed.
I won a 2020 Higher Education Media Fellowship from the Institute for Citizens & Scholars. I won a 2020 Dateline Award for best online feature from the D.C. Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. I was named a national finalist for feature writing by the 2019 Education Writers Association National Awards for Education Reporting.
Previously, I wrote about workforce training for U.S. News & World Report and colleges for The Chronicle of Higher Education, where I won the 2015 David W. Miller Award for Young Journalists and reported from campuses throughout Virginia.
The Illusion of Danger
Swashbuckling into an acting career, shielded by a college degree.
Guiding Young People Not to Colleges or Careers — But to Good Lives
Adults encourage teenagers who may struggle to afford college to consider alternative routes to adulthood—often specifically to employment. To a steady job. To a solid paycheck.
But young people want more than good livelihoods. They want good lives.
The Humanities May Be Declining at Universities — But They’re Thriving on Zoom
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?
The Death and Life of a Scholarship Database
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?
Can Algorithms Select Students “Most Likely to Succeed”?
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.
At Davidson College, a Virtual Salon Sustains Creative Community During a Crisis
At 10 minutes to showtime, performers gather backstage to receive final instructions. Poets, take a breath between readings. Artists, don’t rush from one piece to the next. Let audience eyes linger on your work.
“We really want to be able to enjoy it,” says Alan Michael Parker, English professor-turned-director.
In DC, Teachers Run the Jail. It’s Turning Inmates Into Students.
“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.”
For Poor Students, Income Share Agreements May Offer Opportunity
Several colleges offer new options for aspiring graduates who lack access to enough federal aid.
2 Professors, 1 House Seat—and a Campus Thrust Into the Limelight
Two colleagues from the same small, private liberal-arts college—one with an enrollment of just about 1,300—vying for one seat?
A Faculty-Led Fund Gets Cash to Struggling Students, Fast
The scales that measure higher education costs are usually set in thousand-dollar increments. Yet much smaller sums that would barely register for some students weigh heavily on others. Fifty dollars for an extra textbook. Twenty dollars for gas to get to campus. A couple of bucks for a snack between classes.
The Education of an Android Teacher
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.
Amid Partying at UVa, A Painful Note of Caution Intrudes
Who's got students' backs when they step off campus?
How a University Took on the Textbook Industry
First, OpenStax came for textbooks. Now, it’s coming for courseware.
“Our goal,” says Richard Baraniuk, “is positive world domination.”
The Fight to Preserve—and Teach—African-American History
In this episode of the EdSurge On Air podcast, travel with Rebecca Koenig to Hampton, Virginia, where black scholars gathered to commemorate 400 years of black history and culture, and the scholarship that preserved both.
The Latest Innovation in Student Retention at Colleges: ‘Food Scholarships’
More than 30 percent of college students may not regularly get enough to eat. This podcast episode explores efforts to help.
