Dress Rehearsal For Death: Using Virtual Reality To Foster Empathy For Dying Patients

In order to encourage people to properly dispose of their waste, New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) has installed smart vending machines for recyclable waste at Connaught Place and India Gate. In return for making the sustainable waste choice, users receive monetary rewards via e-wallet.

Bruce Friedrich, the Executive Director of The Good Food Institute in Washington, DC, thinks that we're wasting resources raising animals for food products. He thinks the answer is creating a product that doesn't replace meat, but rather competes with it.

The University of Nevada at Reno’s DeLaMare Library houses a ‘maker space’ which houses creative tools ranging from whiteboards to laser cutters to microprocessors. It is the library’s hope that this space allows students and the general public to fabricate their ideas and form new, innovative collaborations.

Despite its small student body population, Xavier University, a historically black college in Louisiana, graduates more African American students who eventually become doctors than any other college in the United States. Xavier’s leaders cite its culture of “competitive collaboration,” community of shared experiences and challenges based on race, and free upperclass tutoring services as some of the characteristics that make its students stand out.

Virtual reality is being used as part of medical education providing a way for nurses and other medical workers to better understand how a patient may experiencing their surroundings. Virtual reality modules have been created for blind, colorblind, dementia, and dying patients.

Math requirements are a common barrier preventing students from successfully graduating from community college in Washington state. Schools are offering a new way for non-STEM majors to earn the credit; Statway teaches students accessible statistics mixed with real-world examples as an alternate to the traditional algebra-precalculus trajectory.

At Cambridge Street Upper School, teachers, many of whom are white, meet regularly to discuss their own implicit biases and how they play out in a school in which 60 percent of students identify as black, Latino, or multiracial. "Cultural proficiency is no longer a separate thing we do once a month. It's at the center of what we do," the principal said.

Rural areas of Maine were being underserved when it came to dental hygiene, so the state opened a dental college and a loan repayment program in order to increase the amount of industry professionals. Since opening, the amount of dentists serving these areas has increased and now the university is looking to scale even further by increasing the amount offered in the loan repayment program.

Tribaja connects a diverse pool of qualified candidates to tech companies that have cultivated supportive work environments for people of color in an industry that has famously lacked inclusion. Tech companies have attempted to draw a more diverse population into their workforce but have met with little success. "Tribaja has helped about 100 people find jobs this past year."

In 2004, the Media Initiative set out to develop a trauma-informed curriculum for preschoolers in Northern Ireland. Using puppets, cartoons, and professional development, the social-emotional lessons have empowered students to better address conflict and communicate more effectively with each other. A Boston-based teacher education program is one of many who travel to Ireland to observe the program in action each year.