Latest news with #experientiallearning
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Yahoo
I spent $20,000 to take my kids to a resort in Bora Bora. People thought I was wasting money, but I'd do it again.
I spent $20,000 to take my two young adult kids to a resort in Bora Bora for a family wedding. My kids were old enough to appreciate the culture, beauty, and privilege of the experience. I believe in investing in experiences while we're healthy and able to enjoy them together. When I told people I was spending $20,000 to take my two kids to Bora Bora, the reactions ranged from wide-eyed surprise to outright judgment. "You're taking them to a five-star resort?" someone asked. "Don't you have college to pay for in the Fall?" said another. The answer to both was, "Yes." My kids, however, weren't "little kids." At 18 and 21, they're young adults, and this trip was about much more than a luxury vacation. It was for a wedding of dear family friends, a bucket-list trip, and a memory I wanted us to share. Between flights, resort fees, and excursions, my husband and I spent a lot. Yes, it was expensive. But I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Travel has been a constant in our family. From the time they were infants, I made it a priority to expose my kids to different places and cultures. Now that they're adults, those values have only deepened. I didn't want Bora Bora to be something they only saw on social media or waited decades to experience after hearing our stories. I wanted them to feel what it's like to be somewhere stunning, unfamiliar, and culturally rich — and to do it together. This was more than a once-in-a-lifetime trip for the kids. This was me scratching off an item on my own bucket list. There are things I want to do while I still can. Life happens when you're making plans, and we had the time, means, and opportunity to make this happen. Our youngest is heading off to college in a few months, making my husband and me empty nesters. We can, of course, still travel together as a family, but our dynamics will change now that we aren't under the same roof. Plus, the kids might want to travel with their friends in the future. Our son even commented that this would be our last "real family vacation" now that they are all grown up. I think he meant the last family vacation that Mom and Dad would fully fund. The hope is that one day, the kids can pay for us! Some friends were shocked that we would "waste" this kind of money on a week's vacation in general. Others wondered why we wouldn't just go as a couple, because the kids wouldn't appreciate it. I understood where they were coming from. But I also knew this would be amazing for my kids, who are thoughtful, responsible, and aware of how special this trip would be. We swam in crystal-clear water, snorkeled beside blacktip reef sharks and manta rays, and ate meals with our toes in the sand. On the night of our snorkeling excursion, my 21-year-old turned to me and said, "I get why people say this is paradise. This is an adventure of a lifetime. Thank you for bringing us here." That moment alone was worth it. These weren't kids on vacation; they were young adults engaging with and enjoying the world. We learned cultural wedding customs and traditions, immersed ourselves in the Tahitian language as we conversed with the local staff, and learned about the rich history of French Polynesia and what allows the islands to maintain their natural beauty through the care of the local residents. Sure, we got some great Instagram-worthy shots of beautiful sunsets to document our experience and memories. We also had late-night and early-morning conversations with each other while lounging by the pool or on our deck, which created more memories. To me, these things are never a waste. The time away from daily life is a lifelong education, and the amazing cultural experience was priceless. As parents, we save for college, for weddings, for our future. But we forget the value of right now. I'm in my 50s. My kids are on the cusp of full independence. We're healthy. We're close. I don't want to wait for the "perfect time" to make more memories. This trip was a financial stretch, but it was also a gift for all of us. The older I get, the more I realize that the best investments aren't always in things. Sometimes they're in memories and experiences that change you forever. Read the original article on Business Insider
National Post
21-05-2025
- Business
- National Post
Lumivero Launches Experiential Learning Cloud to Empower Career Readiness and Institutional Success
Article content Article content DENVER — According to Hanover Research, 62% of higher education administrators say their institution is not effective at analyzing student success data. In response to this growing challenge, Lumivero—the leading provider of research and decision software—today announced the launch of Experiential Learning Cloud, a purpose-built solution that gives institutions real-time visibility into student performance, program outcomes, and accreditation readiness. Article content Experiential Learning Cloud simplifies complexity across the student journey by unifying placement, assessment, and accreditation into a single solution. By transforming fragmented systems into a centralized, structured environment, institutions gain insight, maximize resources, and drive continuous improvement—while laying the foundation for responsible, AI-powered innovation across experiential learning programs. Article content 'Experiential learning isn't optional for programs like teacher education, social work, and counseling—it's mission-critical for preparing students to succeed in their careers and make real-world impact,' said Gareth Morrison, CEO of Lumivero. 'As enrollment grows and job markets expand, these programs are becoming more complex to manage. Experiential Learning Cloud gives institutions the structure and insight they need to scale with confidence—while staying focused on student success.' Article content Built from the trusted placement capabilities of Sonia and assessment functionality of Tevera, Experiential Learning Cloud enables end-to-end program management with a configurable, cloud-based system. Article content Key benefits include: Article content Streamline placements and reduce administrative burden: Automate manual tasks like placement matching, approvals, and evaluations—freeing up time for what matters most. Make data-driven decisions with real-time insights: Access centralized dashboards to monitor student progress, spot trends and identify at-risk students early, and guide program improvements. Advance program and student success: Track competencies, simplify accreditation prep, and empower students with verified experience records. Article content Institutions using Experiential Learning Cloud report replacing up to five disconnected systems and reclaiming up to 50% of administrative time—resulting in stronger alignment between academic programs and workforce readiness, and more time for faculty and staff to focus on what matters: supporting their students. Article content Experiential Learning Cloud is part of the Lumivero software portfolio and complements its solutions for qualitative and quantitative analysis, advancing the company's mission to help academic and business organizations turn data complexity into clarity. Article content Lumivero is a leading provider of research and decision software, empowering organizations to simplify data complexity, find insights and get clarity for greater business and academic success. Through a combination of data analysis, AI-powered workflows, and expert-developed scientific methodologies, Lumivero helps researchers, industry experts and business leaders discover new innovations and make mission-critical decisions. Article content Lumivero is trusted by thousands of organizations across sectors, including academia, industrials, energy, financial services, life sciences and manufacturing, who analyze millions of datapoints, manage thousands of projects and support hundreds of scientific research publications per year. Headquartered in Denver, CO, Lumivero operates globally across the Americas, EMEA and APAC. Article content Article content Article content Article content Article content Article content
Reuters
20-05-2025
- Business
- Reuters
ABA plan to boost law students' hands-on experience spurs criticism about accreditor overreach
May 20 (Reuters) - The American Bar Association's proposal to double the number of hands-on learning credits that law students must complete to graduate has sparked criticism that the accrediting organization is going too far in controlling the curriculum for legal education. Under the proposed change to the ABA's law school accreditation standards, the number of credits for hands-on learning, known as experiential learning, which students must take would go to 12 from the current six. Students would need to earn at least three of those credits in a clinic or a field placement. And none of the experiential credits — which include clinics, externships, or simulation courses that aim to recreate real legal work — could be taken in a law student's first year. The ABA, which says that the change is necessary to produce practice-ready graduates, adopted the six-credit experiential learning requirement in 2014, but surveys of recent graduates and legal employers continue to find that young lawyers are unprepared, according to the proposal, opens new tab. The ABA's Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admission to the Bar is gathering public comments on the proposal through June 30 with final adoption possible in August. If approved, the changes would go into effect in 2030. Supporters and opponents are making their cases now, before the comment period closes. 'The ABA ought not to be in the business — for the most part — of increasing programmatic requirements that are expensive,' Northwestern Pritzker School of Law professor Daniel Rodriguez told Reuters. He also said doubling the experiential credit requirement leaves less room in law students' schedules to take upper-level seminars or subjects tested on the bar exam. The ABA proposal acknowledged that clinics are more expensive for schools to deliver than other types of classes due to their low student-to-faculty ratios but said their costs are in line with other low-enrollment courses. The ABA did not provide an estimated cost to schools for meeting the proposed new requirement but said schools would have several years to reallocate resources. The ABA has not produced any empirical studies that show law graduates who took 12 or more experiential credits are better lawyers than those who took fewer, Rodriguez said. University of Miami law dean David Yellen said in a post on the law school-focused PrawfsBlawg, opens new tab that the ABA proposal goes beyond what other professional school accreditors require. Doctors, dentists and veterinarians complete more hands-on training than lawyers, but those rules are imposed by schools or licensing requirements, not by their accreditors. The claims of ABA overreach come as the organization faces threats from the Trump administration to strip it of its status as the federally recognized accreditor of U.S. law schools. Supporters of the change, including the Clinical Legal Education Association, say critics are overstating the cost of experiential courses and underestimating how flexible and innovative they can be. Live client clinics cost more than large lectures, said University of Washington in St. Louis clinical professor Robert Kuehn, but so do many other types of law courses. His research shows that law schools that offer more experiential learning opportunities don't charge higher tuition than those with less. 'It's really a choice about how schools spend their money,' Kuehn said. 'It's not that schools don't have the money to do it.' Other ABA curricular requirements for professional responsibility and upper-level writing coursework haven't generated the same level of scrutiny or claims of regulatory overreach as experiential education, said Gautam Hans, a clinical professor at Cornell Law School. The debate over the experiential credit requirement also reflects the longstanding tension between clinical and doctrinal teaching, said University of Florida Levin College of Law clinical professor Sarah Wolking. 'The critics are doctrinal or podium professors,' she said. 'These are people who feel threatened by the idea that nobody is going to fill their niche seminars.' Read more: ABA keeps law school diversity rule on hold into 2026 amid Trump crackdown Law school courses to become more uniform under new ABA accreditation rule
