Education

I graduated from the Wharton MBA a year ago, and here’s what I wish someone had told me before I started about recruiting, mindset, and social life. If you're starting this fall, this is for you! 1️⃣ Business school is a buffet (and you'll get indigestion if you try everything) First few weeks - take stock of everything it has to offer. Internships, fellowships, clubs, accelerators, etc. Then ruthlessly prioritize. Take what serves you and leave the buffet. (You’ll still feel FOMO and take on more than you should because you “paid for it” - that’s all part of the process!) 2️⃣ Pivoting is harder than you think Most people don’t get this until it’s too late - employers don’t recruit from MBA programs because they care that you have an MBA. They do it because MBAs filter for experiences/skillsets they want. You need to show them why you can do the job. The degree just gets you in the door - use the network to get the experience and build the skills. More people than you'd think go back to their old industries. 3️⃣ You'll have your "maybe I should recruit for consulting" moment Or banking. Even if you swore you'd never. We all do. When everyone's doing it, you'll second-guess yourself. That's normal! Just remember why YOU came to school. Stick to your plan, not theirs. (Unless your plan was to recruit for consulting/banking) 4️⃣ The social scene is middle school, except people have money (but it’s not all bleak) Hundreds of type-A personalities in one place and a lot of bankers/consultants who didn’t have enough fun in their 20s = drama, hyper-socialization. Who's dating who, who got the Goldman interview, who wasn't invited to that trip…People will talk about you if you stand out (for good or bad reasons). First semester feels intense, especially if you’re an introvert. By second year, everyone chills out and you find your people. 5️⃣ You'll need to touch grass B-school is a bubble. If you're not careful, you'll think comparing signing bonuses and taking out loans to go on another trip with 20 people you just met are real life. See non-MBA friends. Call your family. There’s a hive-mindedness in business school. Don’t lose yourself in it. 6️⃣ The classes are hit or miss (so be strategic) You’ll keep some class notes for decades to come (If you’re going to Wharton - Negotiations, Legal Aspects of Entrepreneurship, Scaling Operations to name a few). You’ll throw away others before the semester is over. Talk to second-years about which classes are actually worth optimizing to get into. Bonus: Do something unexpected. Join the club you think you'd hate. Take the class outside your comfort zone. I signed up for a week-long backpacking trip in the Andes despite every instinct not to and ended up leading a trip to Antarctica my 2nd year (best MBA memory!). People getting an MBA: What's the one thing you're nervous about as you start your MBA? People who have an MBA: What’s the piece of advice you wish you got before you started?

We can’t solve today’s healthcare challenges by clinging to outdated systems. If we’re serious about addressing the workforce crisis, we need to rethink how we train. That means shifting from outdated, 1:1 simulation methods to solutions that actually deliver outcomes at accessible and built around how students learn today, digitally! Simulation must extend beyond brick-and-mortar labs and reach learners wherever they are No-code tools like VRpatients give clinical educators control—enabling them to build custom scenarios that match their curriculum and clinical priorities Instead of continuing to invest millions into centralized sim centers, we should prioritize bringing affordable, high-fidelity simulation directly to students To regulators, educators, and administrators: the shift isn’t just possible—it’s already happening. Now is the time to lead it. Watch how Nightingale College is redefining the future of nursing education—with thousands of students immersed in over 20 hours VR training each semester, with a fully custom library of patient simulations that’s 100% their own. Compare that to the average BSN performing less than 12 total simulations in a four year journey. 👉 Check out the video and see what’s possible when you take training out of the lab and put it into students’ lives. #ClinicalTraining #nursing #nurse #simulation #VR #MR #XR #AI #ImmersiveLearning #HealthTechInnovation #NursingEducation #NightingaleCollege VRpatients

If you're in tech, Python is a skill that can take you far. But where do you start, and how do you progress? Having mentored developers and switched careers into tech myself, I've put together a roadmap that's helped many navigate their Python journey. Here's a breakdown of key areas to focus on as you level up your Python skills: 1. Core Python    Start with the basics - syntax, variables, and data types. Then move on to control structures and functions. This foundation is crucial. 2. Advanced Python    Once you're comfortable with the basics, dive into decorators, generators, and asynchronous programming. These concepts will set you apart. 3. Data Structures    Get really good with lists, dictionaries, and sets. Then explore more advanced structures. You'll use these constantly. 4. Automation and Scripting    Learn to manipulate files, scrape websites, and automate repetitive tasks. This is where Python really shines in day-to-day work. 5. Testing and Debugging    Writing tests and debugging efficiently will save you countless hours. Start with unittest and get familiar with pdb. 6. Package Management    Understanding pip and virtual environments is crucial for managing projects. Don't skip this. 7. Frameworks and Libraries    Depending on your interests, explore web frameworks like Django, data science libraries like Pandas, or machine learning tools like TensorFlow. 8. Best Practices    Familiarize yourself with PEP standards and stay updated on Python enhancements. Clean, readable code is invaluable. Remember, the key isn't just learning syntax - it's applying what you learn to real projects. Start small, but start building. What area of Python are you currently focusing on?

Are you planning to start your journey to become a proficient Python developer? Here's a roadmap that can help you build a strong foundation and master advanced concepts to excel in the world of Python programming. 🔹 Basics: Start from scratch and learn the fundamental concepts of Python, including basic syntax, variables, data types, and conditional statements. Lay the groundwork for your Python knowledge and coding skills. 🔹 Advanced Topics: Delve into the more intricate aspects of Python, such as iterators, decorators, lambdas, and recursion. Explore how these concepts can enhance your code's efficiency and maintainability. 🔹 Package Managers: Familiarize yourself with essential package managers like PyPI and Pip. Learn how to leverage external libraries and modules to enhance your Python projects and streamline development. 🔹 Testing Your Apps: Discover the importance of testing in Python development. Learn about unittest, pyunit, pytest, doctest, and nose frameworks to ensure your applications are robust and reliable. 🔹 Datastructures and Algorithms: Gain proficiency in essential data structures like arrays, linked lists, sets, dictionaries, and hash tables. Additionally, explore sorting algorithms, binary search trees, heaps, stacks, and queries to optimize data manipulation. 🔹 Version Control Systems: Understand the significance of version control in collaborative coding. Master Git, GitHub, GitLab, and BitBucket to efficiently manage your projects and collaborate with other developers. 🔹 Type Casting and Expectations: Learn how to handle data types effectively and set expectations for your functions. Ensure seamless data manipulation and code reliability through proper type handling. 🔹 Object-Oriented Programming (OOP): Dive into the world of OOP and comprehend classes, methods, inheritance, and dunder methods. Harness the power of OOP to build modular, maintainable, and scalable Python applications. 🔹 Asynchronous Python: Explore the asynchronous world with libraries like gevent, Tornado, aiohttp, and Sanic. Understand the concepts behind asynchronous programming and boost the performance of your web applications. 🔹 Web Frameworks: Learn popular web frameworks like Django, Flask, and Pyramid. Create web applications and RESTful APIs with ease, catering to diverse project needs. What would you like to add? Happy to learn more from the experiences!

🏠 17,000 Home Visits. 12 States. One Clear Truth: We've Been Getting School Attendance All Wrong. I'm pleased to share my latest article: "Why Students Miss School, and Why We Miss the Point: Lessons Learned from Concentric Educational Solutions' 17,000+ Home Visits in 2024-2025." As a researcher and a father, this work challenged everything I thought I knew about chronic absenteeism. While my wife Marshella and I struggled with our own "privileged chaos" of getting kids out the door each morning, our team at Concentric Educational Solutions was revolutionizing how we understand attendance challenges by going directly into homes across America, listening to families facing impossible choices with insufficient resources. What Concentric's groundbreaking approach revealed: • Behind every absence statistic is a family story—not a character flaw • Students missing school to care for disabled parents or younger siblings • Families choosing between transportation to school or transportation to work • Children avoiding school due to untreated trauma, bullying, and safety fears • Parents facing truancy court for circumstances completely beyond their control The hard truth: Our punitive approach to attendance—truancy courts, penalties, threatening letters—adds punishment to circumstances that demand support. Concentric's transformative model: Rather than blame families, we provide comprehensive community support that recognizes attendance challenges as symptoms of systemic failures requiring systemic solutions. Our home-visit methodology doesn't just collect data—it builds relationships, identifies real barriers, and connects families to resources that address root causes. The path forward: We need comprehensive community support systems that address housing, healthcare, transportation, and safety as educational issues, not separate concerns. Every child has a story. Every absence has a context. Concentric Educational Solutions is pioneering the compassionate, evidence-based approach our students deserve. Read the full article to understand why attendance challenges are symptoms of systemic failures, not individual shortcomings—and how Concentric's innovative work is showing us what true educational equity looks like. #EducationEquity #StudentAttendance #SystemicChange #CommunitySupport #EducationalResearch #ConcentricEducationalSolutions

Today we unveil our inaugural list of Skills on the Rise in Education, a data-backed ranking of the 10 fastest-growing skills that education professionals should be investing in to get ahead in today’s world of work. The list suggests that more technical skills like AI Literacy (No. 1) or Data Entry & Analysis (No. 2) are essential to keeping up with workplace changes — but it also highlights the sustained importance of people-oriented skills for education professionals, like Conflict Mitigation (No. 5) and Interdisciplinary Collaboration (No. 6). To compile the list, we looked at unique LinkedIn data to reveal the education skills that professionals are increasingly adding and that companies are increasingly hiring for. Check out the full list of Skills on the Rise in the U.S. and our methodology here: https://lnkd.in/SkillsontheRise25US. Which skills stand out to you on the list? And what other education skills do you see rising in demand right now? Tell us in the comments. #SkillsOnTheRise

“You’re too smart for Community College.” A well meaning but misinformed teacher said that to our daughter. Sophia had a 4.5 GPA her senior year and chose to enroll in Community College. College costs have skyrocketed in the past few decades. 17 and 18 year olds are getting loans for tens of thousands of dollars that they don’t understand the terms of. Some end up in debilitating debt for decades. Debt that can leave them feeling overwhelmed before they even start their first job. We didn’t want that for our kid. We looked at what we could afford, not where she could get in. There was no ‘dream’ school. We didn’t set foot on a campus that was out of our budget. We knew we could cash flow two years of a California UC or state school. We encouraged her to take the Community College route, transfer to a state or UC and graduate debt free. Did you know that Community College is FREE in over 30 states? Shaving two years off the costs of a four year degree can save a student anywhere between $60,000-$170,000+. Sophia worked while living at home attending Sierra College. She’ll graduate debt free with tens of thousands in investments and savings. This took delayed gratification on her part, but it paid off. As a transfer student she was just accepted to: UC San Diego UC Davis UC Santa Barbara Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and waitlisted at UC Berkeley and UCLA She accepted admission to Cal Poly SLO. She’s setting herself up for a lifetime of success. Debt free after college, with a hefty savings and investment amount. What I wish the teacher who told her was too smart for Sierra knew, is that she is actually wise beyond her years. As graduation approaches, celebrate all kids. The ones going into trades, the military, entrepreneurship, Community College or straight to a university. There is no ‘right’ path. Only what’s best for your kid. Source: Amy Perkins AlwaysFeelHappy.com ___ #FinancialLiteracy #DebtFree #CalPolySLO

📢 How can you better position yourself to land a new job? 💼 A recent The Wall Street Journal article highlights the increasing difficulties MBA graduates face in securing employment. Notably, 23% of Harvard Business School's 2024 MBA graduates were still job hunting three months post-graduation, up from 20% the previous year. Despite the hurdles, MBAs who land jobs tend to secure sizable paychecks, with median base starting salaries around $175,000, according to school data. 💰💼 This reinforces the value of an MBA but also underscores the need for graduates to adapt and stand out in a competitive market. To enhance your employability, consider the following strategies: 1️⃣ Bridge the Skills and Knowledge Gap 🧠🔧 With companies like McKinsey & Company, Amazon and Google reducing MBA hires significantly, it's crucial to understand and acquire in-demand skills, such as AI proficiency and technical expertise. 2️⃣ Build Your Personal Brand 🌟🖥️ In a market where traditional recruiting methods are shifting, establishing a strong online presence through platforms like LinkedIn can set you apart. Share insights, showcase your expertise, and engage with industry professionals to enhance your visibility. 3️⃣ Reintroduce Yourself to Your Network 🤝📧 Given the reduction in on-campus recruitment, leveraging your existing network is more important than ever. Inform connections about your new degree/qualifications and seek opportunities through referrals and informational interviews. Adapting to the evolving job market requires a proactive approach. By #upskilling, enhancing your #personalbrand, and actively #networking, you can better position yourself for success. 💪🚀 #MBA #JobMarket #Careers #Leadership #Thinkers50 #Coach #Professor #Advisor #MG100 #BestAdvice #JennyFernandez   Read the full WSJ article here: https://lnkd.in/efZFPZ8U

The IEP Was the Key: How We Moved from a F to a B in One Year As the principal of a struggling school, I realized we couldn’t talk about schoolwide progress until we got honest about one thing: we were ignoring the students whose scores counted the most—those with IEPs. So, I called a meeting with my Assistant Principal and our Special Education (SPED) team. We laid the data bare. There were students in SPED who, if given direct access to grade-level instruction—with scaffolds and support—could rise. And they did. We launched a bold shift: ✅ Integrated instruction: SPED students were moved into classrooms where they learned with their grade-level peers, not isolated from them. Instructional assistants helped bridge the learning gaps. ✅ Teacher training: Many of our SPED teachers had never taken a formal reading course in college. We fixed that. ✅ IEP accountability: Some students’ IEPs hadn’t been updated since entry into the program. We worked with parents—many of them single mothers—to revise those plans with high expectations and real opportunity. ✅ Dual teaching: We taught between the gaps, aligning cognitive growth with grade-level standards. And the result? We moved from a F school to a B school in just one year. This wasn’t a miracle. It was a mindset. A refusal to let the label limit the learner. It proved what we’ve always known deep down: All students are capable of the 95%. They just need the 100% from us.

The Microsoft and LinkedIn 2024 Work Trend Index Annual Report is out, and unsurprisingly, AI is rapidly transforming the global workforce. Based on a survey of 31,000 people across 31 countries, here are the highlights, and what it means for education. Key Highlights: - AI usage has more than doubled in the last 6 months, with 75% of global knowledge workers reporting using GenAI tools. - 79% of leaders agree their company needs to adopt AI to stay competitive, but 60% worry their organization lacks a plan and vision to implement it. - 78% of AI users are bringing their own AI tools to work (BYOAI), cutting across all generations. - Leaders say they would not hire someone without AI skills (66%) and would prefer a less experienced candidate with AI skills over a more experienced one without them (71%). - AI power users are experimenting frequently with AI, getting support and encouragement from leadership, and receiving tailored AI training. They are seeing significant benefits in productivity, creativity, and job satisfaction. What does it mean for education? - Experience with AI is becoming a key hiring criteria, in part due to research that shows that GenAI use can significantly decrease skill gaps. - 77% of leaders say early-in-career talent will be given greater responsibilities due to AI. This has major implications for how schools and universities prepare students for the job market. - Only 39% of people who use AI at work have received AI training from their company, and only 25% of companies plan to offer training on generative AI this year. This gap between need for training and availability is similarly playing out in schools and systems right now. - As AI reshapes work, the skills required for jobs are projected to change significantly. Educational institutions will need to adapt curricula to focus on the uniquely human skills that will be most valuable in an AI-enabled work world, such as creativity, critical thinking, and relationship building. The rapid rise of AI is transforming the workplace and the job market and the entire education ecosystem has an essential role to play in equipping students and workers with the AI skills and aptitudes that are and will be most in-demand. For the full report, visit: https://lnkd.in/eyfSRzNj AI for Education #aiforeducation #aieducation #durableskills #GenAI #AIliteracy