Alyson Nelson has been teaching science to high school students for more than a decade and believes setting lofty expectations rather than underestimating them will help her students achieve even loftier goals. After completing her bachelor’s degree from Clemson University, Nelson began working at Mauldin High School in South Carolina and simultaneously pursued her master’s degree in educational technology and a graduate certificate in school technology coordination at Boise State University. Now she teaches biomedical engineering at the Nikola Tesla STEM High School in Redmond, WA.

Hired in 2013 to develop a signature STEM Lab at the recently opened school, Nelson says people are surprised to hear high school students are taking biomedical engineering courses. Her students are 17-18 years old and developing prosthetics, trying to better understand pandemic infections, and looking for ways to care for and cure patients. “My students are really open to whatever they want to pursue. When the project is relevant to them, they are so much more confident in what they are doing, and they’re so much more passionate about really finding a solution,” said Nelson.

Ms. Nelson was recently named a Paul Allen Distinguished Educator, which “recognizes and rewards teachers who ‘break the mold’ of traditional schooling to provide students with opportunities to become thinkers, makers, and creators through computer science, engineering, and entrepreneurship.” To learn more about Alyson’s work visit the Boise State University website and her webpage on the Allen Distinguished Educators website.

Visit the GradImpact Feature Gallery to learn more about the amazing, innovative research being done by graduate students and alumni across the world.

For international students, studying in the United States may be losing some of its luster. While there were more international students here in the 2016-17 academic year than ever before, there are signs that the growth has begun to slow.

Fill the pipeline and get talented prospects ready by adopting these strategies.

Extensive research demonstrates that the gender pay gap exists, but there are many skeptics who still think otherwise.

We look at the social media movement, #blackandhooded, which has grown from a hashtag on social media into a scholarship fund and network for black academics. We talk with one founder and then talk to an analyst about why minority students are so underrepresented in graduate studies.

In an opinion piece published last week, Julie R. Posselt and Casey W. Miller, made the argument that the “test-optional” movement not only has merit but must be a conversation in doctoral programs across the country. We agree that “a serious conversation about current admissions” in graduate education is necessary. We agree that this conversation requires critical introspection and candid conversations. But, we caution faculty members and admissions committees to look beyond what may seem a simple solution of going test-optional before addressing the hard work of analysis and introspection.

Private lenders hold just a fraction of the outstanding student loan debt in the U.S. -- about 7.7 percent as of last year. But those companies have plans to grow their student loan holdings. And they argue that with the help of Congress, they could play an even bigger role in the student loan marketplace -- as they formerly did.

The U.S. is a popular destination for international graduate students, especially those pursuing degrees in fields like engineering and business. But that interest may be waning. In fall 2017, international applications to U.S. graduate schools and first-time international student enrollment both declined for the first time in more than a decade, according to a survey of 377 U.S. institutions from the Council of Graduate Schools. Applications were down 3 percent from fall 2016, and new international student enrollment dropped 1 percent.

Donald Trump’s travel ban could be responsible for a fall in the number of applications and enrolments from international students to the US – the first decline in both numbers since 2003. New figures from the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) show that first-time enrolments have dropped by 1%, and final application counts by 3%.

Applications have jumped at journalism schools across the country. After five years of “consistent” application numbers, Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism saw a 10 percent increase for the 2017-2018 school year, a spokeswoman said. (Graduate schools in the US have seen applications rise about 1 percent annually in recent years, according to a report from the Council of Graduate Schools.)