Turning soldiers into scholars by turning military experience into college credit

The Pakistani government uses technology, like a state-owned TV channel that broadcasts content for grades 1-12 and apps sourced for free by ed-tech companies, to help the over 50 million school children without broadband internet or digital device access. The TV channel has over 54 million subscribers and there is a text-messaging service that allows its 250,000 subscribers to talk to professional teachers. Despite the digital divide, the use of educational apps has also skyrocketed since the Covid-19 pandemic. However, technology is not a silver bullet to solve the country’s deep education inequalities.

Medical students have found creative ways to pitch in during the Coronavirus pandemic when they are not yet certified to work with patients. Students across the country are organizing to help out by doing things like offering childcare for medical workers and sourcing personal protective equipment from a range of businesses. The students themselves say that they are happy to do "anything we can do to relieve burden on the real heroes.”

Many undocumented students are often encumbered when seeking prosperous avenues to college affordability and DREAMer’s Roadmap app is changing that. The app, founded by Sarahi Espinoza Salamanca—an undocumented immigrant—works to help connect other undocumented students with scholarship opportunities by letting students search through a free database of scholarships, and sending users alerts via text, email or social media when new scholarships are added to the system.

To help fix the hyper-competitive college application process, a coalition of universities are trying to develop a more equitable process. The coalition has developed a set of tools for students including a free app that helps provide straight-forward information about the application process to more than 600 colleges and universities, a "collaboration platform" where students can share their application materials and receive feedback from mentors or coaches, as well as virtual storage for students to save documents and work pertinent to their college application.

Community colleges were originally designed to be affordable and accessible, yet the myriad pressures on students means that the best intentions often don’t lead to positive results. But the University of Central Florida and its partners are proving a new model called DirectConnect—heavy on individual attention and clear academic goals—that paves a surer path.

More than one million service members, veterans and their families take college courses financed with federal tax dollars. Their experiences are more complicated than those of their fresh-faced civilian peers, leading entities to explore the most effective ways to ensure they graduate.

The University of Arizona's student-run CUP women's clinic provides free preventive and primary care to uninsured Southern Arizona women. In 2025, they served 61 unique patients, a 35% increase from the prior year, and trained future physicians in community-based medicine and health equity.

The Arizona Arts Rx program at the University of Arizona connects students experiencing anxiety, depression, and loneliness with arts and cultural experiences, from glassblowing to theater performances, as a complement to traditional mental health care. In its first year, the program generated 131 referrals and achieved an 80% show-up rate. Participants report feeling reduced anxiety, less loneliness and better overall well-being.

The "Let's Talk" program, originally developed at Cornell University in 2006 to address mental health stigma among students of color, offers free drop-in sessions with licensed clinicians at UConn and more than 100 colleges nationwide. The program removes common barriers to mental health care by requiring no appointment, insurance, or long-term commitment, and intentionally stages services in high-traffic campus areas to reach underserved students.

Penn State's Collegiate Recovery Community offers peer-based support to students recovering from substance use disorders on a campus where party culture is deeply embedded. Founded in 2011, the program provides peer support groups, 12-step and SMART recovery meetings and a sober living house. The program's director attributes its success to peer relatability, as students sharing the same campus, pressures, and life stage can connect and build a supportive community.