When a person wants to better themselves, there is no better way to do this than by getting a quality education. In today's world, education is the key to empowerment. Education is a gift and a privilege many take for granted. The purpose of this project is to identify non-traditional female students who are returning to or just beginning their college experience and assist them in obtaining their degree. The intention of the project is to educate these female students on how to locate and utilize financial resources, tutoring, scheduling, etc. as well as develop their leadership potential. The female population at Delgado Community College is 68% female with 52% of those students being age 25 or older. By identifying the ways in which these students can succeed, it will show higher retention and completion rates. By being able to teach students how to recognize their leadership abilities and develop their core leadership strengths, this leadership development studies course will enable them to reach their full potential. A person who is teaching others how and what it means to be an effective leader is sharing his or her knowledge of what it means to be a true leader.

On June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Clinic, overturning its 1973 decision in Roe and allowing states to regulate abortion. Twelve states immediately criminalized abortion care, precipitating chaos around the country. In Texas, abortion clinics had closed in September 2021, causing patients to travel to Oklahoma and beyond. Oklahoma's clinics closed in May 2022. After Dobbs, residents of Oklahoma and Texas joined residents of three other states seeking limited clinic appointments in access states like Kansas, Illinois and Colorado. More than 50% of these appointments were for medication abortions. Due to changes in federal regulations about telehealth care, abortion pills could also be ordered online, letting prospective patients obtain the same pills available in clinics at home, without travel. The goal of this study is to understand why abortion-seekers from Texas and Oklahoma chose to travel long distances for their pills, instead of ordering online. Clinic patients were surveyed to answer the research question: What do women who choose to travel to a clinic for medication abortion, from their homes in states where it is extra-legal or illegal, believe about telemedicine and clinic provision? The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of SUNY Empire State University. Data was collected April-June 2023 at a medication abortion clinic in Kansas. Adult residents of Texas or Oklahoma who traveled to the clinic for a medication abortion were offered a survey during their visit. The survey collected demographics and asked which alternatives the patient considered to end the pregnancy, which factors influenced their decision to travel to the clinic, and whether they thought that mailing abortion pills for home use is legal in their state. If they considered a method using mail-order pills (abortion pills online or telehealth), they were asked why they decided against it. Findings indicate that speed to appointment date was the top priority for the patients sampled; at the time of data collection, mail-order pills could take up to three weeks to arrive. Legality of the clinic appointment was also a concern for a majority. Privacy was a secondary concern. Seeing a doctor, the defining feature of a clinic visit, did not seem important. While many respondents were concerned about the legality of ordering pills for home use, most were confused about whether it was legal in their state. Based on these findings, policy implications of the shift to self-managed abortion and the impact of abortion access on public health outcomes are explored. Policy recommendations are offered to support access to abortion, despite criminalization of abortion practice in 13 states. Further study is needed to understand what information and messaging informs potential users of at-home abortion about their options.

The purpose of this curriculum design was to create a supplemental unit that would integrate technology to enhance, increase and motivate early childhood learning. The curriculum is focused on literacy skills specifically alphabet knowledge and pre-writing. In this curriculum there are a variety of learning activities that integrate technology while also using traditional ways of learning. It is also important to guide parents on how to reinforce technology effectively at home. In addition to the curriculum, a plan for teachers was also designed. A mentor teacher program and a professional development plan are crucial to ensure that technology is integrated into an early childhood classroom effectively. Teachers must acquire the skills and confidence to use technology in their classroom. They must also receive ongoing support and training throughout the curriculum to create meaningful technology learning experiences for their students. As a result, teachers can use technology as an effective tool by promoting instruction for students that can reach a variety of learning styles and needs.

Public education has become increasingly standardized and academically focused in the past decade. As a result, traditional kindergartens which provided young children their first experiences out of the home have all but disappeared. Preschool programs have now replaced the kindergarten experience, but with an increased focus on academics. Children have less time to play, and early childhood educators are often not educated about the developmental significance of play or how to support play. The following is a critique of the highly standardize and scripted trend in education as developmentally inappropriate and detrimental to children’s development in the five essential domains of early childhood. Further, it proposes how early childhood classrooms should support self-directed play, why it is the correct cognitive approach to learning for young children, and how to assess if the classroom is organized in such a way that supports children in the essential domains: physical, social, emotional, language, and cognitive development through varied approaches to learning via self-directed play.