Exam

A blonde teenager balanced a stack of papers in his hand as he spoke with his Honors Humanities professor. He had something to announce to the class. His name is Greg Pierson and he is running for City Council. In order to officially announce his candidacy, Pierson needed at least 50 signatures on his petition. To earn even more signatures, he also carried with him a stack of voter registration forms since only Missouri voters’ signatures on the petition would be valid. Eventually Pierson earned

To read more about High School 2.0, visit our media partner the Columbia Missourian . COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT Host: Welcome to Exam on KBIA where we talk all education around Missouri. I'm Kassidy Arena. Columbia Public Schools is teaming up with Moberly Area Community College or MACC to help students earn their associate’s degree while still in high school. The proposed plan is set to launch in fall of 2020. The name of the program is still under discussion, but tentatively it’s known as High

MU senior Daniel Serres and junior Vanessa Ramírez walked into a room with 15 other student entrepreneurs. Each team had their own business idea and vied for the opportunity to win up to $30,000 in start-up funds after pitching their idea to a panel of judges. The 15 businesses had been chosen from a pool of 50 applicants. “Every room we walk in, we’re constantly thinking like, how we can collaborate with people,” Ramírez said. “So we see competition, but at the same time, we also see potential

Shaashawn Dial has worn a lot of hats. She’s a poet. A former host of an R&B radio station. A former head of equity and affirmative action in a state capitol. A business owner. But perhaps the most important role is a mentor. She’s helped people leave abusive relationships, adults get their GEDs and undergraduate students navigate college life. And now Dial is the first director of diversity, equity and inclusion at Stephen's College. “I am about women making decisions for themselves

The Study Plan Coordinator (SPC) Program started at MU 11 years ago when founder and organizer Yve Solbrekken found her workload was getting too heavy. Solbrekken helped students with time management and study practices. As more and more students began signing up to work with her, she realized there was a pattern in students’ needs. She then hired student tutors to take over the job and called them SPCs. The individualized program provides students with resources ranging from a step-by-step

Complete Transcript: Host Introduction: Welcome to Exam on KBIA, where we talk all about education and academic issues all across Missouri. I'm Kassidy Arena and this week, KBIA's Xcaret Nunez went to Centro Latino, a place that provides resources to Columbia's immigrant population. Xcaret Nunez: The availability of resources for immigrants is very limited, especially in Missouri. Since 2017, data shows that four percent of the state’s residents are immigrants and this community continues to

The #metoo movement shed light on people in power taking advantage of those working for them, but in many homes across mid-Missouri, the power imbalance is right there…in people’s marriages, dating relationships and other partnerships with people. Mary Beck is looking to change that. She is the director of the Family Violence Clinic where she oversees law students who represent survivors of domestic violence. These students help survivors with a litigation plan, economic plan and safety plan.

Dr. James Wells, professor of Classics at DePauw University in Indiana visited the MU campus to talk about the importance of translation in modern day. Wells himself wasn’t aware of the classics until well into his own undergraduate studies. He first went to school to study science. “A D in Biology and a little note on my first calculus test, which read, I suggest you perhaps drop this course and try again in the future sort of tanked my career as a scientist,” Wells said. Although it did lead

Thrive Coffee and Creamery has the aesthetic of any Instagram-able business on the outside: tiffany blue adornments, flowers on the counter, homemade ice creams. But the similarities end there. Thrive is a 100 percent nonprofit corporation with the goal of giving every dollar earned back to the community. Thrive opened in the summer of 2019 after president of the board Clayton Kreisel and his fellow board member and wife Amanda bought and renovated an old woodworking shop. Kreisel is a pastor

Kristin Bowen is the leader of Columbia’s local Moms Demand Action group. Moms Demand Action is a locally-funded group that focuses on gun safety with chapters across the United States. Bowen started the Columbia organization in 2015 because she said the issue of gun violence, like many parents, affected her emotionally. “My youngest son is the same age as the children who were in the Sandy Hook classroom,” Bowen said. “And it just felt like, since 2012, and when that happened, there were so