Hope for AI and Education by Leah

Hope for AI and Education by Leah - September 2025 Scholarship Essay

Recently, in a town hall company meeting where I work as a utilization management nurse consultant, our president of technology mentioned that in the next 5 years, our healthcare system will be unrecognizable because of AI. I paused in thought. I have been a nurse for over 20 years, most of those spent at the bedside, until making the leap into remote work in 2022. I reflected on my years in the hospital. In the medical ICU 18 years ago, my job was complex and demanding, but not wildly different from my work in the neuro ICU just three years ago. Advances have been made without a doubt, and I was always learning new skills and studying the use of new medications. But overall, my role as a nurse felt the same.

I mentioned his comment to my friend, and she had been thinking about the same thing, regarding education, however. She had just dropped off her only child for her first day of kindergarten and said, “Nothing is how I remember it from when I started school.” She worried she’d be lost on how to relate to it all. I had children earlier, and two of my children are already in high school, the oldest in her senior year. Suddenly, it became evident to me that in the last 5 years, since the start of the pandemic, their schools and educational experience have already dramatically changed. They no longer use workbooks or require binders; the TI-85 calculator has not been purchased, and we no longer make trips to the library for anything. I am seeing this for myself, as I am back to school for the first time in 2 decades, and my entire master’s program is online without a single textbook purchased from the campus bookstore or 8:00 am live lecture in a large auditorium.

One can argue both ways on whether some of these technological advances are a greater help or hindrance to the growing minds of young students, now locked into their screens for both school and socializing, easily 12 hours a day. When it comes to AI, I come from the generation of Terminator, so the ongoing comments of how the robots are taking over never end. But as I prepare my oldest for college and help her hone her interests towards career goals, I believe she is far better prepared for what lies ahead than I was at her age.

In the next 10 years, I hope our technological advances help identify students’ areas of interest far sooner than the current approach. They do not have to fall into the cookie-cutter assembly line of education that spits out our future doctors, lawyers, and teachers. If AI can understand human nuances often before we identify them ourselves, I hope this can be used to enhance our education system, making it a far more personalized approach for each student. They could have access to subjects that they ordinarily only get exposed to in college because they have shown potential for true interest and expertise in a specific field. Our current education system often breaks down the creative genius we innately are, molding us into adults we surrender to become rather than aspire to be. What an incredible opportunity we have in front of us to design an educational pathway that truly allows individuals to thrive as their own unique person rather than conform to culture.

Unfortunately, the first career aptitude test I ever took was in my senior year of college. From elementary school onward, we are tested on knowledge in specific subjects, gifted potential, and possible learning disabilities, but we are not tested for areas of interest. Why is that? I hope that in the next 10 years, part of the education system’s standardized testing includes AI-generated personality tests of sorts. It wouldn’t be to lock a student into a particular area or career path from the age of 5, but it would serve as a guide to subjects that ignite their interest and inspire them. Where we are inspired, we thrive.
This would be a significant cost-saving advancement in education. With easy access through AI-driven designs and approaches, students can develop their initial curiosity about new subjects years before college. They wouldn’t feel pressured to invest tens of thousands of dollars into a single major only to encounter a new area of interest later and feel tied to that first choice. The time and money wasted on a field they initially thought they should pursue could trap them in decades of an unfulfilling career. Why not let AI recognize those skills and interests in our students early on in their schooling and help direct the parents and teachers to the appropriate classes for those students? The entire education system could save a fortune for our younger generations if we catered the system to the students’ interests.

My youngest is in second grade, so I have a front-row seat to the changing education system. With all our advances surrounding AI, I can only hope we also transform the system to one that truly teases out the phenomenal gifts our young minds have and really identify ways we can help them achieve their dreams. If anything, I need them to understand AI as well as AI understands them, because I’ll need a guide out of the robot war. I’m kidding. I think.