While many students take a break during the summer, Rylee Robles, a rising senior at Los Alamitos High School, is leveraging educational tools like artificial intelligence to stay ahead.
Throughout the 2023-24 school year, Rylee balanced class assignments, sports and her role as a student ambassador through the Orange County Department of Education’s OC Pathways initiative, which expands work-based learning opportunities for students.
She was recently interviewed by Spectrum News 1 in Los Angeles, where she discussed her passion for engineering and the potential of AI to revolutionize various industries. During the interview, she highlighted how her experiences with OC Pathways have fueled her interest in technology and inspired her to explore innovative solutions using AI.
“I was interested in all things AI so I asked at the end of one of our meetings about how I can get involved,” said Rylee. “I think it’s an incredible tool to elevate your own work.”
Joining her in the news piece were Kunal Dalal and Wes Kriesel, OCDE’s administrators of artificial intelligence and innovation. Together, they aim to guide the department and Orange County’s districts in harnessing AI to enhance teaching and learning, ultimately improving student outcomes.
In April, Rylee was invited to be a keynote speaker at the Student AI Convening, coordinated by the administrators with support from OC Pathways. She addressed more than 450 students who gathered in Anaheim to attend sessions, learn how AI can improve their educational paths and gain insight from others’ technological innovations.
Here are the other stories we’ve been following this week:
- Language access advocates will gather in Costa Mesa for OCDE’s 2024 Interpreters and Translators Conference, themed “Bridging Communities through Language Access, Education and Artificial Intelligence (AI),” from Oct. 3 through Oct. 5.
- California’s Universal PreKindergarten initiative — launched in 2021 — has seen a surge in early learning enrollment. WIth the recent introduction of new learning foundations for preschool and transitional kindergarten classrooms, the OCDE Newsroom answered some common questions about UPK.
- The Anaheim Elementary School District, under new Superintendent Jesus “Jesse” Chavarria, kicked off the 2024-25 school year on Aug. 8 with plans to expand enrichment programs. This week, Chavarria also discussed his goals for the district in an in-studio interview with KCAL News.
- The Los Alamitos Education Foundation donated $73,185 to the Los Alamitos Unified School District to fund stipends for seven counseling interns for the 2024-25 school year, supporting WellSpaces across all nine district campuses and enhancing the district’s mental health services.
- CalOptima, in partnership with OCDE, hosted the annual Back-to-School Health and Wellness Fair, distributing free school supplies and services — including 1,500 backpacks, 500 bike helmets and over 4,500 shoes — to more than 5,000 attendees.
- The California Department of Education aims to use 75,000 acres of surplus land owned by school districts, including 2,700 acres in Orange County, to build affordable housing for teachers as part of State Superintendent Tony Thurmond’s plan to address the state’s housing crisis and teacher shortage.
- The Orange County Board of Education unanimously approved a resolution to join a legal challenge against California’s AB 1955, which prohibits school districts from enacting parental notification policies regarding a student’s gender identity without the student’s consent.
- Huntington Beach’s City Council voted 4-3 to declare the city a “Parents’ Right to Know” city regarding a child’s gender identity, challenging AB 1955, which restricts educators from disclosing such information without student consent.
- The OC Registrar of Voters randomly selected a Stanton resident’s argument against a $496 million Anaheim Union High School District bond measure to be printed in the voter guide for the November election, choosing it over an Anaheim resident’s submission in a livestreamed public drawing.
- Students from the Centralia School District began their first day of school Tuesday, and at Dysinger Elementary, the campus community was greeted by Fox 11 Good Day LA reporter Bob DeCastro, who documented the festivities.
- A free summer school program at Magnolia Science Academy-Santa Ana, a STEAM public charter school, helps TK and kindergarten students, particularly from immigrant families, combat summer learning loss and transition to school with a mix of academics and enrichment activities.
- Educators are facing pressure to adopt AI technology quickly, but they can learn from setbacks in Los Angeles and San Diego, according to a CalMatters report.
This is the part where we encourage you to keep up with local education news stories by bookmarking the OCDE Newsroom, subscribing for emailed updates and following us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.