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Articles by NU Editorial Contributors
September 3, 2020Best Master’s Degree Programs
We live in an evolving world. Innovations in the tech sector are constantly resculpting the ways we communicate, learn, socialize, and work. From Fortune 500 companies to small local businesses, every corner of the U.S. economy has been impacted by forces like automation, globalization, AI, and the rise of Big Data. If you’re thinking about ...
- August 31, 2020
Finding Your RN Specialty: Forensic Nursing
Forensic nursing bridges healthcare and the legal system, with specialized registered nurses providing trauma-informed care to victims of violence including sexual assault, abuse, and human trafficking while collecting and preserving critical evidence for use in legal proceedings.
- August 27, 2020
Finding Your RN Specialty: Become a Travel Nurse
Registered nurses (or RNs) traditionally work with patients in a hospital or clinic close to where they live. However, there are different types of nurses that work in a variety of other settings. Given the current health and social climate, more and more nurses are going into travel nursing to help in the areas that ...
- August 24, 2020
Finding Your RN Specialty: Become a Public Health Nurse
In many cases, a registered nurse (or RN) works one-on-one with patients in a hospital or private practice setting. However, some RNs take up the cause of looking out for the health and well-being of entire communities. These nurses are public health nurses. If you think you may want to work with your community to ...
- August 20, 2020
Finding Your RN Specialty: Become a Nurse Manager
Whether you just earned your Registered Nursing (RN) license or you’ve been working in a hospital or medical center for years, you may be curious about the different avenues you can pursue within the nursing field. Once you have your nursing degree and RN license, you have the ability to explore new specializations, or switch ...
- August 17, 2020
Most Useful Degrees for Business Owners
No specific degree is required to own a business, many successful entrepreneurs launch without one, but higher education can meaningfully accelerate business success by providing financial literacy, operational knowledge, and leadership skills that take years to acquire through trial and error alone. A Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) provides the broadest foundation, covering management, finance, marketing, and operations, while an MBA adds strategic leadership, organizational management, and the professional network that is particularly valuable when scaling a business or seeking investment.
August 13, 2020Best Degrees and College Courses for Firefighters
The degrees that provide the strongest competitive advantage for firefighters depend on career stage: fire science or fire technology for foundational knowledge and entry-level hiring, emergency management for incident command and disaster response expertise, and public administration or fire administration for promotion into officer and chief roles. While no single "firefighter degree" exists, fire science remains the most direct academic pathway, covering fire chemistry, building construction, hydraulics, codes, and fire prevention, with related roles including fire inspector, fire investigator, and fire marshal.
- August 10, 2020
Essential Soft Skills for Teachers
Soft skills are the interpersonal, behavioral, and emotional competencies that enable educators to build relationships, manage classrooms effectively, and deliver instruction that genuinely reaches students, the foundational layer beneath subject-matter expertise that determines whether knowledge is successfully transferred.
- August 3, 2020
Can You Get a Nursing Degree Online?
Yes, you can get a nursing degree online but with an important distinction based on licensure status. Pre-licensure programs (ASN, ADN, and BSN) that prepare aspiring nurses to become registered nurses for the first time cannot be completed 100% online, because hands-on labs, simulations, and clinical rotations at local healthcare facilities are required components that cannot be replicated virtually. These programs use a hybrid model where all lecture and didactic coursework is completed online while the school arranges clinical placements at partner hospitals and clinics in the student's local area.
- July 30, 2020
Specialized Nursing Fields to Pursue With Your RN Degree
A registered nurse (or RN) has a diverse array of duties and responsibilities. Not only do they care for patients, but they sometimes serve as care coordinators for patients, acting as an intermediary between doctors, patients, and patients’ loved ones. RNs work to inform their individual patients or the public at-large about different health conditions ...
July 27, 2020Everything You Need to Know About Online Engineering Programs
Online engineering programs deliver the same curriculum requirements as on-campus counterparts, typically 120 credits for a bachelor's degree. The most important quality checkpoint before enrolling is accreditation: the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology provides programmatic accreditation that employers and professional engineering licensure boards use to evaluate degree credentials, regardless of whether the degree was earned online or on campus.
- July 23, 2020
Make a Career Switch to an Engineer
Switching to an engineering career is achievable by identifying the discipline that best matches your existing background, bridging skill gaps through targeted education, and building a portfolio that demonstrates practical ability to employers.
- July 21, 2020
How to Select the Right SEL Programs for Your Class
Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) programs equip students with emotional regulation, empathy, and responsible decision-making skills, with evidence consistently linking quality SEL implementation to improved academic performance, reduced emotional distress, and healthier school climates.
- July 16, 2020
What is a Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Specialist?
A Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Specialist is an educator or mental health professional who develops programs and provides direct support to help students build emotional regulation, empathy, and responsible decision-making skills, collaborating with teachers, administrators, and families to foster trauma-informed, inclusive school cultures. Core responsibilities include facilitating direct student support through check-ins and behavioral coaching, designing and implementing school-wide SEL curricula aligned to age and developmental stage, and training teachers and counselors in evidence-based strategies for integrating social-emotional skill development into daily academic instruction.
- July 13, 2020
7 Social Emotional Learning Strategies for Remote Teaching
SEL in remote teaching requires intentional structure to replace the organic relationship-building and emotional attunement that happen naturally in physical classrooms, with five core strategies proven to maintain connection, empathy, and emotional safety in digital learning environments.
- June 29, 2020
Resource and Help for Single Parents in College
Single parents in college can successfully balance education and family by accessing targeted financial aid, campus and community childcare support, flexible program formats, and specialized scholarships designed specifically for student parents, resources that most single parents underutilize despite qualifying for them.
- June 25, 2020
8 Things You May Not Have Realized About Student Parents
Student parents make up more than one in five college students yet remain one of the most underserved demographics in higher education, balancing rigorous coursework with raising children while managing financial pressures that standard financial aid formulas fail to account for, particularly the cost of child care.
- June 22, 2020
4 Ways to Fast-Track Your Teaching Career [Updated 2026]
The fastest routes into a teaching career bypass the traditional four-year education degree by allowing candidates who already hold a bachelor's degree to enter classrooms as paid teachers of record while completing their credential, a pathway that can be completed in as little as 12 to 15 months.