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This fall, eight Â鶹ÊÓƵ LIFE students interned across 16 different congressional offices on Capitol Hill as part of the Gregg and Livingston Harper Congressional Internship Program for Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities.

The Dr. Alan and Sally Merten Family of the Year Award honors the essential role families play in supporting their students at Â鶹ÊÓƵ. Students nominate their families, and the Family of the Year Award is announced at Family Weekend in the fall. The Choi family is the 14th Family of the Year recipient. 

Sue Slocum, professor in the Tourism and Events Management Program at Â鶹ÊÓƵ, received a Fulbright Specialist Program award in support of a project on how best to prepare students for jobs in Tajikistan’s tourism economy. She went for a month to advise and collaborate with faculty from the International University of Tourism and Entrepreneurship of Tajikistan.

Â鶹ÊÓƵ, in partnership with local school divisions, received more than $150,000 from the Virginia Department of Education to pilot the Principal Registered Apprenticeship Program.

An open house at Fuse at Â鶹ÊÓƵ Square offered an exciting glimpse into the future for Â鶹ÊÓƵ’s ACCESS Academy, complete with robotics demonstrations and hands-on technology experiences. Behind the buzz and energy was a deeper message: Through a collaborative partnership with Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA), ACCESS Academy freshmen will take their first college course this spring, an opportunity rarely available to ninth-grade students.

This summer, Â鶹ÊÓƵ hosted the Pathways to Quantum Immersion Program, preparing high school students for careers in the rapidly emerging field of quantum science.

Tommy Everett and Sarah Hormel Everett have pledged $1.2 million to expand the existing endowed scholarship in honor of their son, Mats Von Quillfeldt, a former Â鶹ÊÓƵ LIFE student. The scholarship was established to help defray the costs associated with attending Â鶹ÊÓƵ LIFE, including tuition, fees, housing, textbooks, and related expenses.

Computer science and education are coming together to develop a virtual classroom for math education.

In her first year of teaching, Emmeline Mejia, MEd ’24, has already earned one of Fairfax County Public Schools' top honors: 2025 Outstanding New Secondary Teacher of the Year. It's a milestone that speaks volumes about her passion for education and her commitment to multilingual learners at Justice High School in Falls Church, Virginia.

Faculty across the College of Education and Human Development, working with University Libraries, are exploring AI-powered ways to bridge the gap between research and practice in education.