Author: Nola Jones

A parent experiences a certain type of stress during report card season. It’s a low hum of anxiety, the persistent feeling that you should already know something you don’t, but it’s not quite panic. That sentiment has led thousands of Calgary families to the MyCBE portal, which is powered by a platform that most people just know as CBE PowerSchool. Whether or not they are able to log in is a major factor in whether or not they find relief there. PowerSchool is the primary student information system used by the Calgary Board of Education, one of the biggest public…

Baseball is practically a religion in a small town in Iwate Prefecture, which is tucked away in northern Japan and has long winters. Shohei Ohtani attended high school there. Instead of attending one of the glitzy baseball powerhouses in Osaka or Yokohama, where scouts congregate and attention naturally pours in, he chose Hanamaki Higashi High School, a decision that, in retrospect, reveals nearly everything about the man he would grow up to be. Ohtani never went to college. Not a single campus tour, not a semester. That sounds like a gap, almost like a missing chapter, in the American sports…

Some people don’t just pass through college; instead, they intentionally use it as a tool, even if it doesn’t appear that way. That type of person is Erika Kirk. Long before she emerged as the unexpected face of Turning Point USA after her husband Charlie Kirk was assassinated in September 2025, she was assembling an educational background that, in retrospect, seems almost tailored to her current situation. Unlike most political figures, it began with basketball. Erika, then known as Erika Frantzve, received an athletic scholarship to Regis University in Denver, Colorado, following her graduation from Notre Dame Preparatory High School…

Almost every time someone discusses Lamar Jackson, a detail about him is overlooked. The part where the youngster from Pompano Beach, Florida, had to actually sit in a classroom and figure out how to survive that too is entirely skipped over in favor of highlights like the spin moves, the impossible throws, and the Ravens crowd going crazy. Jackson was raised in Pompano Beach’s Golden Acres public housing development. When he was eight years old, his father passed away on the same day as his grandmother. This kind of loss would crush most adults, much less a child. Felicia Jones,…

San Antonio is not a quiet city. It expands, grows, and bears the burden of one of the biggest school districts in Texas. Tens of thousands of students from a wide range of backgrounds and access levels are served by San Antonio ISD throughout a large portion of the city. It’s not an easy task to get them all into the same digital learning environment. In actuality, it’s quite difficult. And for some reason, the solution turned out to be surprisingly straightforward: one launchpad, one login, and one starting point. ClassLink is that solution, and within SAISD, it has evolved…

In Taylor Swift’s 2022 NYU commencement speech, there is a detail that most people overlooked. She acknowledged that she had previously set the conclusion of her “Love Story” music video at her “fantasy imaginary college,” a made-up college campus. She was unable to live the dream, so she recorded it. More truth about her relationship with formal education can be found in that one confession than in any headline or press release. Swift did not attend a university. That portion is fairly easy. What’s more intriguing is how she reached adulthood without it and what that journey looked like in…

The fact that Florence Pugh, one of the most naturally talented actresses of her generation, felt like she was in the wrong room for the majority of her school years is subtly telling. It’s not exactly the wrong school. The wrong life, that’s all. Oxford provided the backdrop. But she didn’t get much more from the classrooms. Pugh was born in Oxford, England, on January 3, 1996, into a creative family. Her mom was a dancer. Her dad was a restaurant owner. There were four kids in all, and according to most reports, the house exuded energy. Due to Pugh’s…

In Ljubljana, Slovenia’s Miran Jarc Primary School, a picture is displayed on a wall. It depicts a young Luka Doncic with the following quote attributed to him: “I never dreamed of success.” I worked for it.” It’s an eye-catching sight for a school hallway, not because honoring a well-known alumnus is unusual, but because everyone who knew Doncic there will attest to the quote’s veracity. It’s not as common as it seems. Nestled in a verdant Alpine valley, Ljubljana is a city of about 300,000 residents. Basketballs ringing on the pavement, schoolchildren at recess, quiet streets. At the age of…

Beneath highlight reels and contract numbers, there is a detail about Micah Parsons that, once you notice it, alters your perception of the entire narrative. In 2021, he received his degree from Penn State. Not during an off-season when things slowed down, not after four years of quiet on campus. He opted out of his junior season, so he did it while also getting ready for the NFL Draft. That’s a big deal. That’s someone quietly determining that completion is important. The mid-sized state capital city of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where Parsons was raised, is located along the Susquehanna River. It’s…

Most people have a time during their time in college, usually in the last semester, when they start to feel uneasy about the future. Brad Pitt did not receive a resume or a job offer as a result of that moment. It resulted in a car, a suitcase, and a drive toward Los Angeles with no assurances. The story seems almost careless because he was only two credits away from earning a journalism degree from the University of Missouri. Naturally, it appears to be brilliant in retrospect. It was probably frightening at the time. Although Pitt was born in Shawnee,…