There’s a segment of service in health care, a conditional response for the most serious of cases. Semantically, it means any course of care that deals in relief and not cure, but palliative care is most often referenced in regards to the desolate and incurable cases. End-of-life cases. Make-them-comfortable cases. It’s a course of healing that exists for those that can’t be helped. The too far gone, the forgotten. And it is not a small decision for doctors to place a patient

There’s a growing divide in the United States. Not the one between political parties, though this seems to garner most of our attention lately. There’s a much more important, consequential divide in education. More and more opportunities are tied to a college degree. It’s woven into the new American Dream, a nearly ubiquitous marker of success. And in our national consciousness, the path to college is fair, even, entirely reliant on a student’s aptitude, effort, and talent. B

Success comes in many forms. Ralph Waldo Emerson once described achieving success in these words: “To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier

Over the last three years I have had the pleasure of teaching high school students in North Tulsa at both Central High School and McLain High School. My students have a lot to say and share with anyone willing to listen. However, they often lack a formal platform to voice their opinions, and, maybe most importantly, they often lack an audience dissimilar from themselves. You see, my students generally receive one of three reactions when they’re out around town: they’re overlo

Creating change. It was the most challenging part of being a counselor. I remember the sobering experience of sitting across from a client who was in distress. When I looked at her, I could see her strengths, her potential, her resilience, and the overwhelming spectrum of possibilities that lay ahead in her future. All she could see was her circumstances rising up around her creating a wall of limitations. The truth is, it’s really difficult to change someone’s perspective us