Required Learning Practicum — Alliant Mentoring Session

The student opened by confirming an outstanding signature item on her safety document — once signed, she takes a screenshot and submits it. Art Fuller acknowledged a system limitation: leadership doesn't always see what students see, and sometimes doesn't receive the same notifications students receive. A round of check-ins followed. Carah Ann and Sabrena Marie reported doing well. Dr. Danica Nestor joined after being on mute, greeting the group. Raymond Williams checked in from the road, noting he had just finished a podcast recording. Art noted two absences: Adona (sick) and Dr. Angie (family emergency), and asked the group to keep both in their thoughts and prayers.

Art introduced a new Alliant University student to Dr. Nestor: Diana Cisneros. Diana shared that she is with Alliant, currently works exploring art at a Regional Center serving adults with disabilities, and that this was her first meeting with everyone. Dr. Nestor welcomed her warmly. Art then checked in with Aasha Byers, confirming she could attend Saturday sessions. Aasha explained she runs errands but can carve out time, noting the different time zones, and confirmed she can join.

Art explained the safety assignment requirement and the standard template Voice Up provides. He confirmed that Dr. Nestor needs to sign off on each safety document, and offered to share the template link in chat and follow up via email. Sabrena Marie confirmed her safety document is complete pending a signature, as long as what was discussed in email is accurate. The student reported she answered the questions and sent them to Dr. Nestor via Google Docs, but raised a recurring issue: Voice Up emails route to a quarantine folder in her Alliant email, so she may not receive them for days. She also asked whether she should use Voice Up's template or her school's template. Art said he would share the template link and follow up. Technical difficulties followed (slow computer, frozen screen, chat function not working). The student then asked how to access the nine competencies link; Art confirmed it is a separate link that would be shared after the meeting.

Art announced a resource added within the last day: a page linking each of the nine competencies directly to the required standards. When opened, it offers two different types of videos to select from, plus activities, questions, and reflections. Aasha Byers asked whether the resource includes her, since she is not officially enrolled in a program — she is with Voice Up for sports and psychology. Art confirmed it does, noting she is working with three athletes right now, one with a detailed interview, and that this will help advance her goal with NBA athletes. Art described how content is personalized across themes — science and health, sports and mental health, AI and safety, music and heritage, public service and law, and current events. He emphasized that the platform gets more personalized every single week based on the information students share. The student asked how to access the competency steps visible on the side; Art confirmed the link would come after the meeting.

Art asked how many had a chance to play around with the Base 44 platform, noting he already knew who had. Sabrena Marie confirmed she had done some things on there. Aasha Byers said she had, but felt a little lost and had emailed Art hoping she was doing it right. Art used the "blank sheet of paper" analogy: the platform is blank, waiting on the student's ideas. Aasha asked about designing for sports psychology — the platform gave her a home journal and schedule, but as an artist she wanted to know how to design it, upload pictures and videos, and make it her own creation, even as a website. Art explained the platform will do almost exactly what you ask — the more specific you are, the better it creates what you want; if you're not specific, it creates something not specific. Raymond Williams advised the best way to get started: create a one-pager of ideas in a Word doc, then upload that document into Base 44 to streamline the process. Carah Ann shared she started by developing an idea for the Samuel Coleridge-Taylor internship platform. She spent a whole hour writing it out, and Base 44 created a general draft from her specific bullet points. She noted it needs more research and more accurate information, but it went word-for-word and bullet-point-for-bullet-point of what she wanted. Sabrena Marie reported she found a way to transfer her app over to the Voice Up app. Her app is for California regional-based centers to help clients become more educated on services they may be eligible for. She is now working on translating it into 20 different languages, since language is a big barrier. Her goal is to eventually use it at work or have regional centers use it. She noted the platform is mostly responsive, though she sometimes has to reword prompts. Art encouraged embracing discomfort: thinking about a project changes as you work through it, and he encouraged leaning into that discomfort because what you create may surprise you. Dr. Nestor reflected on Jose's prior semester work — she found the integration and implementation of foundational social work skills interesting, and the more she found what was missing, the more she thought bigger. She called Base 44 an incredible learning tool because students are building something that can actually be utilized in real life. Diana Cisneros said she hadn't started yet because she didn't have the link. Adawna Danly said she opened it but wasn't doing schoolwork — she runs three billiards leagues and was trying to make a platform for their scores.

Art reminded students that all time spent planning class-related things related to the app is automatically tracked. On the 300 hours requirement — about 17 or 18 hours per week — students have case studies, videos linked directly to standards, and a whole app-based platform where they can explore ideas. Everything counts toward hours.

Raymond Williams reinforced the prompting lesson: be specific in what that looks like — the clearer and more specific you are, the more you get what you want. If you put in something generic, the platform gives you what it thinks you want. He pointed to Base 44's discussion/discuss mode: if you have a question before you build, you can talk to it — "Hey, I don't understand what you just said. I want this to do X, Y, Z. Are you capable of creating this?" He advised not to overthink it when working in it. To Aasha, he recommended revisiting her conversation, putting it down in Word, being specific about what she wants, and letting Base 44 create the framework. He clarified it's not necessarily a website — it's a web application. He closed with encouragement: everybody has something they can do — put it on paper, get a general idea, and ask how to make it work or use it for others.

Art shared a real example from that morning: a meeting with Overcome UK, an organization Voice Up has been collaborating with for about two sessions. They are now at the stage of deploying a platform Voice Up helped build, and over time will be training about 1,000 people a month using it. He connected this to the students' work: if you can describe specifically what you want to see in a tool, the AI on this platform can create it, test it, and produce a fully functioning resource that other people can use. He asked the group: if we can do that in two 30-minute sessions, what else can we do in three 30-minute sessions? Dr. Nestor reflected that it's exciting but also a little scary, having watched an AI documentary over the weekend. She's excited about getting time back, because there aren't enough hours in the day, but noted it's all happening so fast. Art recalled a prior conversation: you may not get invited to the table, but you may be able to create your own. He affirmed that's a real thing — Voice Up has the ability to create a table for what they are passionate about and connect other people to it. He praised Sabrena's 20-language translation work, then elaborated on translation accuracy challenges (citing an Urdu-speaking student example) before reiterating the meeting takeaways: the safety document template, the two competency/theme links, and the Base 44 platform link.

Diana Cisneros raised a scheduling question about the 30-minute practicum visit, asking whether it's better to send the calendar link via email to agree on a date. Art confirmed, and said he needs to get with Dr. Nestor to figure out the midterm evaluation timing — he called it a midterm, mid-semester checkpoint, something they did with Jose. He asked Diana to send both him and Dr. Nestor the time frames. Dr. Nestor noted Diana mentioned an option to share Dr. Schrader's calendar, which would be great. Diana believed it's a link that takes you to the calendar to pick a day, and said she can send it over. The student added that she sent hers via email — a check-in between weeks four and eight — and had emailed both Art and Dr. Nestor on September 18. Her supervisor just wants to know they scheduled a time.

Art closed the main group portion: "I hope you all have a great rest of the week. We'll catch you all next Monday this time." The student, Dr. Nestor, and Diana offered warm goodbyes, and the formal group portion ended.

Art sent a follow-up email to the group the day after the meeting — "Hey Voice Up! Here are the links from today's conversation." — containing the four resources promised during the session. Those four links are featured at the top of this page. Action for all attendees: use these four links to complete the safety document, join Base 44, and begin working through the competency-aligned videos and case studies before the next Monday session (8:30 PM ET). Direct any questions to Art Fuller.