Ray, a veteran construction manager in his 50s, has watched safety culture change dramatically over his career. Some of the questions younger employees ask would have been unusual when he was starting out—and he increasingly thinks that is a good thing.

Tyler, a 23-year-old recent construction-management graduate, has been working as a project coordinator on a commercial construction site for less than two months. He is quickly discovering that a job site rarely follows the day’s plan in a neat sequence.

Andre, a 27-year-old student who worked in the architecture and construction industry before returning to school for additional technical training, worries about whether education can move as quickly as the field he hopes to re-enter.

Sofia, a 22-year-old interior architecture student, is spending her final year working part-time as an intern at a design firm. The internship is changing what she thinks it means to make a good design decision.

David is a mid-career cybersecurity manager who hires junior analysts. He has learned that the candidate with the strongest technical knowledge is not always the person who will be most effective on his team.

Alex, a 22-year-old computer science senior, finally has a job offer after months of applications. Instead of feeling secure, he has begun worrying that the offer could disappear before his first day.

Mateo, a 20-year-old computer science junior, assumed that completing his degree would prepare him to compete for an IT job. Increasingly, he feels as though the real list of requirements extends well beyond his coursework.

Nia, a 21-year-old computer science senior, has spent months preparing for her first full-time job. But she worries that before an employer evaluates her skills, an automated system may decide whether she is worth considering at all.

Samantha, a 23-year-old nursing student preparing for her first full-time job, knows she may someday need to advocate for a patient. She is less certain what to do when the problem involves a coworker, a supervisor, or the workplace itself.

Ben is a nurse manager who has spent years watching nurses respond to high-pressure situations. One particular emergency reminded him that excellent healthcare work can be difficult to separate into individual skills.

Amara, a 24-year-old dental student, chose dentistry partly because she wanted meaningful work and partly because she hoped it would leave room for a family and a life outside her career. Now she is realizing that the profession may involve responsibilities she never expected.

Leah, a 22-year-old senior nursing student, first became interested in nursing after watching hospice nurses care for her grandfather. As graduation approaches, she is beginning to understand just how much that kind of care asks of the person providing it.

As Jenny Campbell approached her 30th birthday, she found herself questioning her career in Silicon Valley, which, while financially rewarding, left her feeling unfulfilled. A lifelong animal lover, Jenny recently rekindled her passion when she took in her family’s aging dog, Bubba, a few years earlier, only to feel a profound void after his recent passing. A conversation with her childhood friend Paola prompted her to reflect on the disconnect between her tech career and her love for animals. Motivated by this realization, Jenny enrolled in an animal behavior certification program and began considering opening her own doggy daycare. While the idea of leaving the stability of tech was daunting, Jenny felt a growing desire to align her work with her values and passion.

Ms. Rodriguez, a dedicated math teacher at Horizon International School, is reassigned to teach "Readings in History," a subject far outside her expertise, during the upcoming semester. Despite her success in previously teaching unfamiliar subjects like ethics and science, she feels increasingly inadequate and frustrated, unsure if she can provide the depth of knowledge her students deserve. Guided by her faith and strong commitment to her students, she adapts, but the stress grows as she struggles to stay ahead of the material. When she requests a return to teaching math, her department head praises her versatility and denies her request, leaving Ms. Rodriguez to wrestle with the tension between serving her students and staying true to her professional strengths.

Adam, the CEO of a deep-sea mining company, is faced with a difficult dilemma. He has been granted a license to mine in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ), a region of the Pacific Ocean rich in minerals essential for clean energy technologies. However, the CCZ is also a fragile ecosystem, and mining is expected to have negative environmental impacts (release of carbon, damage to the seabed ecosystem, etc.). Adam is committed to mitigating these risks, but he is aware that there is no guarantee that his mining operation will have no negative impact on the environment. Adam is also under pressure from investors to deliver profits, and knows that he needs to start mining soon in order to generate revenue. Adam has brought together a team to discuss his options. How would you advise Adam to proceed?

Aaron works at a publishing company, where he was recently promoted from a coordinator to a client management role. As part of his promotion, he was tasked with training his replacement, a new hire named Rachel. While Aaron worked with Rachel and explained to her all of the office’s procedures and systems, Rachel found herself having difficulty, and she expressed to Aaron that the job was more complicated than he had explained. Rachel started going to others in the office for help rather than Aaron, but she continuously made mistakes. Aaron shared with his boss Yolanda that he had trained Rachel and showed her the records, prompting Yolanda to put Rachel on a performance improvement plan. Rachel then quit. When Rachel’s replacement Oliver was hired, Aaron was again supposed to train him and put together a binder of all the information about the job, certain that the binder would be better than how he had trained Rachel. However, Oliver has the same difficulties and ultimately becomes very behind on work, causing Yolanda to again ask Aaron how he had trained Oliver. Aaron feels defeated and wonders if the problem is his training style or if both Rachel and Oliver were just not able to do the job well.

Michelle has worked in sales at a department store for five years, where she initially was supervised by a supportive manager named Amy. Michelle likes her job, which gives her the flexibility to be in school at the same time, and she also likes her co-workers. However, when Amy leaves the store, a new manager named Will is hired. Will quickly develops a reputation for being difficult and providing harsh feedback. During her performance check-in, Will berates Michelle for an email she sent about her schedule for not following a new process and also questions her priorities. Other co-workers have begun leaving the store due to Will’s management style. Michelle wonders if she should stay in her job and, if so, how she should move forward with Will as her boss.

Sandra is an engineer at a technology company, where she collaborates with the research and development team. Despite her feelings that she is meeting and even exceeding expectations, her colleague Mark has repeatedly made comments during team meetings that Sandra requires extra support. Sandra has confronted Mark about these comments, and he responded that he was concerned she would eventually be overwhelmed by the work. Sandra assured Mark that she felt her workload was manageable. However, on their next project, Mark again made comments about Sandra possibly needing assistance. Sandra is frustrated and wonders what to do next. She also feels that Mark’s comments may be motivated by a bias towards her as a woman.

Frances has worked for a pharmaceutical company for a year, a role which she has enjoyed. She is assigned a new project to create social media content for her company with two colleagues, Andrew and Pat, with whom she has not previously worked. Although Frances is excited to take on the new challenge, she finds that collaborating with Andrew and Pat is very difficult and takes a lot of energy. She takes the lead on the project and is glad when it is finished. Frances tells her boss, Maya, about her difficulties, and Maya reveals to her that actually, the social media project was fake and was intended to test Andrew and Pat, who have been having performance issues at work. Frances feels she has been mis-led and isn’t sure what to do next.

Simon is on a sales team with a new colleague, Cheryl. Cheryl has some difficulty adjusting to her new role, and Simon takes on the role of mentoring her. During a team meeting at which Cheryl is not present, Simon sees Cheryl’s boss, Amanda, accidentally continue to share her screen following a slide presentation. Simon reads that Amanda and her boss are considering placing Cheryl on a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) due to Cheryl’s difficulties. Simon debates whether he should share what he has seen with Amanda, Cheryl, or both.

Sami is an up-and-coming Project Manager at a construction firm in Johannesburg. Born and brought up in the city of Johannesburg, he loves the work that he does and hopes to make a name for himself by doing quality building at his firm. Sami faces a difficult situation when discouraging children from playing in a construction area that he is in charge of.

Majo is a teacher working with primary school students. She relies on her observations in the classroom environment and the personal connections she had formed with her students in order to know and feel she is doing her job well. During the pandemic, her classes abruptly shifted online, and she was no longer able to see students face-to-face. Due to distractions in their home environments, and the reduced attention span of sitting in front of a screen, Majo and her colleagues found that their students were struggling to remain engaged in online learning. The teaching team debated how to handle their new reality with online teaching. Ultimately, they decided to lessen the number of hours that students were spending in online classes with teachers and to provide more suggestions for at-home activities. However, Majo wondered whether her students were being served well by such a decision, or if they might be losing out on learning and community connections that she had worked hard to achieve during the months before the pandemic began.

Majo is working as an instructor at a summer camp with young children. She knew she wanted to be an educator from a young age and is strongly guided by her Christian religious values in her daily practice as a teacher. During the first few weeks of the summer camp experience, she was particularly troubled by twin students who were emotionally upset and disruptive, but Majo tried her best to form a bond with them. One day, the twins’ mother came to the school and accused Majo of having physically harmed her children. Majo knew she was not responsible and would never commit such an act, which would be a violation of her personal values. She was protected by her boss and exonerated by footage recorded inside the classroom. However, she wondered after the fact if she should have stood up more strongly for herself, and it worried her to be so easily accused of something she did not do.

Joy is a mid-career professional who previously worked in the travel industry. After deciding to switch careers, she recently started a new job at a chemical manufacturing company. Joy set up a process in her new role that helped her get her work done, but she recently discovered correspondence between her supervisor and a vendor representative in which the two discussed a secret deal: the company could dump hazardous industrial waste into the wetland adjacent to the factory in exchange for a discount on raw materials from the vendor. Joy has considered herself a “people-pleaser” in the past, but she also does not want to be complicit in the waste dumping.

Mia is a mid-career professional who worked in a management position at a supply chain logistics company. She enjoyed the practical aspects of her work and found value in helping customers with product tracking. Mia felt fulfilled in her role because she thought of herself as a skilled problem solver, and she enjoyed the relationships she cultivated with various clients. However, her position was recently eliminated. After a difficult job search, she found a new position working in supply chain for a new company. At first, she thought it was an exciting opportunity, but after starting, she worries whether the position is right for her.

Joanna works for a nonprofit group that develops and administers a test that is required as part of practicing a certain profession. During her second year with the organization, she was made aware that the test is biased: white men on average tend to perform a lot better than other groups, and not by a small margin. Joanna was surprised to find out about this inequity but felt reassured by the determination of her colleagues to fix the problem. As the months and years pass by, Joanna suspects that the only way the issue will be addressed is if this information becomes public knowledge. She is hesitant to “blow the whistle,” as she is worried about the repercussions of her actions for her job. At the same time, she knows that the racial bias of her organization’s test score is directly impacting the career progress of many individuals.

Martha lives with her boyfriend, Cameron, in a small one-bedroom apartment. After Martha’s hours were cut due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Cameron, who works in marketing for hospice care, agreed to take on more hours at his job to supplement his income. One day, while Cameron was working from home, Martha overheard him tell a prospective client's family that he was a doctor. Martha knows full well that Cameron is not a doctor at all, and she was surprised to hear him misrepresent himself in this way. Martha confronted Cameron after the call, and he said that he was just doing his job and getting a new patient to sign up for services. Martha feels conflicted. On one hand, she knows that Cameron is doing his best to be good at his job, and part of his job is to convince more people to sign up for hospice care. Cameron’s success at work is more important than ever because his hard work is making up for the pay cut she suffered earlier in the year. On the other hand, she can’t help but be seriously bothered by the fact that Cameron has pretended to be a doctor to get new patients.

Sofia recently moved to a new city to start a new job. She didn’t know anyone in her neighborhood, but she quickly became friends with one of her neighbors, Jenny. Sofia found out that Jenny is very talented at making clothes and jewellery and has a small online store with a modest group of customers. Sofia supported her new friend by purchasing items and even modelled some pieces on her own Instagram account. One day, Sofia noticed that Jenny had added the descriptor “Latina-owned small business” to her site. Sofia was surprised because Jenny is not Latina. Sofia is herself Latina and does not understand why Jenny, a white woman, deemed it necessary to advertise her brand as Latina-owned. After confronting Jenny about the descriptor and receiving an uninspired explanation, Sofia is not sure what to do.

Miranda has worked for a construction company for three years, mostly conducting on-site safety inspections involving lengthy travel. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Miranda started working from home, and inspections for her projects were temporarily paused. As months passed and restrictions eased, Miranda received an email from her boss letting her know that she would be expected to travel by plane to a location for a week to view and survey a construction project. Not only is Miranda worried about travelling and putting herself at risk, but the nature of the project also means that she will be in contact with many people once she gets to the construction site. At the same time, many of Miranda’s colleagues are of the opinion that COVID-19 is “not a big deal.” Miranda is unsure about how to let her boss know that she is not comfortable with travelling for this project. Miranda has also been hoping for a promotion, and she worries that refusing to travel for this project would ruin her chances.

Cassie is a marketing professional in her late twenties who joined a new project at her firm in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the challenges of working remotely, she is proud of her contributions to the project and feels valued by her new team members. However, after downloading the transcript from a recent virtual meeting, she discovered that two of her coworkers had been badmouthing her appearance in what they believed was a “private” chat. Cassie is embarrassed and heartbroken that her colleagues would speak about her in such disparaging terms. She is torn about whether to confront her coworkers, bring the issue to her Human Resources Department, or simply pretend that nothing occurred.

Eli is 12 and loves video games. He plays every day—sometimes for hours. It started out as fun, but lately, he’s been skipping homework, ignoring messages from friends, and staying up way too late. His parents are worried. His grades are slipping. Even Eli knows he feels tired and irritable all the time—but when he tries to take a break, he just ends up back at the screen. It’s the one place where he feels in control. Where he’s good at something. But at what cost? 

Jordan is 13 and loves playing strategy and simulation games. Games like Civilization and Assassin’s Creed have sparked his interest in history more than any textbook ever has. He even started researching real events and cultures after playing. But when Jordan tells his teacher he learned something from a game, she frowns. "Games aren’t real education,” she says. “You need to focus on more reliable sources.” Jordan’s confused. He knows games aren’t always 100% accurate—but they made him care about learning in a way school never did. He starts to wonder: Is it wrong to trust what he learns from a game? Should he stop relying on them, even if they inspire him? 

Alyssa, 14, has been talking to an online friend named Kai for months. They met in an art community, share the same interests, and even video chat sometimes. With all they have in common, Alyssa feels closer to Kai than anyone at school. One day, Kai messages:“I’m visiting your city next weekend—want to meet at the mall? My mom can be there too.” Alyssa is excited… but nervous. She trusts Kai, but she’s also heard warnings about meeting online friends in real life. Telling her parents might mean they say no—or worse, make her stop talking to Kai altogether. She could go and not say anything. It might be fine. But what if it’s not? 

Ava is a senior soccer player with college scouts coming to watch her playoff game. But her knee has been hurting for weeks, and it’s only getting worse. Her coach says they need her, and she doesn’t want to let the team—or her future—down. But if she keeps playing, she might make the injury worse, possibly permanently.

Tyler is a 15-year-old sophomore who’s always kept a good balance—decent grades, time with friends, and casual football at the park. When his gym teacher suggests trying out for the school team, he’s excited. He’s dreamed of playing on a real team, wearing the jersey, hearing the crowd cheer. But then he learns the commitment: daily practices, weekend games, early morning workouts. It sounds amazing—but exhausting. Tyler already struggles to keep up with schoolwork. His grades could drop, and his parents might not be happy. Plus, his free time with friends would shrink fast. The tryout form is due tomorrow. He wants to play—but at what cost?

Fourteen-year-old Emmett Jackson has always admired his father, the longtime coach of Riverview’s football team, and finally feels ready to try out himself. But after reading online discussions about football and brain injuries, he begins to question whether playing is worth the risk. While some argue that football is dangerous and not worth the long-term health consequences, others acknowledge the risks but still love and defend the sport. Now Emmett faces a difficult decision: should he follow in his father’s footsteps and join the team, or walk away from a sport that could carry serious consequences?

Maya is a 16-year-old junior and a standout track athlete. She loves running the 400-meter sprint—it’s where she feels most alive. But her coach insists she focus on the 800-meter instead, where she’s also strong and could help the team win more meets. Her college advisor, meanwhile, has a different angle: “You should concentrate on academics if you want a shot at Ivy League schools. Sports are great, but you need to take AP Chem next semester, not double up on training blocks.” Maya feels pulled in three directions. She wants to sprint. Her coach wants her to train for distance. Her advisor wants her in the classroom. Everyone means well, but they each have their own definition of what’s “best” for her future. The sign-up form for next season’s events and courses is due tomorrow. Maya’s holding the pen—and the pressure.

Jayden is a 17-year-old senior and the star of his high school basketball team. Tonight’s game is huge—not just because it’s against a rival school, but because two college scouts are in the stands. For Jayden, this could be the game that lands him a scholarship. As the game goes on, Jayden starts taking more shots than usual. His teammate Malik is open several times, but Jayden keeps the ball, hoping to impress the scouts with big plays. Malik notices. So does the coach, who warns during a timeout, “Don’t forget—we win as a team.” With the score tied and seconds left on the clock, Jayden has the ball again. Malik is wide open under the hoop. Jayden can take the tough shot himself—or pass and trust his teammate.

Sarah, a 15-year-old high school student known for being responsible, finds herself at a party with her best friend Lila and a new group of friends who pressure her to vape. Lila, who has started experimenting with vaping and marijuana, urges Sarah to join in, calling her a “buzzkill” for hesitating. Surrounded by peers and feeling the weight of their judgment, Sarah is torn between wanting to fit in and her own values, including her parents' trust in her to make smart decisions. As the group waits for her to act, Sarah holds the vape in her hand, unsure of what to do.

Luis, a 16-year-old first-generation immigrant, is under immense pressure from his parents, who sacrificed everything for him to succeed in the U.S. They expect him to excel in school, maintain straight A's, and be a role model for his siblings, while also juggling varsity soccer and a part-time job to help with family expenses. When he gets a D on a history exam, his parents are disappointed, grounding him and reminding him of their sacrifices. Luis is exhausted, anxious, and struggling to balance everything, feeling torn between meeting his parents' high expectations and protecting his own mental health. Should he continue pushing himself to meet their standards, or confront them about how overwhelmed he feels, risking their disappointment?

Liam, a 17-year-old high school junior, is torn between his academic goals, basketball commitments, part-time job, and social life. With a major history paper due, extra basketball practices for the state semifinals, and pressure to join his friends on a weekend camping trip, he’s struggling to balance it all. His parents push him to prioritize academics and sports, but Liam is feeling overwhelmed, exhausted, and unsure if he's sacrificing too much. He must decide whether to focus on schoolwork, support his team, or take a break and enjoy time with his friends, knowing each choice has significant consequences.

Emily, a high school senior, feels overwhelmed by the pressure to choose a college major while most of her friends seem certain about their futures. She enjoys various activities but lacks a passion for any specific subject, leaving her unsure of what career path to pursue. Her parents encourage her to pick a practical major like business or computer science, while her counselor suggests a gap year, an idea her parents oppose. Emily feels torn between choosing a "safe" major, taking a risk on something she might enjoy, or delaying her decision altogether, fearing that making the wrong choice could impact her future.

Maria, a 19-year-old sophomore and the first in her family to attend college, feels overwhelmed by academic pressure, financial strain, and uncertainty about her future. She’s considering dropping out or taking a year off to work and explore career options but fears disappointing her family, especially her proud mom. Though she’s seen others online benefit from taking time off, Maria worries about never returning to school or falling behind her peers. Caught between staying in school and risking burnout or taking a break and facing uncertainty, Maria feels torn about her next step. Should she stay in college or take a year off?

Sophia, a high school senior, is torn between two very different college options: Ridgeview University, a large, prestigious school her parents favor for its career opportunities, and Greenfield College, a smaller liberal arts school where she feels she would thrive in a close-knit, supportive environment. While Sophia’s parents push her toward Ridgeview and even threaten to withhold financial support if she chooses otherwise, she’s drawn to Greenfield’s scholarship offer and the chance for a more personalized education. As decision day approaches, Sophia faces a difficult choice between following her parents' wishes for stability and prestige or pursuing her own vision of a fulfilling college experience at Greenfield.

Sona is an exchange student from India studying for one semester at a private university in Australia. She has been assigned to work with a group of her classmates on a project with which she is not completely familiar. The group of students who are all from Australia have worked with each other before. They are also working with a person from India for the first time. Being in a new environment, Sona is a little shy in participating in the group and despite being a good student is usually quiet in group discussions. A few weeks later, when Sona shares her reflection in the group, her teammates make comments about how good her English is ‘for an Indian’. This is not the first time that Sona has experienced passive racism. There has been more than one incident where Sona’s teammates have made comments about her culture or have cast her in a stereotypical mould. Sona feels uncomfortable and hurt by these incidents.

Jonah is a rising college senior during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although remote learning procedures were implemented, the college eventually decided to allow only the senior class back to campus for their final year. This decision came with strict health and safety protocols. Jonah was concerned about the potential risk of returning but was reassured by his friends that they all intended to be safe. Unfortunately, “safe” had different connotations for his friends than for Jonah. Soon after returning to campus, Jonah witnessed his friends flaunting the college’s guidelines. Jonah began to pull away from his friends, whose behavior he saw as increasingly negligent. Concerned for his own health as well as the safety of others in the community, Jonah felt torn about whether to report his friends’ behavior to the school or maintain his loyalty by keeping quiet.

Lisa is a first-year college student during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her college has decided to remain open for students. Though quite shy herself, Lisa is happy to be assigned a very sociable roommate also within her major. Lisa takes her studies--and the school’s strict honor code--seriously. Unfortunately, Lisa’s friendly roommate, Eva, does not share the same academic integrity. After noticing Eva looking up answers online during a remote exam, Lisa is distraught. Because of her timidness in making new connections, Lisa feels dependent upon Eva to introduce her to new friends and build her social community at the school. At the same time, the policy regarding remote learning explicitly prohibits online searches during exams. Should Lisa report Eva to her professors, or turn a blind eye to blatant disregard for academic honesty?

Alex was recently accepted to a prestigious college and joined a private online group made up of other accepted students. In the group, students were exchanging inappropriate jokes. Some jokes were hateful towards certain groups of people. Alex was taken aback by what the other students were sharing, but also unsure of what college would be like and anxious to make new friends. After reading some of the other students’ posts, Alex contributed a joke that mocked a minoritized group. A few weeks later, the college's admissions team learned about the online group and decided to take back admissions offers from students who contributed hateful content, including Alex. Alex was no longer welcome to attend the university.

Julie is a junior in high school who is very committed to theater. Julie, like many of her friends, is self-conscious about her appearance. She has noticed that one friend in particular is struggling with an eating disorder, which concerns Julie. When Julie served as a counselor at an all-girls summer camp, she was struck by how comfortable all of the campers looked in the photos. It sort of “hit” her that she had not seen pictures of herself or her friends looking un-self-conscious in a long time, and she says she is sick of feeling insecure and watching her friends struggle with the same issues. Her experience at the camp helped her to realize that she wants to use theater to help young women be successful and to feel empowered.

Sophia is eighteen years old and about to graduate from a high school for the performing arts. Sophia has always loved performing, but theater became a deep passion for her during her high school career. However, a couple years ago, she encountered a difficult situation related to her chosen line of work. Because her parents do not subsidize her acting, Sophia wanted a paying acting job. After mailing out her headshots and resumes, she eventually landed a role in an independent film that she did not know much about. As part of her role in the film, Sophia was asked to do something sexual that made her very uncomfortable, and that she felt was wrong; however, she did not know what the consequences of saying “no” would be. For two years after this experience, Sophia stopped looking for any acting work outside of school.

Rosa is a young journalist. One typical workday, a few months into her position, Rosa was instructed by Jeremy to go and “stake out” the home of a family whose child had, a few hours beforehand, been injured in a collision with an automobile while riding a bicycle. Rosa faced a dilemma. On the one hand, she felt that, as a reporter, it was sometimes her job to report tough or tragic stories, and that she needed to uphold expectations as a journalist for The Daily by trying to get all the information she could. On the other hand, she felt that she would be “crossing a line” to try to get a family statement immediately after they had been notified of the child’s death, likely their “worst nightmare.”

Gwen is a senior at a performing arts high school, where she studies drama. As a senior, she faces a difficult decision. Gwen is eighteen, which means she’s old enough to work, but she has also been accepted to the drama program at one of her top-choice schools. Should she enroll in college and continue to learn the art of theater? Or should she start acting professionally, learn from real-life experiences, and draw on the many connections she currently has? To complicate matters even more, Gwen’s parents are not in a financial position to cover all of the expenses of her education, and she has not been offered a scholarship anywhere. If she chooses to continue her education, it will clearly involve a great deal of expense.

Nick is a high school senior who is deeply committed to acting. Nick explains that drama is not the cool thing to do at his high school, and students who do drama are one of a few groups who are regular targets for bullying. Nick faced a particularly difficult situation when he and a friend were cast in a musical production. Nick was looking forward to improving his singing and dancing skills. However, some of the other students, who had frequently bullied the drama club members in the past, came to the rehearsal and started recording it without Nick’s consent. Nick was unsure whether or how to confront the bullies, who were making him uncomfortable.

Karen is a young newspaper reporter. As an entry-level journalist, her primary source of competition comes from summer interns who are recruited from undergraduate journalism programs. Karen believes that competition is “good for the soul,” and some of her best work has been produced in response to the competitive atmosphere and her reluctance to be outdone by the interns. However, this competitiveness has a downside: Karen believes that “the cardinal rule of journalism is truth-telling,” yet her desire to provide readers with important information has at times led her to use dishonest means to get stories. For instance, she has misrepresented herself in order to get interviews. She says that “there are times for dishonest tactics” if these tactics are in the service of telling the truth in a story.

Emma is graduating from high school this year, and has just sent in her acceptance letter to attend college. She is an aspiring scientist, and she is extremely dedicated to her work; however, she also feels very committed to her friendships. The sense of responsibility that she feels toward her friends was tested during her senior year when her friends got into serious trouble for hacking into the high school computer system. Emma knew what her friends were doing, and she never said or did anything about it because she didn’t want to “rat” on them. As a scientist, Emma also feels strongly that withholding information can have disastrous effects, and she feels that it “violates the entire reason for doing research.” Emma seems to have different standards for her personal life and “professional” work.

Heather is twenty-two and a senior theater student. In her senior year as an undergraduate, she is struggling with messages she gets from teachers about how she should try to market herself in what she is “best at.” Heather says that she doesn’t want to be “pigeonholed,” or not win a particular role because she does not look a certain way. She struggles with issues of body image and questions whether she is “pretty enough” to be successful. Although she does not rule out the option of plastic surgery, she struggles with the idea that a change in physical appearance can make someone more or less appealing and more or less qualified for a role. She would like decisions to be based on skill and talent.

Rob is a seventeen-year-old high school actor. Rob’s father is very opposed to Rob’s interest in theater, and several years ago tried to redirect him toward activities that are more conventional for boys in their town. A year ago, Rob’s father told him that he could no longer be involved in theater at all. For six months, Rob avoided all theater activities, and sank into a deep depression. Finally, he ended this hiatus (against his father’s wishes), and was cast in a high school production. Despite his father’s opposition, Rob has sustained his passion for theater, and has decided to major in musical theater at a conservatory program.

Debbie is a high school senior and the editor of her school newspaper, The Gazette. Debbie takes her position at The Gazette very seriously. Her goal as Editor is to balance the paper’s content for the broad audience of students, faculty, alumni, and parents, which can prove challenging. Recently, during an open meeting for admitted students, a student accused the administration of ignoring rapes on campus, and these allegations began to circulate across the country. Debbie had to decide whether The Gazette would print a story covering the incident. While these allegations were an important story, she knew that as soon as anything about the incident appeared in the school newspaper, it would spread farther and could potentially be damaging to the school.

Jesse is a young high school actor. During his school’s Spring Drama Festival, Jesse was fortunate enough to be cast in two different shows—a striking affirmation of his talent. His first show was a wonderful but draining experience, and he became involved in the second show right after finishing the first. Jesse was tired, both physically and emotionally, and, in addition, the second show was not of the same caliber, and he felt he didn’t understand where the director wanted to go with the material. As a result, he had a very negative attitude in rehearsals, and finally, a fellow member of the cast who was a close friend approached him about it. She told him that the rest of the cast was getting a very “negative vibe” from him.

William is a high school junior at a science and technology school. He has always loved science, and his interest in science led him to pursue research in high school. He is currently a student researcher at a nearby college, where he has had a chance to work independently on biology experiments. He says he chose to take the research position because of his “love of research.” However, William says that after he earned first place in a science competition, he became more interested in participating in research projects for the prize money. He says that some of the competitions he wants to enter do not allow research projects involving live animals, so he is willing to forgo the projects that most interest him in hopes of winning.