{"id":76712,"date":"2026-01-12T07:27:54","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T14:27:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=76712"},"modified":"2026-01-12T07:27:54","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T14:27:54","slug":"ai-for-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/ai-for-action\/","title":{"rendered":"AI for action"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new grant will\u00a0create\u00a0a visionary program designed to empower high school students\u00a0to drive real change in their\u00a0communities.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With funding from the\u00a0National Communication Association\u2019s\u00a02026 Communication Pedagogy\u00a0Grant\u00a0,\u00a0NAU\u00a0associate professor\u00a0<\/span>Zhan Xu<\/span><\/b>\u00a0and professor of practice\u00a0<\/span>Janice Sweeter<\/span><\/b>,\u00a0along with collaboration from K.\u00a0Hazel Kwon from Arizona State University and Young Eun Moon from the University of Mississippi,\u00a0are developing\u00a0an innovative curriculum to show teens\u00a0how to harness artificial intelligence and social media as tools for advocacy.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Their\u00a0goal is simple yet ambitious: equip young people with the knowledge and digital strategies\u00a0they need to promote health, amplify marginalized\u00a0voices\u00a0and inspire action in underserved communities.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe\u00a0grant will allow us to create and test a university-based education program that equips\u00a0all\u00a0high school students,\u00a0including\u00a0those\u00a0from Hispanic and historically underserved communities, with skills to use social media and generate AI tools for ethical and health-related advocacy,\u201d Xu said. \u201cWe will provide a hands-on\u00a0program,\u00a0and students will learn\u00a0about\u00a0digital storytelling, audience targeting and AI-enhanced content creation.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Xu is surveying\u00a0100 high school students to better understand their needs and what they would like to see included in the program, as well as to get information on\u00a0how they\u00a0use\u00a0social media and AI. After the\u00a0survey results are analyzed, the program will be designed\u00a0and\u00a0then\u00a0implemented\u00a0and evaluated\u00a0in June\u00a0as part of\u00a0<\/span>NAU\u2019s Upward Bound Math and Science Summer Academy<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0The results will be presented at the National Communications Association conference in November.\u00a0After that,\u00a0the team will\u00a0create\u00a0an open-access toolkit\u00a0to share with\u00a0educators\u00a0throughout\u00a0the United States.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think students will gain valuable communication skills from persuasive messaging and digital\u00a0storytelling\u00a0and\u00a0will better understand\u00a0how to use AI tools\u00a0for advocacy,\u201d Xu said.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cWe know that a lot of high school students are already using AI for advocacy, whether\u00a0it’s\u00a0for\u00a0mental health, environmental\u00a0justice\u00a0or health disparity. However, they\u00a0often face\u00a0an\u00a0information gap,\u00a0especially\u00a0around health topics\u00a0within their\u00a0communities. We believe that\u00a0this\u00a0project\u00a0can help reduce those\u00a0health information inequities,\u00a0giving them\u00a0practical tools to advocate for the issues that matter to them and to their\u00a0families.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Xu said the students will learn how AI can help them brainstorm ideas, drop\u00a0captions\u00a0and translate messages, along with how to fact-check the information and\u00a0edit everything\u00a0AI produces.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA key learning outcome is that an AI system is trained on existing data, which can include biases and stereotypes,\u201d Xu said. \u201cStudents will compare AI-generated messages with credible health sources\u00a0and\u00a0discuss what is missing or can be improved. Then, they will improve the content using their own judgment and cultural knowledge. I want them to leave the program with both technical competence and ethical awareness. At the end of the program, they will launch their own health advocacy campaign to see how they can really\u00a0impact\u00a0their own communities and other youth.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The program also aims to give students the opportunity to build confidence and prepare them for what is next after high school.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAs part of the NAU Transformation through\u00a0<\/span>Artificial Intelligence in Learning (TRAIL)<\/span><\/a>\u00a0program, I collaborated on researching\u00a0strategic\u00a0communication students\u2019 attitudes toward AI in the classroom and found the results are a little murky,\u201d\u00a0Sweeter\u00a0said.\u00a0\u201cThere’s\u00a0a lot of emotion around AI,\u00a0and by giving students this\u00a0outlet, this\u00a0opportunity to practice and play with, we can help them get more comfortable with these tools as they are rapidly evolving and becoming so woven into everyone’s life.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sweeter said\u00a0Xu\u2019s proposed curriculum\u00a0also may\u00a0help teens overcome some of the anxiety they\u00a0have about\u00a0social media and AI by doing something\u00a0that will have an\u00a0impact on their community.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAI is everywhere and growing by the second, especially in our dynamic industry,\u201d Sweeter said. \u201cWe\u00a0want\u00a0Strategic Communication\u00a0students to feel comfortable using\u00a0this\u00a0technology in their studies and as they prepare for their careers. We have\u00a0integrated\u00a0AI into our curriculum and are encouraging students to use it wisely,\u00a0ethically\u00a0and\u00a0appropriately\u00a0with crucial\u00a0human oversight.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Northern<\/a>Mariana Laas | NAU Communications
\n(928) 523-5050 | mariana.laas@nau.edu<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new grant will\u00a0create\u00a0a visionary program designed to empower high school students\u00a0to drive real change in their\u00a0communities.\u00a0\u00a0 With funding from the\u00a0National Communication Association\u2019s\u00a02026 Communication Pedagogy\u00a0Grant\u00a0,\u00a0NAU\u00a0associate professor\u00a0Zhan Xu\u00a0and professor of practice\u00a0Janice Sweeter,\u00a0along with collaboration from K.\u00a0Hazel Kwon from Arizona State University and Young Eun Moon from the University of Mississippi,\u00a0are developing\u00a0an innovative curriculum to show teens\u00a0how…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":100,"featured_media":76714,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research-academics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/100"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}