UO professor equips Oregon middle, high school students with ‘Sassy,’ an AI-powered virtual career counselor

EUGENE, Ore. (KTVZ) — Oregon middle-schoolers can now get a head start on picking a career path, thanks to a new tool powered by artificial intelligence and developed by a University of Oregon journalism professor.

Ed Madison, a media professor and researcher at the UO’s School of Journalism and Communication, created Sassy, an online career coach that’s been officially adopted by the state of Oregon. Sassy — short for Sasquatch, the mythical creature thought to roam Northwest forests — joins the collection of other AI technologies developed by the Journalistic Learning Initiative, a nonprofit organization co-founded by Madison that’s committed to empowering students and teachers with educational programs and resources.

“AI is allowing us to do things like democratize tutoring so that families who can’t afford to hire a private tutor or counselor have access to this individualized coaching,” said Madison, executive director of the initiative.

The group has a selection of AI guides for writing and story development, including one named Murrow that launched in 2023 and has provided feedback to 60,000 users in news journalism, Madison said. Sassy is the organization’s first career-connecting tool, providing students guidance on brainstorming career and trade pathways; writing emails, cover letters and resumes; and preparing for interviews.

Sassy was developed in partnership with the Oregon Department of Education, Southern Oregon Education Service District and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Play Labs in response to a need for learners to begin career exploration earlier.

Research from around the country has shown that earlier discussions about careers make core content classwork more relevant, help students better plan for their future, increase school attendance, and enhance students’ emotional and mental well-being, according to Beth Molenkamp, the coordinator of the state’s Career Connected Learning program.

“We really wanted to have students in Oregon see the wide variety of careers available to them, the remarkable post-secondary training opportunities that exist, and to support them in finding careers that fit their aptitudes and interests here in our state,” Molenkamp said in an emailed statement. “We want them to see that Oregon is a great place for them to stay, learn and work. Sassy uses employment data to ensure that students are aware of the most in-demand careers as well.”

The developers said Sassy is trained on a range of career-readiness documents and resources generated by the state Department of Education. It stays up to date via real-time industry and institution reports on Oregon’s job market and educational opportunities. And it doesn’t require or ask for personal data and has guardrails built in to provide age-appropriate content.

Sassy isn’t meant to replace human advisers, Molenkamp said. Instead, she hopes students will use the chatbot to start conversations about career planning that they continue in person with important adults in their life.

“Our intention is to provide guidance counselors with some relief, as we know the ratio of students to counselors is very high,” Madison said. “So if a student can do some preliminary work with Sassy, print it out and come into the guidance session with that in hand, it's going to make the session that much more valuable.”

Zach Knapp, a teacher in career and technical education at Vale Middle School in Eastern Oregon, and his students were some of the first to try Sassy earlier this year. He said he saw how the platform provided a safe, conversational space for his students to comfortably ask any questions about future careers.

With the guardrails in place directing Sassy to avoid and discourage conversations on sensitive or personal matters, Knapp said that as a teacher he felt secure in offering access to the technology.

“This tool gives them an opportunity to ask questions they're maybe afraid to ask me or their parents, and it's intelligent enough to give them smart responses and solid advice, which I think is the most amazing thing about it,” Knapp said.

Knapp plans to integrate Sassy into his future curriculum to help middle school students get a jump-start on career planning. High school is where kids get some of their first chances to think about and make decisions regarding their educational career, he said, “and I want to try to help them understand that those choices can have a very real and significant impact on what's coming next after high school.”

“I want folks to know it is entirely possible for kids this age to have serious conversations and thoughts about what their future might be,” Knapp said. “With a tool like Sassy, alongside other resources from the state, we can have an impact on helping every single student go through their public education with a sense of why this is what they need, as opposed to just going through the process to graduate.”

Madison said the development team is looking to make Sassy more accessible and useful to students and communities of varying socioeconomic status. They also plan to expand and localize similar AI career coaches to different states.

“I'm thankful that we reside in a state that’s forward-thinking,” Madison said. “There's a bit of a frontier spirit in Oregon that I love and attracted me to wanting to live here. We're open to discovery, and I think that's the essence of the UO and of the state. That's why we can proudly say we're leading the nation in the adoption of this kind of technology.”

— By Leila Okahata, University Communications

About the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication
Founded in 1916, the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication is a national leader in scholarship and education in the fields of advertising, journalism, media studies, public relations and strategic communication. The school offers doctoral, master’s and undergraduate degree programs that challenge students to become ethical communicators, critical thinkers, productive scholars and responsible citizens in a global society. The School of Journalism and Communication’s award-winning faculty contribute innovative research and professional projects that lead the field in an evolving media landscape.