There was a lot of fuzz and buzz that surrounded the royal wedding this past weekend. Prince William, second in line to the British throne, finally married his longtime girlfriend Kate Middleton. For most of us, including myself, this was the first prominent royal wedding in our lives. As we saw on TV and images all over the web, the wedding was full of glitz and glamor and had me wondering how much it cost to put on such a wedding.

According to this article from the Wall Street Journal, the wedding cost approximately $50 million. With the global economy still yet to fully recover from the recession, was that kind of money really necessary for a wedding?

As part of its efforts to improve educational opportunities for its players, South Bronx United Soccer Club (SBU) recently started an after school tutoring program. The program runs every weekday from 3:30-6pm at the brand new Urban Assembly High School for Sports, right off the Grand Concourse and 153rd Street in the Bronx. The after-school program is in dire need of volunteer tutors to accommodate around an anticipated 100 student athletes expected to show up during the course of every week.

Some of you here at the EdLab might have noticed there was a tall man following me around with a camera all day. The tall man, Alexander Klosterkemper, is currently a film student here in New York City. He was head of film and media services for FIFA and was an influential member of the FIFA team that broadcasted the past two world cups. I met Alex earlier this summer when I attended the Urban Soccer Collaborative in Cincinnati. Through various interactions, he decided to include my clubmate, Christstely, and I as two of the primary subjects of his master thesis film aptly titled Football for Social Change.

As the title suggests, the movie is about football (soccer) programs in urban inner cities that is geared towards helping the players in such programs prepare for college, and career goals. My current team, South Bronx United (SBU), is a perfect example of a soccer program that is for social change. It is funded largely on sponsorships, donors and grants and serves over 400 children of all age and ability levels all throughout the Bronx. It is also worth noting that SBU also serves several players who live in Queens, Manhattan and Brooklyn.

New York is one of a host of states all across the nation who will be receiving federal money to cure some of its educational budget woes. The Department of Education has just granted the state $700 million in aid for state education. This should come as a sort of victory for students and school boards all over New York. The money was awarded to New York mainly because they were one of the winners in the federal Race to the Top competition. Some of the money would be use to create new teacher evaluation forms as long as that they can reach an agreement with local school officials.

The Race to the Top award is awarded to those states that have proven to the federal government they are capable of improving their schools in addition to other extra requirements such as adopting national educational standards. So in an effort to win some of the grant money, New York State Board Of Education increased the number of charter schools, also a key feature of President Obama’s educational goals. It will also help teachers receive their certificates faster through programs such as Teach for American. The grant will also allow the state to keep records of student performance from kindergarten to college.

Last month’s ESPY Awards brought to light some things that we often fail to ponder unless situations arise which requires us to do so. What is the true meaning of forgiveness? Do we believe in giving a second chance to someone who has killed a close family member? The ESPYs, ESPN’s now annual awards show, reward athletes from all sports for their accomplishments on the field. The ESPYs also hand out special awards, notably the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage. Past recipients of this award include soccer legend George Weah, who has devoted his personal wealth and time to help his birth nation Liberia recover from years of civil strife and Jimmy Valvano, best remembered for coaching NC State to the 1983 NCAA basketball championship and who gave perhaps the most inspiring speech in ESPYs history when he accepted his courage award while battling cancer, a battle he lost a few months later.

I spent all of last week attending the Urban Soccer Collaborative at Xavier University in Cincinnati. I attended the conference along with another team member from South Bronx United Soccer Club (SBU). The Urban Soccer Collaboration is an organization that focuses on "building the leaders of tomorrow." We were chosen to attend the conference by our coaches to represent SBU at the conference (we are both captains of our respective teams), which focused on enhancing leadership qualities, coaching, and building character on and off the field. The conference was attended by players from all across the country, who were also chosen due mainly to their leadership and work in their respective communities.

The conference was a great experience as it afforded me a chance to interact with peers from different parts of the nation. Though we all came from different backgrounds, we were able to forge partnerships during workshops and learn from each other during the coaching sessions. I also learned how to coach six to ten year olds. The staff was amazing and made us all feel at home.

Imagine having a robot as your teacher. Wouldn't that be amazing? I read this article about two students who are working to develop a robot that teaches. The two students have already performed several tests and hope to have it ready soon.