Photo: Erica S. Lee for GBH News

Silver Wolf's five-year journey toward a bachelor's degree has taken her from a small private college to a community college, both in Pennsylvania, and then to the University of Massachusetts Boston. Each time she transferred, she hit the same snag: Her first school would not release her transcript because of unpaid bills. The two delays cost her a year when she could have been earning credits.

Because former students owe money, colleges are withholding transcripts from more than 6.6 million Americans who’ve transferred to another school or abandoned their pursuit of higher education. New research shows these debts total about $15 billion, but in most cases the balances owed are $25 or less.

Alyssa Kollgaard is a Los Angeles-based video game producer for Akupara Games. She's part of a fast-growing industry that has powered through the pandemic at a breakneck speed. 

You can learn more about Kollgaard and what it takes to succeed in the world of video gaming in this video, which is part of a digital series on promising career paths for early-career workers of all education levels.

Three struggling campuses of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education plan to pursue an increasingly popular strategy in higher ed: building a new “virtual campus” that will educate working adults who have some college credit but no degree.

But competing with the established national players in online education presents a tall order. Still, some online providers say they welcome more efforts to educate adults, because the need is enormous.