Community college enrollment has plummeted 9.5 percent because of the pandemic. But Tennessee is offsetting much of that decline, with adult students going back to school in record numbers. 

Brooke Clark is one of those learners. After graduating high school in 2013, Clark found herself taking care of her ill father, working full time, and attending a new college without a sense of purpose. She dropped out after the first year. Today, with mentoring and financial support from the Tennessee Reconnect program, Clark is a second-year student at Nashville State Community College and on the Dean's List.

Art Bilger launched WorkingNation six years ago with a very specific goal in mind: educate the public about the changing nature of work caused by advancing technology. He also wanted the content of WorkingNation to focus on viable solutions to the workforce issues resulting from those changes.
 
On this podcast, Bilger shares his thoughts on the relationship between employment and life's purpose—plus how he is using WorkingNation to expose the hard truths about the jobs crisis, as well as the opportunities.

Photo: Jonathan Newton

It had been almost five months since Virginia Commonwealth University sophomore Brittany Ofori lost her part-time job when she received an unexpected offer of help. A campus organization for first-generation college students like Ofori, 20, emailed her about coronavirus pandemic relief grants from the public university in Richmond.

Colleges and universities are flush with money to help students like Ofori. Congress has earmarked $35 billion in emergency aid since last spring for students facing housing, employment and food insecurities. Since then, the proliferation of emergency aid programs is one of the few trends to emerge from the pandemic that higher education experts hope will remain after the health crisis.