Daily Lumina News 092022

High school vocational programs have changed a lot over the past 20 years by both increasing their academic rigor and expanding career fields. Federal legislation has encouraged these programs to prepare students not only for a career, but also for college.
Labels have changed, too. It’s now called career and technical education. Today, students are actively choosing, instead of being passively steered to vocational high school classes. And Massachusetts is at the forefront of this trend.

After President Joe Biden announced his sweeping student loan forgiveness plan in August, borrowers flooded the studentaid.gov website for information on what to do next. For many, the answers aren't particularly satisfying: sign up for an email alert and wait for the application to be released in early October.
The uncertainty is causing added stress for many borrowers—and opening a door for scammers to step through.

The water crisis in Jackson, Mississippi—moving in slow motion for decades because of the city's crumbling infrastructure—came to a head last month when torrential rains overwhelmed the city’s largest water treatment plant.
For colleges and universities in the area, this was yet another emergency to confront after two years spent managing a global pandemic—and some of those lessons would come in handy.

Today's college students are struggling, with many reporting anxiety, depression, self-harm, and suicide.
Two leaders from Lumina Foundation reflect on why it is imperative to expand conversations about mental health, push for sustainable funding, focus on preventative measures, and end the stigma associated with mental illness.

From free and low-cost dental clinics provided by dental hygienist students to home building by students in construction programs, two-year schools are putting the “community” in community college by mixing academics and service in a panoply of creative ways.
These arrangements benefit students, the organizations they serve, and the community at large, providing technical and customer-oriented skills for students and much-needed services to nonprofits and their clients.

Ninth graders at Philadelphia’s Martin Luther King High School are beginning their high school careers with a set of teachers who look like them. The school is the first high school in the district to have a class with Black male teachers for four core subjects.
The teachers’ journeys to careers in education speak to the challenges the profession faces in recruiting and retaining Black men, who make up only 2 percent of all teachers nationwide.