Daily Lumina News 102621

Across the country, hospitals desperate for nurses—especially in acute care—are trying to address intense burnout among health-care workers and accelerated nurse retirements by hiring new graduates.
They're offering jobs to students even before they graduate, and in many cases providing bonuses and loan repayment as financial incentives. Yet—paradoxically—becoming a nurse is getting more difficult, narrowing the pipeline for new nurses coming through the system.

As the war for talent rages, “upskilling” and “reskilling” appear to be moving from beyond mere buzzwords to a real focus for business.
Today, companies are rethinking how they hire, train, and promote employees—and education’s role in all three. A new report takes a deeper look at this growing trend.

The reality of global climate change is all around us, yet many national governments and big polluters lack the courage, the will—sometimes even the desire—to curb greenhouse emissions.
Colleges and universities have an essential role to play in helping the world reverse course, says Lumina Foundation's Jamie Merisotis.

Even before COVID-19, North Carolina’s Forsyth Technical Community College was designing a program to focus on whole-person care for students with barriers to success—both in the classroom and in their daily lives.
In this interview, leaders of the college describe how they have since accelerated Forsyth Tech Cares to provide much-needed safety nets for today's learners.

During Janice Jackson’s tenure at the helm of Chicago Public Schools, the district continued an encouraging trend: More students graduated from high school and continued on to college.
But increasing the number of students who actually finish college has been a more elusive goal for the district. In her new role with Hope Chicago, Jackson aims to attack the key obstacles that trip students up on their way to a degree or quality credential.

When college students headed back to school earlier this year, concerns grew about COVID-19's impact on the academic performance of first-year students. Many new students had to re-acclimate to in-person learning and adjust to college at the same time. Some had suffered losses; many were struggling with their mental health.
Everyone wants to know how today's freshmen are doing. But academic performance is hard to unpack—even without a pandemic.