Daily Lumina News 012224

The Coalition for College, a membership organization founded in 2015 to promote college access, has a new CEO: Liz Cheron, former assistant vice president for enrollment and dean of admissions at Northeastern University.
In this interview, Cheron describes the importance of innovation in college admissions, what often works against it, and why she wants to lead a high-profile organization that competes with the Common Application during an era of great uncertainty for enrollment leaders.

Soaring college costs, higher enrollment, changes to the federal lending system, labor market demand for credentials, and paltry wage growth have all contributed to the $1.6 trillion in outstanding federal student debt. This does not include debt originated in the private market.
The federal lending system, which originates the vast majority of student loans, is complex. There are many moving parts and many people whose lives it touches. Here’s how student loan debt shakes out in America.

The U.S. Department of Education recently convened a group of higher education stakeholders to begin negotiated rulemaking, a process that the department uses to review, discuss, and hopefully reach consensus on proposed regulatory changes.
This round of negotiated rulemaking covers a wide range of higher education programs, institutions, and oversight structures, but the central focus zeroes in on students and their ability to access high-quality postsecondary education.

Shaheera Alnatshia, Chelsea Rucker, and Kara Gooch are single mothers who faced seemingly insurmountable obstacles on their path to success, including domestic abuse, homelessness, and poverty.
But thanks to a training program partnership put together by Goodwill, Google, and Coursera, they have been able to gain the digital skills necessary to secure meaningful careers with room for growth. This is their story.

When Giselle Meza became pregnant, she was afraid of being judged by her classmates, and she had no idea when or if she would finish high school. But now, after joining a teen parent program, she’s committed to graduating and going on to community college to become an ultrasound technician.
This podcast explores how one teen parent program in California is keeping student parents focused on their education and their futures.

High school students graduating this year worked on their college applications, due this month, in one of the most turbulent years in American education.
Not only are they preparing them in the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war—which sparked debates about free speech and antisemitism on college campuses, leading to the resignation of two Ivy League presidents—but they also must wade through the new ban on race-conscious admissions.