Daily Lumina News 012720

When Brant Choate gets mail from the men and women in the California prisons he helps oversee, the letters often read something like this: “I've graduated with my associate degree for transfer and I need a place to go.”
More than 1,000 people in California prisons are in that situation, Choate estimates. As director of the Division of Rehabilitative Programs for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, he's been wanting to expand bachelor’s degree programs for years.
He may soon get his wish.

If you graduate from Detroit's Jalen Rose Leadership Academy and go on to college, there is no escaping Katherine Grow. She’ll call, email, and show up on campus.
Grow is Jalen Rose’s alumni success coordinator, an unusual position that reckons head-on with a reality that many schools serving low-income students face: Too many individuals head off to college and never graduate.

Educators use the word “holistic” to signal a commitment to students’ success academically and personally, in college and beyond. Holistic approach, holistic support—the term has become something of a buzzword.
In this video, five experts who approach this work as researchers, administrators, and advocates share one change institutions can make, in philosophy or practice, to improve the student experience.

While some companies try to attract and keep employees with yoga classes and lavish cafeterias, Nehemiah Manufacturing Co.’s perks include a social-service team and an attorney.
When two consumer-product veterans started Nehemiah a decade ago, their idea was to create more opportunities in a struggling part of Cincinnati. Increasingly, that meant hiring people who had a particularly hard time finding jobs: those with criminal backgrounds.