Daily Lumina News 022124

Towns in rural Vermont face a number of challenges, including housing shortages, struggling downtowns, and too little disaster preparedness. College students at the University of Vermont are stepping up to help, tackling projects such as repairing structures in mobile home parks and setting up weather stations to help farmers know when to time their harvest.
The outreach is doing more than connecting colleges to community life, say experts. It's also helping to restore trust in higher education.

The conversation about students who stop attending college tends to be focused around their problems, say education advocates. They are discussed as students who lack recent academic experience, possess rusty math skills, or have financial aid issues.
That mindset needs to be reframed, according to a new report that examines the steps colleges can take to get adult learners who didn't finish their degree back on track.

A learner’s journey is never done. There’s a constant need to acquire new skills to keep up with the workforce—and these skills are always evolving.
In this interview, Alejandra Bueno of the Alamo Colleges District discusses why today's learners need an education model that is agile enough to meet their needs throughout all stages of their educational journey—plus the role that quality digital credentials and badges can play in their journey.

Nearly half of all college students nationwide say they struggle to pay utilities or rent while also managing medical, grocery, and transportation bills. For many, a lack of housing will eventually force them to drop out of school altogether.
Oscar Godinez-Avila is no stranger to these challenges. A fifth-year senior at Colorado State University, Godinez-Avila spent years sleeping on a roll-out mat at friends' apartments and using sinks on campus to clean up. Today, thanks to a new housing initiative at his school, he finally has a space of his own—along with a renewed sense of purpose to pursue his college dreams.

Declining student populations have plagued the higher ed sector in recent years, and college enrollment has yet to recover to pre-pandemic levels. At the same time, colleges are preparing for an expected drop-off in high school graduates beginning next year due to declining birth rates.
Now, the sector is grappling with its latest hurdle—a cohort of high schoolers who are increasingly missing benchmarks that signify college readiness.

When Jorge Alaves looks around Room 110 at Lindblom Math and Science Academy, he sees 36 versions of his teenage self: Latino boys with a lot of potential at a high school full of high-achieving students trying to figure out how to be successful after graduation.
“Lindblom Colegio,” a peer mentoring and postsecondary planning group for Latino boys, aims to give them the support and guidance to make the process easier. Alaves, one of the program's five counselors, launched the group about six years ago after noticing that Latino boys at the high school were less likely to apply to college.