Daily Lumina News 050321

Like many parents who attend college while raising children, Nicole Lynn Lewis had to navigate a system that wasn’t built with her needs in mind. At orientation, Lewis, who is Black, felt out of place walking around the predominantly white campus of the College of William & Mary in her Walmart flip-flops.
Lewis later founded Generation Hope, a nonprofit group that helps teen parents get to and through college while raising children. In this interview, she addresses the stigma of teenage pregnancy, the disconnection many student parents experience, and why colleges must do more to help them succeed.

For decades, companies have offered more or less the same deal to Americans in search of office jobs: You pay for your own higher education and skills training, and then we’ll consider employing you.
But with corporations unable to hire and hold on to enough workers to fill jobs in IT, cyber security, and software development, a shift may be underway. More companies are assuming the costs and risks of preparing people for entry-level technology roles with the offer of apprenticeships.

President Joe Biden’s American Families Plan is a game-changer for community colleges and minority-serving institutions, campus leaders say. The $1.8 trillion proposed plan could bring a much-needed windfall to institutions serving students most hard-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Larry Galizio heads an organization that represents campus leaders in California's state community college system. He calls the Biden proposal a “transformative shift in policy” after decades of underfunding for underresourced institutions. Still, he views it as just a beginning step.

"Isabella" is a mother coming back to college after an extended absence. Previously, she had attended a private not-for-profit college for one semester, and picked up a couple courses at community colleges over the years. Now, she’s interested in social work.
Isabella isn’t a real student. But Minnesota State's use of a fictitious but evidence-based composite student—with real-life challenges that prevent her from maintaining momentum—helps leaders reframe conversations around equity and transfer to ensure they're building a student-centered process.

Supporters of an effort to make national test entrance exams optional for students applying to Colorado public colleges believe the change will open opportunities for a more diverse set of students.
Now, critics of the idea have signed onto the effort after a change that would require colleges and universities to provide detailed information on whether the policy is having its intended effect.

The creation of CodePath, an organization that aims to transform computer science education for underrepresented students, is rooted in Michael Ellison's personal story. The co-founder and CEO initially grew up in a low-income, rural Maine, single-mother household. At various points in time, Ellison and his family found themselves homeless.
On this podcast, Ellison describes CodePath and its work to change college computer-science education in a way that will, at scale, help students from disadvantaged backgrounds become high-performing software engineers.