Daily Lumina News 052421

On this episode of Impact Adventures, experts from Lumina Impact Ventures, Edquity, and the Community Outcomes Fund talk about finding and funding new ways to set students up for success, the challenges that derail individuals from attaining postsecondary education, and the potential of outcomes financing to change the impact investing landscape.

At San Antonio College—which last week won the 2021 Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence—students are required to meet with an advisor at four junctures during the pursuit of an associate degree; a case management approach supports students in and out of the classroom; and a new program increases resources for students with fewer than 15 earned credits.
Many colleges around the country use similar models. Where advising used to be heavily focused on academic paths and career aspirations, it’s now about helping students juggle other aspects of life.

An organization called B-360 exists at the unlikely intersection of three lanes: unrecognized potential, dirt bike culture, and STEM education.
Brittany Young, a former NASA engineer, created B-360 in March 2017; since then, about 7,000 students have taken part in the Baltimore program. They don't just learn to do tricks on bikes. They also learn to code, operate a 3D printer, repair and build bikes, and construct robots. The goal is to attract more Black students into STEM careers.

The stakes are high for first-generation students like Guillermina Gutierrez Martinez who often carry the responsibility of setting an example for younger siblings while seeking to lift their families out of poverty.
Yet, the dream of a better future is fettered by a reality unique to their circumstances—if they go away to college, who’s left to help pay bills, translate important documents, or manage the family business?

José Antonio Bowen believes teaching can’t go back to normal this fall. If it does, he says higher education has missed a huge opportunity to improve how instructors interact with students.
Bowen, an education consultant, jazz musician, and former president of Goucher College, weighs in on the need to embrace new ideas and practices developed during the period of emergency remote teaching.

For more than 400 colleges and universities, it is being billed as the ticket to a normal year on campus: Require all students to be vaccinated for COVID-19.
From just one university in March, to a dozen by the first week of April, the trickle has become a tide over the past month—depending on just where students are attending school.