Daily Lumina News 061224

The rollout of the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid is more than just a policy challenge. It’s a human crisis for many students who see postsecondary education as a pathway out of economic hardship or a way to a dream career.
In words, images, and videos, students across broad spectrums of income and identity provide firsthand accounts of how this year's trouble-plagued FAFSA suddenly put their future in jeopardy.

Almost nothing could deter Brianna Savko from teaching. Even generally modest pay, an all-time high annual attrition rate of 7.7 percent, and a statewide shortage of more than 2,000 teachers would not change her mind.
Gov. Josh Shapiro signed a $10 million student teacher stipend program last year to assist aspiring educators like Savko. Now that effort needs more financial support to meet high demand.

A new study from the Community College Research Center and the Public Policy Institute of California takes an in-depth look at how community colleges in six states used federal pandemic relief funding and identifies areas of concern now that the funding is no longer available.
According to the study, colleges spent nearly all the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund money they received, with institutions focused on keeping current students rather than trying to recruit new ones.

Maryann Dang, 18, grew up in the rural town of Winona, Mississippi, a place she describes as so small that people only stop in to get gas on their way to somewhere else. Dang never expected to leave Winona after high school, assuming colleges were looking for “high-level kids from the big cities."
The Small Town and Rural Students (STARS) College Network, a partnership of 16 colleges across the country, is committed to challenging that assumption, finding, reaching out to, and supporting rural students like Dang.

The 2022 CHIPS Act caused a surge in funding for semiconductor manufacturing in the United States, as well as a demand for qualified workers. These chips power everything from our phones and cars to advanced fighter jets and artificial intelligence.
Now, some colleges and universities are trying to help fill those jobs and create the workforce of the future.

Even behind the barbed wire and steel gates, celebrations were in full force last week at West Virginia’s only all-female prison.
Before a crowd of family members, friends, and corrections officials, several dozen incarcerated students at the Lakin Correctional Center in Mason County, West Virginia, took to the stage to receive new diplomas and certifications that may someday make it easier for them to join the workforce.