Daily Lumina News 081823

For 10 days this August, some 150 high schoolers from across the United States are descending on a camp in Southern Illinois to discuss the fate of the planet—and what they can do about it.
The effort is from the youth-led Sunrise Movement, and it teaches students the skills they will need to launch efforts on their campuses to advance climate change lessons and create pathways to green jobs.

Job interviews can be daunting, especially if you’ve never done one before. But it's even more challenging if you’ve been incarcerated. The Prison to Employment Connection, or P2EC, aims to help.
The 14-week job-readiness training program at San Quentin State Prison works with people who are within one year of a release date or have a scheduled parole board hearing in the next six months. The curriculum includes an assessment to help participants identify possible careers, workshops on identifying strengths and transferable skills, and résumé editing.

Dagmar Kress dreamed of becoming a pilot. But her father told her that flying wasn’t something women did. Statistically, he's right. Nationally, women made up fewer than 16 percent of students enrolled in aviation programs in 2022.
But Kress didn’t heed her father’s warnings and went on to become a decorated pilot and flight instructor. She's also a lecturer at Metropolitan State University of Denver, where she is helping guide other women into the aviation field.

Now there are four—and two more are on the way. For the first time in nearly 50 years, the number of Black medical schools in the country is growing.
The news bodes well for equity advocates. For years, the nationwide percentage of practicing Black physicians has remained stubbornly low at about 6 percent, compared to 13.6 percent of people in the population who identify as Black.

Thrive Scholars is a college preparatory program founded 20 years ago with the goal of helping students of color from low-income households win seats at the nation’s top colleges. But the mission extends beyond that: It helps see participants through graduation with career counseling and other support.
The sense of urgency has only grown following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on June 29 that restricted the use of race in college admissions. Many expect that ruling to translate into a rollback in student diversity on college campuses.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling banning race-based affirmative action means that universities will face more difficulties recruiting students of color in academe.
In this essay, a Latino and former undocumented immigrant who pursued a career in higher education reflects on the barriers keeping those from historically excluded backgrounds out of such careers and how those obstacles can be replaced with opportunities.