Daily Lumina News 121322

Marisa Gomez takes a full load of classes at St. Paul College and participates in a work-study program. Still, she needs emergency funding to stay afloat. Gomez is caught in the financial middle: She earns enough to disqualify her from receiving any grants, while simultaneously needing to take out the maximum amount of student loans possible.
Gomez's experience is increasingly common as more students at community colleges struggle to find a balance between school, work, and the rising cost of products.

To close America’s chronic middle skills gap, U.S. employers must partner much more actively than in the past with local community colleges. That's the conclusion of a new report from the Harvard Business School Project on Managing the Future of Work and the American Association of Community Colleges.
The report ultimately calls on community colleges and industry partners to focus on three areas: training and education aligned with industry needs, commitments to hire community college students, and sharing of data on the supply and demand for talent.

Janet Montgomery says she will continue her education at St. John’s College in Maryland mostly because of what the picturesque liberal arts school has to offer academically.
But something else is factoring into Montgomery's college decision: the changed legal landscape of reproductive rights.

After scouring the state’s pipeline to find more certified teachers, some Michigan education leaders are joining forces to create a pipeline of their own.
The initiative, called Talent Together, aims to make the teaching profession more accessible and available to prospective teachers with incentives such as early on-the-job training, income opportunities, new ways to earn a teaching degree or certification, and more.

About 50,000 tech workers lost their jobs last month as Meta, Amazon, Twitter, and others laid off parts of their workforce. Much of that workforce is made up of immigrants.
Losing a job is always devastating, but for many immigrant workers on H-1B (skilled worker) visas, their ability to stay in the United States is suddenly on an unforgiving ticking clock.

Adam Gilson left home at 14, only to be taken in by a 30-year-old drug dealer. That’s when Gilson started selling drugs, too—a decision that would eventually land him in prison.
That was 22 years ago. Today, Gilson is set to graduate from Chippewa Valley Technical College with an associate degree in substance use disorder counseling.