A Connecticut church is hosting a discussion this weekend to encourage Hispanic students to work in STEM fields.
The talk is part of Hispanic Access Foundation's Pathways to Science program, a five-year mission to build up the next generation of Hispanic STEM professionals. Research shows people who identify as Latino or Hispanic comprise 8% of all STEM workers, while accounting for 17% of the total workforce.
Benji Suprice, pastor for children and youth at Church of the City, said seeing representation in these career fields helps break barriers.
"Maybe one of the largest barriers is when our students don't see representatives of themselves in careers like this," he said. "They might be less inclined to go after these careers, or - a different lens - students don't know the pathway or don't have the support system."
Dr. Carlos Salazar, an internal medicine resident in the Bronx, is this month's speaker. Along with details of his career and passion for medicine, he will focus on hypertension. The event will begin at 6 p.m. Sunday at Church of the City in New London. More information about where to register is online at hispanicaccess.org under the tab "What We Do."
Suprice said these discussions are held every month during the school year, with a break over the summer, so the one this Sunday is the last until September - and they'll use the summer months to plan ahead.
"We want to just debrief to see what has worked, what has been the conversations and topics that have really resonated with students," he said. "Is the date that we've chosen, right - Sunday evenings - is that the best date for students, or should we go back to the drawing board and consider new things?"
Suprice added that the feedback from students and parents has been overwhelmingly positive. Most of the talks have centered around health care, but students have suggested bringing in professionals in other science fields such as engineering.
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Education is a major challenge for kids in foster care in Pennsylvania, according to a new report.
Nearly 20,000 children and teens are served by Pennsylvania's foster care system each year.
Maura McInerney, legal director for the nonprofit Education Law Center-Pennsylvania, said the report identifies policy recommendations to improve educational outcomes for them.
"The report shows that academic performance and other outcomes of students in foster care are negatively impacted by systemic failures that are fixable," McInerney outlined. "Including high rates of school mobility, unmet special education needs, higher rates of school discipline and systemic racism."
One recommendation is for child welfare agencies to place kids in foster care closer to their home communities, to help keep them in the same schools. It was released jointly by the Education Law Center and Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children.
The study showed students in foster care are three times more likely to be disciplined through out-of-school suspensions and twice as likely to face in-school suspensions than other students. McInerney pointed out it is important for teachers, educators and staff to understand children in the foster care system have experienced significant trauma and may have "triggers" other students do not have.
"For example, I represented a child in foster care who, if you raised your hands above your head, that child would feel that she was now going to be abused, because she was being threatened in that way," McInerney reported.
McInerney stressed 53% of foster youth graduate from high school on time, compared to 88% of other students. She added kids in congregate care often get lower-quality education with little oversight. She noted many attend on-site or virtual classes through private programs, which are not regularly monitored by the Department of Education.
"Studies show that children who are placed in congregate care settings, such as residential facilities, and educated through on-ground schools often receive an inferior education and exhibit lower academic performance, which we see detailed in this report," McInerney underscored.
The report suggested better data is needed to track school stability and placement for students in foster care. Many are in virtual or out-of-district schools instead of their local community schools.
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The selection of Marva Johnson, a longtime corporate executive and ally of Gov. Ron DeSantis, as the next president of Florida A&M University has sparked fierce backlash over claims of political interference.
The university's board of trustees voted 8-4 last week to appoint Johnson, who lacks traditional higher-education experience but served on DeSantis' education advisory teams and the Florida Board of Governors. Critics have argued the search process was rigged to favor Johnson, who was added as a finalist late in the process.
Chuck Hobbs, a retired attorney, FAMU alumnus and former adjunct professor, pointed to the disconnect between the board's stated criteria and Johnson's background.
"If she isn't qualified from what their criteria indicated, not something in terms of what the alumni or students want but what this board of trustees said they were looking for ... if she doesn't meet those three criteria, then the second question has to be, then why is she there and what is the agenda?" Hobbs asserted.
Johnson dismissed claims she had an agenda or was a 'Trojan horse.' Supporters highlighted her management experience and political ties, while many students and alumni argued her selection threatens FAMU's autonomy as a historically Black university. The Board of Governors will review her appointment in June.
Walter Kimbrough, interim president of Talladega College and a veteran HBCU leader, noted a troubling trend of political influence in public HBCU leadership searches.
"I've gone back now about 15 years and I can't find an HBCU president with her background that's lasted more than five years," Kimbrough pointed out. "History said it's going to be a failure."
Kimbrough talked about the unique culture of HBCUs and the profoundly personal relationships formed on HBCU campuses between university presidents, their students, faculty and staff.
"She's never going to get that," Kimbrough contended. "Why then do you want a job when you're everything you represent is contrary to the idea of an HBCU presidency? It doesn't make any sense to me."
Hobbs sees Johnson's selection as the culmination of a yearslong conservative push to control public education.
Johnson's appointment came over Donald Palm, FAMU's longtime executive vice president; Rondall Allen, a provost at Maryland Eastern Shore; and Gerald Hector, a senior administrator at the University of Central Florida, all of whom met the board's original criteria for the job.
Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.
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Michiganders who left college early might now have a shot at finishing.
The Michigan Department of Lifelong Education, Advancement, and Potential's growing partnership with ReUp Education is designed to help qualified residents with some college under their belt finally get that diploma.
The initiative involves teaming up with community colleges across Michigan to help bring back 21- to 24-year-olds who started college but didn't finish -- many whose education was disrupted by the pandemic.
Sarah Szurpicki, director of MiLEAP's Sixty by 30 office, said they identified 40,000 eligible Michiganders.
"We know that having a talented workforce in Michigan is, in my view, the most important thing we can do to be helping all of Michiganders be set up for a prosperous future," said Szurpicki, "to have choices in what they're doing."
More than 1 million Michigan residents of working age have some college experience, but no degree.
The goal of the Sixty by 30 initiative is for 60% of the state's working-age adults to have a post-secondary degree.
A recent report from MiLEAP shines a light on why so many adults step away from school - which include work and family pressures, mental-health struggles, tight finances -- and housing and transportation issues.
Szurpicki emphasized that this effort is also about equipping colleges with what they need to support students working toward finishing their degrees.
"ReUp also provides that sort of like an outsider's perspective on anything a particular college can do" said Szurpicki. "They provide feedback directly to the colleges of what they're hearing from the students that they're reaching out to."
According to MiLEAP, more than 200,000 Michiganders who left college now have access to ReUp's coaching and re-enrollment support, many of them qualifying for free tuition through the Michigan Reconnect program.
Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.
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