Lumina Foundation is working to increase the share of adults in the U.S. labor force with college degrees or other credentials of value leading to economic prosperity.
At Trident Technical College in North Charleston, South Carolina, learners can participate in an apprenticeship program that places them with area employers in a range of industries, including criminal justice, culinary arts, and automotive care. Apprentices receive pay for their training, along with related classroom instruction at the community college; any costs are covered by the employer or by workforce development organizations.
The following photo essay highlights some of the TTC youth and adult apprentices who are simultaneously learning at work and earning while in school.
Fifteen Historically Black Colleges and Universities are teaming up to pursue the nation’s highest research status in partnership with leading research universities.
The newly announced coalition, called the Association of HBCU Research Institutions, hopes to upend discriminatory assumptions about what HBCUs can accomplish and reverse some historical trends that have held them back. The group will work with the country’s foremost research universities, with space within the Association of American Universities headquarters in Washington and support from Harvard University.
When Harvard University graduate students went on strike last week, one of their key contract demands was better protections for international students at risk in immigration crackdowns. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s graduate-student union is taking a similar approach as it begins negotiations—asking for more remote-work flexibility for students unable to be on campus for visa reasons and for the university to pledge not to comply with immigration agents without a judicial warrant.
The growing prominence of the issue in graduate-student labor demands comes as foreign and undocumented students have been swept up in the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement.
In the remarks she prepared for a February debate, Chelsee Wright writes about a woman who spent the majority of her first prison bid in isolation. The lack of mental health treatment ultimately led her to self-mutilate and make multiple suicide attempts.
Wright is part of the DC Jail Debate Team. Started in 2024, it’s the first co-ed team of the National Prison Debate League. Each semester, up to 20 participants—many of whom have no previous debate experience—meet twice a week at the Washington, D.C., jail where they are incarcerated. As part of the work, women learn to argue policy, tell their stories, and claim the power of being heard.
In a fiery hearing this week, U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon defended her work dismantling the very department she leads, with Senate Democrats saying the results have made life harder for parents and students. McMahon's first appearance on Capitol Hill in nearly a year was intended to unpack the White House proposal on education spending for the 2027 fiscal year—and gave senators a chance to take stock of McMahon's actions.
Some Republicans cheered McMahon's changes, while many shared the concerns of their Democratic counterparts about proposed cuts to TRIO, a group of federal programs that help disadvantaged students get into and through college.
The UNC System could soon offer accelerated undergraduate programs, joining a growing number of universities around the country that allow students to earn their degrees in three years instead of the traditional four.
UNC System President Peter Hans believes the initiative will increase access to North Carolina’s public universities in an affordable way, particularly for older learners and students who do not enroll in college immediately after high school. But before that work goes too far, some of the state’s community college presidents want a say.
