Daily Lumina News 022620

Before beginning her studies last week, 37-year-old Irena Butcher dropped her daughter off at pre-school. She returned for a visit a few hours later, grabbed a hug, read a few chapters of Dr. Seuss, then headed back to classes that could stretch well into the evening.
Through it all, she never had to leave campus.
Borough of Manhattan Community College’s Early Childhood Center offers a lifeline for student-parents with high-quality childcare available daytime and evenings, including on weekends. And thanks to a sliding scale and multiple funding streams, parents never pay more than $35 a week.

Former Secretary of Education John B. King, now president and CEO of The Education Trust, talks about his passion for giving all learners, particularly those in poverty and prisons, access to higher education.
King also reflects on how his personal experiences, his time in the federal government, and his work as an education advocate drive him to help students who just need a chance to succeed.

On his morning commute one day last February, Steve Robinson of Owens Community College mulled over a persistent frustration: the stigma often borne by community colleges. That morning he resolved to harness the “power of Twitter” to counter those stereotypes.
Faced with persistent, if outdated, stigmas and diverse, largely nontraditional student populations, more community-college leaders are turning to social media to promote their institutions and engage today’s digitally savvy students.

Charles Ford was busy taking cosmetology classes at his local community college last fall when a teacher and the college president floated an idea past him.
Would he consider a teaching career?
J.F. Drake State Community and Technical College in Huntsville, Alabama, is partnering with nearby Athens State University in a new effort to address Alabama’s critical teacher shortage by recruiting members of the most underrepresented group in teaching ranks—African-American men.