Daily Lumina News 072321

The point of a college internship is for students to gain experience—an introduction to a career field they are interested in and a chance to make professional connections that can lead to a job post-graduation. But what happens if you don’t have enough experience to get an internship that is supposed to give you experience?
An organization called Break Through Tech has come up with a novel idea to address this challenge: microinternships—or what it calls a “sprinternship.”

Medgar Evers College, the City University of New York system’s only predominantly Black institution, received the largest grant in its history this summer as the college and its surrounding community in central Brooklyn struggle to recover from the pandemic.
Part of the funds will be used to establish the Brooklyn Recovery Corps, which will pay and give academic credit to 200 students annually to work in local small businesses and nonprofits affected by the pandemic.

Augustana College in Illinois is piloting an effort that promises students they will earn at least the average income for their academic fields for the first five years they work in those fields after graduating. If they don't, they'll be paid the difference after five years.
College leaders hope the program signals their belief that Augustana graduates will do well after graduation. They also want to assure families who may be suspicious about the value of a liberal arts education but might be willing to consider different types of colleges in the coronavirus era.

Marketing competency-based education to students can be a challenge. Some programs have struggled with price points and business plans. And conflicting regulatory signals have helped slow the modality’s growth, particularly its more aggressive form—direct assessment—which is untethered from the credit-hour standard.
Even so, many who work on competency-based education think it may be poised to gain substantial ground—for real this time—due in part to the pandemic’s disruption to higher education and labor markets.