The Illinois Board of Higher Education is among the winners of a national competition to improve the college admissions process and increase people's access to higher education.

The board received a $750,000 award from Lumina Foundation to implement a direct-admissions program for community college transfer students and recent high school graduates.

Ginger Ostro, the board's executive director, said it will streamline procedures and promote inclusivity to ensure all students have equitable opportunities.

"It's really important to emphasize that this is a key strategy towards equity and addressing the needs of historically underserved students," she said, "and really recognizing the importance of higher education in social and economic mobility."

Ostro said the direct admissions program will proactively inform eligible students that they have been accepted at a particular institution - without the student having to submit an application.

The foundation's Great Admissions Redesign competition awarded grants to seven educational institutions across the country. After reviewing more than 70 applications and using criteria to ensure fair and just outcomes for underserved students, Lumina awarded more than $3 million in implementation and planning grants.

Ostro said the Illinois program's primary goal is to change the way college admissions are conducted.

"Direct admissions would allow us to use data that we already have at the state level to identify students who are already qualified for admission at our various public universities," she said.

Melanie Heath, strategy director at Lumina, called the program "innovative and unique," and said it should simplify the admissions process so more Illinoisans have an opportunity for higher education.

"If a system is incredibly complicated," she said, "then those that have the time and resources and support can navigate it, and those that don't are disproportionately burdened with that process."

Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.


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By Claire Rafford for Mirror Indy.
Broadcast version by Terri Dee for Indiana News Service reporting for the Mirror Indy-Free Press Indiana-Public News Service Collaboration.

For Kaneka Kidd, college has very much been a family affair.

She started classes through Marian University’s program at the Indiana Women’s Prison at the same time her youngest daughter started college.

Kidd also called her grandkids often to tell them about the classes she was taking, to hopefully encourage them to attend college one day. It was important to her that her family knew she was learning while inside.

“Being incarcerated for so long, you have to have something to go home to,” Kidd, 46, said. “I wanted to be an encouragement to them, also.”

Kidd was one of six women to graduate May 16 with her associate of arts degree from Marian University. Through its Women’s College Partnership, Marian offers classes and degrees to women at the prison, including those who committed violent crimes.

Marian’s been offering classes at the women’s prison since 2019 in collaboration with the Bard Prison Initiative, a national organization that supports liberal arts programs for incarcerated students. Students take classes in a variety of subjects, including civics, art, literature and science.

If Courtney Kincaid had to pick a favorite class from her two-and-a-half years of Marian education, it would be the “inside-out” class this spring, where students from Marian’s main campus came to the prison to take the class alongside the incarcerated students.
In that class, there was no divide. Everyone learned together, and that meant the world to Kincaid.

“It pushed me to continue to empower other people that this degree is a statement for us to be able to be students,” Kincaid, 35, said. “Because in this program, that’s what we are. We’re students. We’re not seen for where we wake up every day.”

Kincaid has always wanted to go to college, but she said life got in the way. Though she studied at Huntington University in northern Indiana and Purdue Fort Wayne, the May 16 ceremony was her first-ever graduation. She was chosen by her classmates to be the commencement speaker.

After working toward that goal for so long, walking across the stage was surreal.

“I almost couldn’t believe it,” Kincaid said. “It was like an out-of-body experience, because I accomplished something I always wanted to do, and I didn’t think that I would have the opportunity in a location like this.”

Kincaid’s celebrating her degree, but her educational journey isn’t over. She’s already studying to earn her bachelor’s degree from Marian, and eventually hopes to get a master’s degree and become a social worker.

Kidd has similar ambitions. She knows firsthand how hard it is for women experiencing domestic violence to escape abusive relationships, and hopes to use her lived experience to help people like her through social work.

“I want to help someone, because I wasn’t able to get the help,” she said.


Claire Rafford wrote this article for Mirror Indy.


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Meeting America's future energy demands requires big decisions by utilities and policymakers about the best way to do it. A South Dakota technical college is revamping its wind-energy program so its students can be part of the solution.

Mitchell Tech has just hired a new instructor to lead its Wind Turbine Technology program, which had been paused for a reset. Scott Fossum, the school's vice president for academic affairs, said there's a lot of demand for jobs in this field - and they want to prepare students for newer skills needed, such as repairing wind towers that have been operating for years.

"There are so many wind farms around South Dakota [and] upper Midwest that are still going to need technicians to make sure that everything is up and running and they still can be functional," he said.

South Dakota often ranks second in the nation for wind-energy generation. Around the country, there has been some pushback against local projects, along with shifting energy priorities in the White House. However, South Dakota has just seen approval for another large-scale wind farm for the northeastern part of the state.

Another obstacle facing wind energy is the lack of space on the power grid for new projects to plug into. However, an organization that oversees the Midwestern grid has pledged big investments to add transmission lines.

Fossum said Mitchell Tech has a program that trains students for that type of work, too.

"We have kids who go all across the United States and are working on the big transmission lines," he said.

Fossum said the school also is building a new lab for learning how to install underground power lines, which is ideal for classes taught in the winter. These types of courses are covered by the state's Build Dakota Scholarship program, which aims to help more students enroll at two-year schools aligned with in-demand careers.

Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.


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Workforce shortages have taken a bite out of dental offices in North Dakota but new scholarships at one of the state's colleges could help train the next generation of dental assistants, making life easier for patients and providers.

Bismarck State College said the state faces a projected shortfall of between 500 and 1,200 dental professionals when trying to fill future openings. The school just launched a program focused on getting more qualified dental assistants into the field.

Mikala Wegner, director of the program, said dentists, especially in rural areas, are having trouble meeting patient demand without qualified staffers, delaying preventive care.

"Offices are looking at much longer than the regular average checkup, which typically a dentist recommends every six months for a healthy mouth," Wegner noted. "We're looking at more (situations of) eight to 10 months."

Through state funding, the program is taking applications for scholarships covering the cost of online courses. To obtain a certificate, the student also needs to go through 300 hours of in-person clinical training. Before the program was approved, there was pushback from other schools, including Minot State University, about the effort interfering with similar initiatives. But higher education leaders suggested the need is too great.

Wegner pointed out having the coursework online provides flexibility for students working multiple jobs, as well as parents in search of a new career. Industry groups note assistants who are certified are seeing higher wage growth.

"It's not just a stepping stone anymore, which a lot of people used to see it as," Wegner observed.

With the exception of Minnesota, North Dakota edges all other neighboring states for the average salary of a certified dental assistant. A national summary last year showed it as more than $28 an hour. Wegner added filling the needs comes amid increased awareness about the link between oral health and a person's overall physical health.

Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.


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