Meet the Goodmans: Las Vegas’ Flamboyant Political Family, Governing
Did you know the Strip — with its high-rolling casinos and debauched dance clubs — isn’t actually within Las Vegas’s city limits? It’s technically on Clark County’s turf. The timeworn battle between city and county is playing out in the Nevada desert, as a husband-and-wife pair who’ve held the mayor’s office for a collective 17 years try to remake the city’s downtown, gambling their future on a performing arts center, a med school and a pro sports team.
High-Rise Greens, The New Yorker
In 2003, Ed Harwood, a 66-year-old inventor from Ithaca, N.Y., sketched out designs for a seemingly impossible idea: a compact vertical farm, where produce could grow without any soil, sunlight or more water than a fine mist. Today, his grow tower has been perfected and adopted by AeroFarms, a company in Newark, N.J., whose indoor agriculture aims to compete with California’s kale, bok choi and arugula farmers.
Did Free College Save This City? Christian Science Monitor
For every graduate of the Kalamazoo, Mich., school system — rich or poor — a group of anonymous donors has guaranteed scholarships to cover the cost of college tuition. The 11-year-old educational experiment, known as Kalamazoo Promise, has revived the district public schools and fostered a college-going culture in this frozen Rust Belt city that’s trying to transition to the digital economy.
Continue reading “Las Vegas’s First Family Gambles on Downtown, Indoor Agriculture Gets a Boost and More”
Tag: free education
This Impressive Teen Received a College Degree Before Finishing High School
It’s probably safe to say that most 16-year-olds are thinking more about getting their driver’s license than thinking about their plans for higher education. But that certainly wasn’t the case for one Hollywood, Florida teen.
Grace Bush astonishingly earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Florida Atlantic University (FAU) a week before finishing high school. So how did she do it?
Grace, who completed her undergraduate degree in just three years with a 3.8 grade point average, participated in her school’s dual enrollment program that allows gifted students the opportunity to earn college credit for selected high school courses, Yahoo! News reports.
MORE: This Extraordinary Student Got Into All of the Ivy League Schools
This whizkid told CBS Miami that she started collegiate level courses when she was only 13-years-old at Broward College, enrolling in extra classes during summers to make it all possible. In case you weren’t amazed enough already, Grace also plays the flute for the Miami Music Project orchestra and the South Florida Youth Symphony, too.
Not only is this teenager incredibly smart (she started reading when she was only 2!), but she’s also incredibly hardworking, as well. The Sun Sentinel describes her brutal schedule of staying up until 2 a.m. every night studying and sneaking in naps on her commute to school every morning. And to maintain her rigorous academic schedule, Grace skipped out on attending typical school social activities such as school dances, football games or parties. She acknowledged to the paper that she “missed out on being a kid, goofing off and wasting time.”
Looks like Grace, the third oldest of nine siblings (who were all home-schooled by their mother Gisla), is just following in the footsteps of her likewise gifted family. “My two older sisters are doing it and I’m the third to do it,” Grace told CBS. “My oldest sister already graduated and my second oldest sister is graduating in the summer.”
ALSO: Inside the Movement for Free Community College
Her parents told the Sun Sentinel that they put their children on this path because they can’t afford to send them all to conventional four-year colleges or universities. (Grace took her courses at local colleges for free.)
So what’s next for Grace? She’s aiming even higher, naturally, and is planning to attend FAU’s master’s program and go on to law school so she can achieve her dream of becoming chief justice.
If past performance is an indicator of future success, Grace definitely has bright days ahead.
If You Want to Save the World, You’ll Need Help. You May Want to Check This Out.
Aspiring environmentalists these days face dwindling funding for research and environmental education. But not all is lost. Here’s a quick run-through of scholarships available to help visionaries in their quest to make a greener, better world for everybody. The ERM Foundation Sustainability Scholarship supports six international students who aspire to social entrepreneurship each year. The Hardwood Forest Foundation Educator Scholarship is awarded to a graduate student who is pursuing a career as an educator. And Annie’s Sustainable Agriculture Scholarship is geared toward students who have big visions in the realm of sustainable and organic agriculture. Check out those and more at Greener Ideal.