Some problems seem almost too daunting to solve. But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t try. And that’s the optimistic viewpoint that lawmakers in Indianapolis are taking.
In order to help alleviate two major problems in our country — the student loan bubble and the still-weak economy — they want to offer qualified students up to $9,000 in state funds to pay off their loans if they go on to become teachers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (the so-called STEM subject areas), according to the Associated Press.
This proposal, currently awaiting Senate approval, would also extend to teachers in areas with educator shortages, the AP reports. Recipients would receive this money after completing their third year of teaching in Indiana.
MORE: This 6-Year High School Challenges Everything We Thought We Knew About American Education
This law could be especially helpful not just for our trillion dollar student loan bubble but also for our economy, as the fastest-growing jobs are in STEM fields (think: physician assistants, computer software engineers, dental hygienists, and veterinarians, to name a few). According to the Department of Commerce, STEM jobs grew at a rate of 17 percent in the past 10 years, compared with a 9.8 percent growth in other occupations. President Obama has endorsed an education in STEM to help make sure our students have the skills they need for the jobs of the future. Looks like Indiana is making a promising start.
Tag: Indiana
This Veteran Suffered a Traumatic Brain Injury in Iraq. Now He’s Got a Chance to Win a Medal
All the athletes who qualify for the Paralympics have overcome obstacles to excel at their sports, but perhaps none more so than Army veteran Joel Hunt, who was named to the U.S. Paralympic Alpine Ski Team on Wednesday. Joel Warner profiled Hunt’s quest to make the team last year for Westword, writing, “during his three Iraq deployments, Hunt was exposed to more than 100 improvised explosive-device blasts, explosions that left him with a traumatic brain injury that, among other things, has slowly paralyzed his left leg.” Hunt had to use a wheelchair to get around after his 2007 discharge, and PTSD hit him hard—in a speech he often gives about his story, he says there were times he “wished that I had died in Iraq rather than face the difficulties of my situation.”
But then in 2008, when his health had been deteriorating for years, his parents encouraged him to attend a three-day event in Breckenridge, Colo. to help vets with traumatic brain injuries (TBI) learn to ski. Hunt had begun to leave his wheelchair for walks, and although he was skeptical about skiing, when he tried it, it appealed to him immediately. “Hold on,” Hunt told Warner he remembers thinking, “This is like roller skating.” Operation TBI Freedom bought him a ski pass, and Hunt skied 125 times that winter.
The next winter, Hunt began training at the National Sports Center for the Disabled’s program at Winter Park. The Challenged Athletes Foundation’s Operation Rebound donated the $3500 fee required to participate. Hunt kept at it, improving at ski racing year by year, and in 2013 he qualified for the Paralympic Alpine Development Program in Aspen.
Even with a paralyzed left leg and double vision, Hunt can speed down the slopes, and now he will be the first Paralympic skier with a TBI. He’ll join three other veterans on the Paralympic Alpine Ski Team: Army veteran Heath Calhoun, Coast Guard Veteran Chris Devlin-Young, and Marine Corps veteran Jon Lujan. These vets will head to Sochi to compete at the Paralympic Winter Games from March 7 through 16, offering ski racing fans plenty to cheer about.
MORE: Leave it to Teenagers to Find the Most Fun Way to Help Disabled Vets
This Veteran Is Taking the ‘No Man Left Behind’ Mantra to Civilian Life
When Adam Minton left the Army after eight years of service, he had a hard time settling back into civilian life. “I struggled when I left the military. It’s hard for us to find our niche once we get out,” he told Dan Spehler of Fox 59. “I’m one of the fortunate ones.” That’s because Minton made his own luck: He found work as a security guard and, with help from his girlfriend Erin Parks, started The Minks Kids, a non-profit that assists homeless and hungry people, especially veterans.
Screengrab via Fox 59 WXIN-TV.
While the couple raises money to open a soup kitchen, they’re visiting struggling veterans every month, providing companionship and a home-cooked meal. Right now they’re running the nonprofit out of their home, storing supplies in their garage as they seek donations to get their organization up and running. Parks told Spehler, “The military in general has that ‘no man left behind’ mantra and it just feels like when the men and women transition, they’re kind of being left behind, not necessarily by the military, just kind of by life.” We can all salute Minton and Parks’ efforts to change that.
MORE: An 87-Year-Old World War II Vet Made A Promise at 19 To Help Someone Every Day
He Dropped Out of High School 30 Years Ago, But This Innovative Education Center Helped Him Earn a Diploma
Montaque Quentrel Koonce of Indianapolis dropped out of high school at age 16. Years later, when he was laid-off from his job on an assembly line, he struggled to find an affordable place to live. That’s when he turned to the Excel Center, a Goodwill-sponsored charter school that offers the city’s 150,000 dropouts a chance to earn a high school degree and college credit. Koonce told April Brown of the PBS NewsHour there were “two things [he’s] terrified of,” becoming homeless, and “having to do math. So I had to confront both of those fears at the same time.” Koonce overcame his fears, graduating with a high school degree more than thirty years after he dropped out.
Goodwill is mostly known for its thrift stores, whose sales fund job training and programs for a variety of needy people. But although Goodwill hadn’t previously been involved in education, representatives of the City of Indianapolis’ mayor’s office approached Goodwill of Central Indiana about starting a program to help the city’s dropouts who’d been severely affected by the recession. (In Indianapolis, the mayor’s office is able to sponsor state charter schools.)
Jim McClelland, CEO and President of Goodwill of Central Indiana, decided its education centers would offer dropouts the opportunity to earn high school degrees rather than G.E.D.s, because according to research, those with G.E.D.s fare little better in terms of job opportunities and money-earning potential than dropouts do. The Excel Center also offers college credit and classes that prepare students to earn technical certifications.
The Excel Center now enrolls 3,000 adults at nine different locations in Indiana, where the teachers hold them to high standards. Kandas Boozer, an algebra teacher for Excel, told Brown, “I expect them to always give 100 percent no matter what that looks like. Everybody is at a different level, so I just want to make sure they give me everything they have.” People like Koonce are getting a lot in return.
Transforming Urban Planning With Discarded Airplane Parts
When Ball State’s architecture grad students learned that commercial airplanes have around six million parts, they saw six million opportunities to transform urban planning. Professor Harry Eggink created a virtual “playground for an architect’s imagination,” giving his students a chance to use digital diagrams to get creative without worrying about costs. They designed bus stops and apartment complexes from the would-be waste. Next up: disaster shelters, emergency relief huts and much more, all from retired aircraft pieces.