Student loan borrowers aren’t just the freshly graduated and mid-30s working generations — millions of Americans in their retirement years have student debt to pay back, too.
There are six times as many borrowers ages 60 and older now than there were in 2004, but their debt has increased “19-fold,” according to a report from New America, a public policy think tank. About 3.5 million Americans in this age bracket carry $125 billion in student debt, the report found.
Overall, Americans hold $1.75 trillion in student debt, the World Economic Forum found. The president’s student loan forgiveness plan, which was announced last August and is now in the midst of legal battles in the Supreme Court, would alleviate $10,000 for qualifying borrowers, or $20,000 for those with Pell Grants. At the time of the announcement, the White House said 20 million borrowers would see their debt washed away, and a total of 40 million would find benefit from cancellation.
Student debt has been especially problematic because of “stagnant wages and soaring tuition prices,” AARP said in another report highlighting older borrowers. Around 3% of families headed by someone who was 50 or older had student debt in 1989, with an average balance of $10,000, but by 2016, that figure rose to 9.6%, with an average of $33,000, AARP said.
Whether student debt forgiveness will happen or not is still to be determined. Borrowers have been anxiously awaiting an answer from the Supreme Court over two cases linked to the plan — one that argues whether or not the president had the legal authority to forgive loans, and another case about whether the program has standing. The Supreme Court is expected to release its decision on Friday, the last day of the court’s term before summer break.
Older borrowers have various reasons to carry debt. Some are paying off their own education, while others have taken on student debt for their loved ones. Federal PLUS loans, for example, allow parents to take loans out for their children’s education. Older Americans may have also taken on debt to refine their skills for a promotion, AARP noted in its report.
Student loans can have a rippling impact on retirement savings — not just in allocating a portion of retirement income toward this debt, but also in accruing enough wealth for old age. Graduates with student loans had 50% less in retirement wealth by age 30 than the graduates without this debt, a Boston College Center for Retirement Research study found.
If approved, SB 17 would require Texas’ public universities to dismantle their DEI offices, programs and training in the next six months. The bill also bans institutions from mandating any DEI training as a condition of employment or admission to the university, and orders all hiring practices be “color-blind and sex-neutral.”
The legislation would not affect course instruction, faculty research, student organizations, guest speakers, data collection or admissions.
DEI offices have become a fixture on college campuses in recent years. Aiming to support students from diverse backgrounds, DEI departments often aid in recruiting faculty and coordinating mentorships, tutoring and other programs for underrepresented students. Critics say the programs stoke racial division and unfairly prioritize social justice over merit and achievement.
Before Texas lawmakers voted on Sunday, Rep. Ron Reynolds (D-Missouri City) warned his colleagues, “Don’t be on the wrong side of history.”
“Don’t let Texas be the next state to get a travel advisory,” he went on, referring to the NAACP’s recent warning against travel to Florida. “Don’t let the politics of extremism get in the way in the progress that we’ve made over the years.”
Educators came out in opposition to the bill in a statement from the Texas Conference of the American Association of University Professors on Saturday.
The organization said it was “deeply disappointed by the conference committee report,” adding “the bill sends a clear message to students, faculty, and staff that our state is not committed to welcoming students from all backgrounds and to building a public higher education system that is truly inclusive and supportive of all.”
The educators’ group also said it is also worried the legislation could put state universities at risk of losing federal and private grants, which often require applicants to show they are making efforts toward diversity and inclusion.
Florida was the first to ban universities from using state or federal funds on DEI in early May.
Similar legislation has been proposed in over a dozen other states, according to an Associated Press analysis found using the bill-tracking software Plural.
She doesn’t know how much her student-loan bill will be when the years-long pandemic-era freeze on payments ends. Eminger’s loans were transferred during the pandemic to a new servicer, but she’s struggled to communicate with the organization, which could help her learn her monthly payment amount. She’s also rushing to take steps that could provide her access to a loan-forgiveness program for public servants.
“I am very nervous about them starting again,” Eminger, 37, who has about $175,000 in student debt, said of the loan payments. “There’s just a lot of uncertainty and murkiness around it, which for a loan amount of my size is pretty scary.”
After a more than three-year freeze, payments, collections and interest are scheduled to resume on federal student loans later this year. This is the ninth time — spanning two administrations — that the government has threatened to turn payments back on. Once again, borrowers, advocates and servicers are gearing up for a financial and operational headache.
“It’s going to be frustrating for everybody involved — borrowers, servicers, the Department of Education, advocacy organizations like ours,” said Betsy Mayotte, the president of the Institute of Student Loan Advisors, a nonprofit that helps borrowers manage their student loans.
To advocates who pushed officials to delay restarting payments in the past, this moment in many ways looks similar to the months before the freeze was scheduled to end those eight other times. A challenging economy means borrowers’ budgets are still tight and promised fixes to the student-loan system that could help ensure a smooth transition to repayment and make borrowers’ bills more manageable still haven’t materialized.
But a few key factors are different, some of which are upping the pressure on the Biden administration to turn the student-loan system back on: the official end to the pandemic emergency, congressional Republicans taking aim at the payment pause in two pieces of legislation and multiplelawsuits challenging the freeze. Other elements unique to this moment are exacerbating the uncertainty and challenges related to restarting payments. Servicers will have fewer resources than in the past to handle a likely crush of calls.
“The Department remains focused on doing everything in its power to better serve students and borrowers, and we are fully committed to supporting student loan borrowers as they successfully navigate returning to repayment,” a Department of Education spokesperson wrote in an email. “The Department is deeply concerned about the lack of adequate annual funding made available to Federal Student Aid this year,” the spokesperson said, referring to Congress’s decision not to increase funding for FSA, despite the agency’s request. “As the Department has repeatedly made clear, restarting repayment requires significant resources to avoid unnecessary harm to borrowers.”
For Eminger, and other borrowers, part of the anxiety surrounding the restart to payments stems from major upheaval to the student-loan system that’s been announced during the pause that will make her loans more manageable. But accessing these benefits requires both diligence — staying on top of announcements and paperwork — and patience while she and others wait for the full implementation of these initiatives.
“The rules have been changing so much,” Eminger said. “Before the pandemic I felt like I very much understood what I was required to do. I always felt very on top of it. Now it just feels like a completely moving target.”
Kate Eminger says she’s nervous about the looming resumption of student-loan payments.
Courtesy of Kate Eminger
Compounding her uncertainty is a lack of clarity surrounding exactly when payments will resume. In November, President Joe Biden told borrowers they could expect the pause to end in the late summer, but he didn’t give an exact date. In addition, it’s hard for Eminger to see how this deadline for payments to restart is different from all the others, where student-loan bills never materialized. All of that has made it difficult for Eminger to figure out exactly when to take steps to make sure her student-loan payment can fit in with the rest of her budget such as the sale of her car.
“It does not feel real at all,” she said of the restart of student-loan payments. “It would be great to name a date. If they could name a date and if that date felt certain then you could plan.”
Tied up in court
The Biden administration has said that the freeze will end 60 days after litigation surrounding its plan to cancel up to $20,000 in debt for a wide swath of borrowers is resolved or 60 days after June 30, 2023, whichever comes first.
“When payments turn back on, it’s going to be a big problem,” said Eleni Schirmer, a researcher and organizer with the Debt Collective, a debtor activist group, “but to not even be granted the dignity of a clear date of when that happens just makes it even more of a problem.” She described providing a ballpark estimate for the restart of payments instead of an exact date as signaling an “almost cruel indifference” to how resumed monthly student-loan bills will impact borrowers.
That uncertainty could exacerbate the stress that student debt already places on borrowers, according to Daniel A. Collier, an assistant professor of higher education at the University of Memphis, who is studying the impact of student debt on mental health. What he’s found is that people who are the most uncertain about what’s going on with their student loan have the highest rates of psychological distress and suicidal ideation. For example, these borrowers worry they’re not getting an accurate sense of their balance or the number of payments they need to make before qualifying for a forgiveness plan.
“People are concerned about the pause because they don’t know what a restart looks like, this has never been done before,” he said. In the past, when payments have resumed after more limited pauses, delinquencies and defaults spiked — part of the Biden administration’s legal rationale for tying mass debt cancellation to the restart of payments. Borrowers don’t know “when it’s going to start, what their repayments are actually going to be,” Collier added.
Kevin Noonan, who together with his wife has about $100,000 in student debt, said he’s benefited from the pause. The couple has used the extra room in their budget to pay down private student loans. Still, Noonan is “frustrated” with the lack of clarity surrounding the resumed payments and the status of the Biden administration’s loan-forgiveness plan.
“Not knowing is the hardest part,” he said. “I have a Google alert set up, every time student loans come up I check everything. You kind of just have to plan for the worst-case scenario.”
Megan and Kevin Noonan have about $100,000 in student debt.
Courtesy of Kevin Noonan
The decision to tie the resumption of payments to the court’s decision “added an element of unpredictability,” said Persis Yu, managing counsel and deputy executive director at the Student Borrower Protection Center, an advocacy group.
“There’s the choice to not land on a certain date, but there’s also the choice of 60 days,” Yu said, referring to the 60-day delay between the court’s decision and payments resuming.
“I really wonder whether or not 60 days is enough time for borrowers,” she said. “When we think about the amount of work that is really going to have to happen to effectively turn on this system, 60 days does not seem like a lot of lead time.”
Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a congressional hearing this month that the agency is “preparing to restart repayment because the emergency period is over.” He told another congressional panel that the agency is “geared up and ready to go,” to resume payments.
Scott Buchanan, the executive director of the Student Loan Servicing Alliance, a trade group, said that 60 days should be enough time for student-loan servicers to implement the restart. In order to accomplish that, they’ll need to be able to communicate with borrowers in the coming weeks about the end of the payment pause and be allowed to offer flexibilities like forbearance and allowing borrowers to verbally recertify their income for payment plans.
When the end of the payment freeze loomed in the past, servicers didn’t have the go-ahead from the Department of Education to communicate with borrowers, Buchanan said. They still don’t, but servicers have been working closely with officials to discuss the “communication playbook” in recent weeks and hope to roll it out shortly.
The Department of Education “remains in constant contact with servicers,” the department spokesperson wrote in an email, and will be in “direct contact” with borrowers before the end of the payment freeze. “Engaging with servicers to ensure they are communicating directly with borrowers about successfully returning to repayment is an important part of the Department’s efforts to smoothly transition borrowers back into repayment,” the spokesperson wrote.
Still, the uncertainty surrounding exactly when payments will start could create an obstacle to a seamless return to repayment, Buchanan said.
“If you’re a family and you’re planning a budget you need to know what is the date that I need to be prepared to make this payment,” he said. “Having a fuzzy date doesn’t do anyone any good including servicers, but especially for borrowers.”
Borrowers will receive a bill at least 21 days before their payments are scheduled to resume and likely won’t end up having to make a payment until October, Politico reported last month. Officials are also considering offering borrowers a grace period when the freeze ends, according to the report.
Servicers will be implementing plans the department previously developed to restart payments, Buchanan said. But they’ll be working with fewer resources than previously anticipated. The Department of Education cut the amount it’s paying servicers to manage each account. The agency has said the cuts are due to lawmakers’ decision not to increase funding for the Office of Federal Student Aid for the 2023 fiscal year. The lack of funds will mean fewer customer-service representatives and reduced call-center hours, including none on weekends.
“What is the right level of resources? How many staff should you have? It’s not a definable thing,” Buchanan said. “What I can say is having fewer than we had before does not make it better.”
The department spokesperson said the agency will keep working with Congress to fully fund President Biden’s fiscal 2024 budget request. The department asked for a $620 million increase in funding for FSA.
“Restarting repayment requires significant resources to avoid unnecessary harm to borrowers,” the spokesperson wrote in the email.
Members of the Class of 2022 at the University of Delaware.
Mandel Ngan/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
In addition, the Department of Education recently announced an overhaul of the student-loan servicing system aimed at increasing accountability for servicers. For years, borrowers and advocates have complained that the firms don’t provide borrowers with enough information or the right information. Without that in place, Yu worries that ensuring borrowers have a truly affordable payment will be “a nightmare.”
“At this inflection point where you need the best servicing possible, we don’t have it,” she said. “It seems irresponsible to turn on the payment system into a broken servicing system and into a broken system overall.”
Though the new servicing system won’t go live until 2024, “our servicer contracts continue to include the same requirements that all vendors effectively serve our customers and still provide that servicers compete against each other to maintain low call-abandonment rates,” the department spokesperson wrote.
Fixing servicing is just one of many initiatives from the Biden administration aimed at overhauling the student-loan system in the process of being implemented and won’t be fully realized before the end of the summer.
For example, some borrowers have debts that should be wiped off the books, Yu said. The Biden administration has launched several initiatives over the past few years aimed at making it easier for borrowers to access the forgiveness already available to them under the law. So far, the department has announced more than $66 billion in discharges for nearly 2.2 million borrowers, including public servants, borrowers with severe disabilities and borrowers who were scammed by schools.
Still, there are more borrowers eligible to have their debt canceled under these programs who haven’t received relief, Yu said. “These borrowers are going to be thrown into a system to make payments on loans they shouldn’t be making payments on anymore,” she said.
In addition, a promise to make repaying student loans more manageable hasn’t fully materialized. At the same time that President Biden announced the mass debt-cancellation plan, he also unveiled sweeping changes to the repayment system aimed at making student-loan bills more affordable. But the program, which Biden called “a game changer” when he announced it in August, likely won’t be ready by the end of the summer. It’s also been a target for criticism by conservative advocacy groups and Republican members of Congress.
“The only way that that could be available to borrowers when payments resume is with another extension,” Yu said.
The proposed plan, which the department spokesperson described as “the most affordable student loan plan in history,” builds on an existing income-driven repayment plan called REPAYE. Eligible borrowers who enroll in REPAYE now will have their monthly payments automatically updated as the terms of the new plan are “finalized and implemented, starting later this year,” the spokesperson wrote.
‘Almost like a tax increase’
For many borrowers, the financial burden of resuming student-loan payments will be significant. Thomas Simons, a senior economist at Jefferies, estimates the return to repayment will cost borrowers about $18 billion per month.
“It’s almost like a tax increase for these people,” Simons said. “They have to pay it, [and] it doesn’t get them anything tangible right now.”
The amount borrowers are saving by not making student-loan payments accounts for about 2% of discretionary spending, Simons said. He sees the hit to borrowers’ wallets as analogous to the impact of a payroll-tax increase in 2013, which impacted a smaller share of discretionary spending for a larger number of Americans.
“‘It’s almost like a tax increase for these people. They have to pay it, [and] it doesn’t get them anything tangible right now.’”
— Thomas Simons, senior economist, Jefferies
“If you look at what happened in the economy in 2013 after those tax increases were announced, the first half of the year spending decelerated quite significantly,” he said. “It really didn’t recover until the latter part of the year.”
“I would be very surprised if we don’t see a similar slowdown in spending coming out of this,” Simons added.
And if payments resume in late summer or early fall, as planned, the hits to borrowers’ bank accounts will be arriving at “the worst possible time,” Simons said, when the labor market will likely start to feel the effects of the Federal Reserve’s battle against inflation.
“That could be a double whammy where people are starting to have significant questions about their income and then having a pretty significant expense,” Simons said.
Many borrowers will likely be juggling other bills, too. For one, the costs of rent, groceries and other basic needs have risen since the advent of the coronavirus pandemic. And borrowers’ other debt payments have actually become less manageable in the three years since the freeze was first implemented.
As of September of last year, about 7% of student-loan borrowers who were not in default on their student loans at the start of the pandemic were more than 60 days delinquent on other debt, compared with 6.2% at the beginning of the pandemic, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Their monthly payments on other credit products have also increased during the pause period — 46% of borrowers saw their monthly payments on credit cards and car loans increase by at least 10% since the start of the pandemic, the agency found.
For Kelly, a Charleston, W. Va., student-loan borrower and her husband, the freeze on student-loan payments created financial space to take care of emergency expenses, like a leaking roof. Kelly, who declined to use her last name in order to more freely discuss her financial circumstances, owes about $23,000 in student debt from studying to become a paralegal. Her husband owes about $20,000 from his nursing-school studies.
Kelly, 45, found a job in her field after graduating, but was laid off during the pandemic. She started working some side gigs and eventually launched a dog-grooming business. Despite the business’s success and her passion for it, it likely won’t be enough to cover her bills once she has to start paying on her student loan again. She’s considering getting a second job when the payment freeze ends.
“We’re dual-income, no kids. One car is paid off, the other one is modest — a Volkswagen VOW, -0.43%
VWAGY, +0.22%,
” she added. “We don’t finance things, we don’t live a high and mighty life, but it seems like every month we’re budgeting to the penny.”
“I don’t know how much we can cut back,” she added. “Our entertainment as it is, is Netflix NFLX, -1.60%,
or we go out to eat once a month or so. I guess we can cut back on that.
20 SOAR Scholars each receive a $5K scholarship, mentorship, and ongoing support as they pursue their higher education.
DALLAS, April 17, 2023 (Newswire.com)
– LOAR PLLC is a fast-growing, woman-owned, personal injury law firm with offices located in Austin, DFW, Waco and Edinburg serving all Texans. This firm launched SOAR Texas, a nonprofit scholarship foundation, to provide annual college scholarships to outstanding female students who are the future leaders of their schools, communities, and businesses. For the 2023-2024 academic year, SOAR Texas has just awarded a total of $100K in scholarships to 20 remarkable young women, each of whom will receive a $5K award.
The 2023 SOAR Scholars class includes Amelia Simmons (Baylor), Lisa Lozano (Texas A&M PhD), Camaryn Williams (Texas A&M), Alondra Salinas (Texas A&M), Ugonna Chidi-Ubani (UT), Maria Isabel Ramos Martinez (UT RGV PhD), Madison Ang (UT), Alejandra De La O (UT), Valeria Morales (UT), Tran Le Abraham (UT Law), Arielle Allen (UT Law), Karla Galvan Cabrera (UT RGV PhD), Vanessa Noyola (Baylor), Sarah Wilburn (Baylor), Victoria Bowman (Texas A&M), Anjali Ganesh Iyer (UT), Caroline Helsel (UNT), Vicky Nguyen (UT), Briana Davis (Texas A&M), and Sabrina Ye (UT). Full bios of the winners can be found at 2023 SOAR Scholars.
The winners will be honored at LOAR Texas Summer Celebration on June 10 at the Dallas Cowboys World Headquarters. As new scholarship recipients are chosen each year, previous recipients will be invited to continue participating in SOAR activities. Ongoing participants will be able to pay it forward by providing mentorship to the new recipients and continue to benefit from the ongoing relationships these circles will build.
Annual program provides funding and innovative leadership development opportunities for young people to tackle some of society’s most pressing problems.
Press Release –
Jan 18, 2023
NEW YORK, January 18, 2023 (Newswire.com)
– Riley’s Way Foundation opened theirCall For Kindness program today, calling on young changemakers (13-22 years old) from across the country to submit their ideas for projects rooted in kindness, empathy, and inclusivity. The Call For Kindness, now in its fifth year, offers youth the chance to participate in a dynamic Leadership Development Fellowship and win up to $3,000 to fund a project that strengthens their local, national, or global communities.
“It’s been incredibly inspiring to see the range of projects young people are leading in their schools and communities,” remarked Dr. Christine O’Connell, Executive Director of Riley’s Way Foundation. “Their passion, resolve, and leadership remind us that the hope for the future lies in great part with the ideas and actions of today’s youth.”
Young people (13-22) are invited to submit a new or existing idea, managing everything from prevailing social justice issues to pressing community-based needs. As many as 36 youth-led projects will receive awards. This year, a separate category will consider 10 projects focused on environmental justice, as the climate crisis and other environmental problems require critical attention.
Additionally, Riley’s Way will continue to support a dance and arts category, the Yuriko Kikuchi Arigato Award, in honor of Yuriko, the pioneering dancer, and choreographer.
“Becoming a Riley’s Way Call For Kindness Fellow has meant that even if things get hard, I’m not alone, and have all these resources if I need anything,” shared 2022 Call For Kindness Fellow Ryan Syed, founder of SAYA’s Project Loving Me.
Past projects have addressed the mental health and well-being of vulnerable communities, promoted education equity, bridged the tech industry’s demographic gap, supported those experiencing homelessness, combatted food insecurity, and much more. The complete list of Call For Kindness projects can be found here.
“The future belongs to a new generation of leaders, who with unshakable determination and a clear sense of purpose, will blaze a trail of innovation and progress to tackle society’s toughest challenges,” shared Ian Sandler, Co-Founder, Board Chair of Riley’s Way. “I am honored to be a part of their journey and will tirelessly work to empower them with the tools and resources they need to make their boldest visions a reality.”
Riley’s Way Foundation is a national nonprofit organization that empowers a youth-led kindness movement, providing young people with the programs, support, and inclusive community they need to thrive as changemakers. Their programs provide young leaders with the tools and resources to envision and achieve change. Riley’s Way is committed to supporting these young leaders to build a better world that values kindness, empathy, connection, and the voices of all youth. Mackenzie and Ian Sandler established Riley’s Way in 2014 in memory of their daughter Riley Hannah Sandler.
SOAR Texas is a non-profit organization providing funding, mentorship, and support to female leaders pursuing higher education.
Press Release –
Dec 14, 2022 09:00 CST
AUSTIN, Texas, December 14, 2022 (Newswire.com)
– LOAR PLLC is a fast-growing, woman-owned, personal injury law firm with offices located in Austin, DFW, Waco and Edinburg serving all Texans. This firm launched SOAR Texas, a nonprofit scholarship foundation, to provide $100K in annual college scholarships to 20 outstanding female students who are the future leaders of their schools, communities, and businesses. The application for 2023 SOAR Scholars opens today, Dec. 14, and all qualified candidates are encouraged to apply. With the launch of our Rio Grande Valley LOAR office, we are now able to add the University of Texas at Rio Grande Valley to the list of eligible universities. Full bios of last year’s winners can be found at SOAR Scholars.
The winners will be honored at LOAR Texas Summer Celebration in June 2023. The recipient will have access to continuing education, professional development, and mentoring throughout their college or graduate school experience. As new scholarship recipients are chosen each year, previous recipients will be invited to continue participating in SOAR activities. Ongoing participants will be able to pay it forward by providing mentorship to the new recipients and continue to benefit from the ongoing relationships these circles will build.
SOAR Scholar, Lisa Lozano, Texas A&M PhD candidate, shared, “As a first-year doctoral student at Texas A&M University, I’m so grateful to be a SOAR scholar. The award has granted me financial stability, and in turn, allowed me to focus more on studying and building my therapeutic skills at the TAMU psychology training clinic! Amber and the team check in with us throughout the semester, and it’s evident that they genuinely care about our well-being. Being a first-generation student, it’s really nice to have their holistic support and know they’re a resource I can rely on for professional development or just to talk about my experience navigating graduate school. My hope is to return to the Rio Grande Valley and provide psychological services to my community which is predominately Latinx and low-income.”
“The SOAR scholarship funds I received are invaluable contributions to my ability to participate fully in the law school experience, including exploring various internships, volunteering in the pro bono clinics, and participating in student organizations,” said SOAR Scholar Arielle Allen, University of Texas Law School.
For more information on the SOAR Texas Scholarship program, to make a donation to SOAR Scholars or to serve as a Mentor, visit SOAR Texas. For more information, visit our website or contact us, Contact@LOARtexas.com, 888-288-6503; and follow LOAR PLLC on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn for more announcements.
I’m the first of my generation to own a home and the first to earn this much annually and don’t want to mess this up. How, specifically, can a financial adviser help me?
Getty Images
Question: By the end of 2022, I will have made $350,000 before taxes as the sole breadwinner and head of household. This is a great starting point and I’m very aware how blessed we are to be in this position, but I’m always looking ahead on how to improve. I currently have $88K left in student loans (originally close to $150K) and very little credit card debt (less than $2K with more than $25K available). I have two auto loans totaling $170K for two electric vehicles at 5% interest.
I’ve recently been offered a $200K HELOC at 9%, which would help me bring down some of my monthly payments and do some small home repairs and improvements, but I want to make the right moves. And I’ve also been presented with a few long-term real estate investment opportunities that are rental properties out of state and are currently bringing it 10-12% ROI. But my biggest concern is that after taxes, 401(k) contributions, bills, savings and mortgage ($4,500), on paper I’m paycheck to paycheck. I’d like to use this HELOC to consolidate debt while also participating in some of these investment opportunities. I’m the first of my generation to own a home and the first to earn this much annually and don’t want to mess this up. How, specifically, can a financial adviser help me? (Looking for a new financial adviser too? This tool can help match you with an adviser who might meet your needs.)
Answer: You have a few questions to tackle here, so let’s go one by one. The first being the HELOC. Yes, HELOCs can be a good way to consolidate debt, but the rate you’re being offered isn’t favorable, as average HELOC rates are a little over 6%. “I would ask if 9% is the best rate you can get, because it appears a bit high,” says Chris Chen, certified financial planner at Insight Financial Strategists. What’s more, “I would like you to consider the potential impact that our Fed policy and inflation are having on interest rates, as HELOCs usually have variable interest rates and we’re in an environment with rising rates. You may start at 9% and end up significantly higher,” says Chen.
What’s more, your student loans, car loans and mortgage are all likely less than 9%, so it’s not likely that consolidation via a HELOC would save you money. “You may want to start somewhere different, like the snowball method, where you focus on one loan, usually the smallest one, and direct all of your resources to pay off that loan while maintaining payments on the others,” says Chen. This method could work to finish off your student loans and maybe one of your car loans, to start with.
Have an issue with your financial adviser or have questions about hiring a new one? Email picks@marketwatch.com.
As for those real estate investments, what do you really know about those returns? “With regards to real estate investments, I assume that the 10% to 12% ROI you speak of is the income that you would be getting from the investment. If so, that’s very high and often when you get a return that is significantly higher than the norm, there’s something else that makes the investment less desirable. Be careful,” says Chen. (Looking for a new financial adviser too? This tool can help match you with an adviser who might meet your needs.)
Certified financial planner Kaleb Paddock says you may actually want to work with a money coach before you work with a financial adviser. Whereas a financial adviser assists with developing investment strategies and long-term financial plans, a money coach offers a more educational experience and focuses on shorter term goals for money management. “A money coach will help you with paying off all of your debts, maximize your cash flow and help you create systems and processes to direct your money proactively,” says Paddock.
While having a high income is great, there’s a concept called Parkinson’s Law, which essentially states that your spending will always rise to meet your income no matter how high that income rises, explains Paddock. “Working with a money coach will help you defeat Parkinson’s Law, eliminate your debt and then enable you to supercharge your investing and life planning with a financial adviser,” says Paddock.
A financial adviser could help too, and Danielle Harrison, certified financial planner at Harrison Financial Planning, says to look for one who does comprehensive financial planning and can help you create a more holistic plan for your money. “They can assist you in the creation of both short and long-term goals and then help you by giving guidance on the financial decisions and opportunities you are presented with,” says Harrison.
A financial adviser would also help you take a long-term approach to your money and help you create a spending plan where you don’t feel like you’re living paycheck to paycheck on a $350,000 salary. “Everyone has blind spots when it comes to their finances, so finding a competent financial partner can be invaluable,” says Harrison. (Looking for a new financial adviser too? This tool can help match you with an adviser who might meet your needs.)
Have an issue with your financial adviser or have questions about hiring a new one? Email picks@marketwatch.com.
*Questions edited for brevity and clarity.
The advice, recommendations or rankings expressed in this article are those of MarketWatch Picks, and have not been reviewed or endorsed by our commercial partners.
Student-loan borrowers got a break this week, but that doesn’t mean they can spend more for the holidays.
The Biden administration on Wednesday extended a pause on student loan payments, yet borrowers should prepare for the eventual resumption of payments by saving the amount they would otherwise owe, experts advise.
Chinese authorities have locked down Peking University after finding a single COVID case, evidence of their continued commitment to the country’s zero-COVID policy.
Beijing reported more than 350 new cases in the latest 24-hour period, representing a small fraction of its population of 21 million but still enough to trigger localized lockdowns and quarantines under China’s zero-COVID strategy, as the Associated Press reported. Nationwide, China reported about 20,000 cases, up from about 8,000 a week ago.
Authorities are trying to move away from the lockdowns, such as those seen earlier this year in Shanghai, that have frustrated locals and prompted protests. And revised national guidelines issued last week instructed local governments to follow a targeted and scientific approach that avoids unnecessary measures. But that doesn’t mean an end to zero-COVID, a policy that has hurt the country’s economy.
Peking University has more than 40,000 students on multiple campuses, most of them in Beijing. It was unclear how many were affected by the new lockdown. The 124-year-old institution is one of China’s top universities and was a center of student protest in earlier decades. Its graduates include leading intellectuals, writers, politicians and businesspeople.
The news comes as known U.S. cases of COVID are climbing again for the first time in a few months. The daily average for new cases stood at 39,414 on Tuesday, according to a New York Times tracker, up 2% versus two weeks ago.
Cases are climbing in 29 states, as well as Washington, D.C., Guam and Puerto Rico. They are up a staggering 868% in Nebraska from two weeks ago, with an average of 16 cases per 100,000 residents. Cases are up 77% in Utah, 54% in Oklahoma and 53% in Arizona.
The U.S. daily average for hospitalizations is up 2% to 27,807, but it is up by higher rates in Western states, led by Colorado at 67%, Arizona at 60% and Nevada at 45%.
On a brighter note, the daily death toll continues to decline and is now down 15%, to 292, from two weeks ago.
Physicians are reporting high numbers of respiratory illnesses like RSV and the flu earlier than the typical winter peak. WSJ’s Brianna Abbott explains what the early surge means for the winter months. Photo illustration: Kaitlyn Wang
• A federal judge has approved a nearly $58 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit filed in response to the deaths of dozens of veterans who contracted COVID-19 at a Massachusetts veterans home, the AP reported. “It was with heavy hearts that we got to the finish line on this case,” Michael Aleo, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said Tuesday, the day after the settlement was approved by a U.S. district court judge in Springfield. The coronavirus outbreak at the Soldiers’ Home in Holyoke in the spring of 2020 was one of the deadliest outbreaks at a long-term care facility in the U.S.
• Australian health authorities have recommended against getting a fifth COVID vaccine shot, even as they urged those who are eligible to sign up for their remaining booster doses as the country’s latest COVID wave grows rapidly, Reuters reported. Average daily cases were 47% higher last week than the week before, said Health Minister Mark Butler at a press conference on Tuesday, announcing the new vaccination recommendations. But cases remain 85% below the previous late July peak.
• A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Biden administration to lift Trump-era asylum restrictions that have been a cornerstone of border enforcement since the beginning of the pandemic, the AP reported separately. U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan ruled in Washington that enforcement must end immediately for families and single adults, calling the ban “arbitrary and capricious.” The administration has not applied it to children traveling alone. Within hours, the Justice Department asked the judge to let the order take effect Dec. 21, giving it five weeks to prepare. Plaintiffs including the American Civil Liberties Union didn’t oppose the delay.
The U.S. leads the world with 98 million cases and 1,075,112 fatalities.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s tracker shows that 227.8 million people living in the U.S., equal to 68.6% of the total population, are fully vaccinated, meaning they have had their primary shots.
So far, just 31.4 million Americans have had the updated COVID booster that targets the original virus and the omicron variants, equal to 10.1% of the overall population.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — The three students killed in a shooting at the University of Virginia were all members of the school’s football team, the school’s president said.
President Jim Ryan told a Monday morning news conference the shooting happened Sunday night on a school bus of students returning from an off-campus trip.
The suspect has been identified as Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., who is also student.
The incident occurred Sunday near a university parking garage. In addition to the three football players killed, two others were reported to have been wounded.
Police went on a manhunt Monday in search of the student suspected in the attack, officials said.
During a press conference in the 11 o’clock hour local time, the university police chief, Tim Longo, was given word that the suspect was in custody. He immediately returned to the microphone and reported that update to the assembled reporters.
Classes at the university were canceled Monday, following the violence Sunday night, and the Charlottesville campus was unusually quiet as authorities searched for the suspect, whom university President Ryan identified as Christopher Darnell Jones Jr.
A shelter-in-place order to the university community had been lifted less than an hour earlier after a law-enforcement search of the campus.
In a letter to the university posted on social media, Ryan said the shooting happened around 10:30 p.m. Sunday.
The university’s emergency management issued an alert Sunday night notifying the campus community of an “active attacker firearm.” The message warned students to shelter in place following a report of shots fired on Culbreth Road on the northern outskirts of campus.
Access to the shooting scene was blocked by police vehicles Monday morning.
Officials urged students to shelter in place and helicopters could be heard overhead as a smattering of traffic and dog-walkers made their way around campus.
The university police department posted a notice online saying multiple police agencies including the state police were searching for a suspect who was considered “armed and dangerous.”
In his letter to campus, the university president said Jones was suspected to have committed the shooting and that he was a student.
“This is a message any leader hopes never to have to send, and I am devastated that this violence has visited the University of Virginia,” Ryan wrote. “This is a traumatic incident for everyone in our community.”
Eva Surovell, 21, the editor in chief of the student newspaper, The Cavalier Daily, said that after students received an alert about an active shooter late Sunday night, she ran to the parking garage, but saw that it was blocked off by police. When she went to a nearby intersection, she was told to go shelter in place.
“A police officer told me that the shooter was nearby and I needed to return home as soon as possible,” she said.
She waited with other reporters, hoping to get additional details, then returned to her room to start working on the story. The gravity of the situation sunk in.
“My generation is certainly one that’s grown up with generalized gun violence, but that doesn’t make it any easier when it’s your own community,” she said.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said agents were responding to the campus to assist in the investigation.
The Virginia shooting came as police were investigating the deaths of four University of Idaho students found Sunday in a home near the campus. Officers with the Moscow Police Department discovered the deaths when they responded to a report of an unconscious person just before noon, according to a news release from the city. Authorities have called the deaths suspected homicides but did not release additional details, including the cause of death.
On April 16, 2007, another Virginia university was the scene of what was then one of the deadliest shootings in U.S. history. Twenty-seven students and five faculty members at Virginia Tech were gunned down by Seung-Hui Cho, a 23-year-old mentally ill student who later died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
MiraCosta College Technology Career Institute Announces Partnership With TOOTRiS Child Care On-Demand to Help Students With Child Care
Press Release –
Nov 8, 2022 07:15 PST
SAN DIEGO, November 8, 2022 (Newswire.com)
– Child Care is an ongoing challenge for student-parents. Having experienced a significant drop in female student enrollment due to Child Care issues, MiraCosta College Technology Career Institute in San Diego decided to go beyond just offering on-site care and be the first college in the country to provide a flexible Child Care benefit from TOOTRiS.
MiraCosta’s unique accelerated learning programs position students for career advancement; however, in recent years, Child Care has created a barrier for female students to enroll. To resolve the issue, MiraCosta College has selected TOOTRiS to provide cutting-edge Child Care benefits to all its TCI students.
Under the partnership, TOOTRiS will provide MiraCosta access to the largest network of licensed Child Care providers, enabling student-parents to search, vet, compare, and enroll in real time. The technology platform also enables them to find slots for temporary care, drop-ins, and non-traditional work schedules. This provides significant value for students who have widely varying schedules.
“Our goal is to provide the quickest way for students to go from learning to earning,” said Linda Kurokawa, Executive Director of MiraCosta College. “Our 3-6 month accelerated learning programs provide a lot of flexibility; however, post-pandemic we are still seeing student-parents — especially the female population — struggle to come back to those programs due to Child Care issues. Partnering with TOOTRiS helps us solve that problem by providing students with the most affordable Child Care options that fit their specific needs.”
MiraCosta is not alone when it comes to challenges for students with children. According to estimates by National Center for Education Statistics, more than one-fifth of all college students are student-parents. That’s nearly four million college students with children who are trying to balance taking classes and studying while holding part-time or full-time jobs, as well as providing the day-to-day care and support their kids require.
Sadly, according to CalMatters, more than half will drop out before attaining a degree. Colleges and universities need to find ways to support these hard-working students and make it possible for them to succeed.
“Costs and access to Child Care have always been the biggest hurdles for student-parents, and until now, colleges and universities have had limited options — such as on-site care — which only serves a few students and has long waitlists,” said Alessandra Lezama, TOOTRiS CEO and a select member of the ReadyNation CEO Task Force on Early Childhood. “With TOOTRiS, public and private higher education institutions like MiraCosta are now able to offer their entire population of student-parents and faculty real-time access to affordable care at a fraction of the cost of other options.”
MiraCosta College Technology Career Institute is taking a strong leadership position to reduce the barriers facing its student-parents. But with many student-parents across the country being single, female, students of color, and from low-income backgrounds, more higher education leaders, as well as federal and state policymakers, need to address the challenge.
About TOOTRiS
TOOTRiS is the first and only universal Child Care platform that converges private and public Child Care stakeholders — Family Child Care Homes and Center-Based Providers, Parents, Agencies, and Employers — into a unified, real-time technology platform enabling employers and higher education institutions to offer turnkey Child Care Benefits to their workforce and student populations with the flexibility and family support paramount to increasing retention, productivity, and ROI. Visittootris.com/employers for information.
About MiraCosta College
For more than 80 years, the MiraCosta Community College District has served students throughout North County with a wide array of educational offerings on multiple campuses. The college has more than 19,000 credit students annually in over 70 disciplines enrolled in associate degrees, university transfer and workforce readiness certificate programs. There are also about 7,000 students who take part in programs for adult education, community education, basic skills and ESL (English as a Second Language). The college is accredited by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) and the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC).
ST. LOUIS (AP) — A federal appeals court late Friday issued an administrative stay temporarily blocking President Joe Biden’s plan to cancel billions of dollars in federal student loans.
The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals issued the stay while it considers a motion from six Republican-led states to block the loan cancellation program. The stay ordered the Biden administration not to act on the program while it considers the appeal.
The order came just days after people began applying for loan forgiveness. It was not immediately clear how the stay would impact those have already applied.
The court set a deadline of Monday at 5 p.m. CDT for a response for a response from the Biden administration and a 5 p.m. Central Tuesday deadline for any replay from the appellants.
The attorneys for the Republican-led states had asked the court to reconsider their effort to block the Biden administration’s program to forgive the student loan debt.
A notice of appeal to the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was filed late Thursday, hours after U.S. District Judge Henry Autrey in St. Louis ruled that since the states of Nebraska, Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas and South Carolina failed to establish standing, “the Court lacks jurisdiction to hear this case.”
Separately, the six states also asked the district court for an injunction prohibiting the administration from implementing the debt cancellation plan until the appeals process plays out.
The plan, announced in August, would cancel $10,000 in student loan debt for those making less than $125,000 or households with less than $250,000 in income. Pell Grant recipients, who typically demonstrate more financial need, will get an additional $10,000 in debt forgiven.
The Congressional Budget Office has said the program will cost about $400 billion over the next three decades. James Campbell, an attorney for the Nebraska attorney general’s office, told Autrey at an Oct. 12 hearing that the administration is acting outside its authorities in a way that will cost states millions of dollars.
The cancellation applies to federal student loans used to attend undergraduate and graduate school, along with Parent Plus loans. Current college students qualify if their loans were disbursed before July 1. The plan makes 43 million borrowers eligible for some debt forgiveness, with 20 million who could get their debt erased entirely, according to the administration.
The announcement immediately became a major political issue ahead of the November midterm elections.
Conservative attorneys, Republican lawmakers and business-oriented groups have asserted that Biden overstepped his authority in taking such sweeping action without the assent of Congress. They called it an unfair government giveaway for relatively affluent people at the expense of taxpayers who didn’t pursue higher education.
Many Democratic lawmakers facing tough reelection contests have distanced themselves from the plan.
Biden on Friday blasted Republicans who have criticized his relief program, saying “their outrage is wrong and it’s hypocritical.” He noted that some Republican officials had debt and pandemic relief loans forgiven.
The six states sued in September. Lawyers for the administration countered that the Department of Education has “broad authority to manage the federal student financial aid programs.” A court filing stated that the 2003 Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act, or HEROES Act, allows the secretary of education to waive or modify terms of federal student loans in times of war or national emergency.
“COVID-19 is such an emergency,” the filing stated.
The HEROES Act was enacted after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to help members of the military. The Justice Department says the law allows Biden to reduce or erase student loan debt during a national emergency. Republicans argue the administration is misinterpreting the law, in part because the pandemic no longer qualifies as a national emergency.
Justice Department attorney Brian Netter told Autrey at the Oct. 12 hearing that fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic is still rippling. He said student loan defaults have skyrocketed over the past 2 1/2 years.
Other lawsuits also have sought to stop the program. Earlier Thursday, Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett rejected an appeal from a Wisconsin taxpayers group seeking to stop the debt cancellation program.
Barrett, who oversees emergency appeals from Wisconsin and neighboring states, did not comment in turning away the appeal from the Brown County Taxpayers Association. The group wrote in its Supreme Court filing that it needed an emergency order because the administration could begin canceling outstanding student debt as soon as Sunday.
LOS ANGELES — A former gynecologist at the University of California, Los Angeles was found guilty Thursday of five counts of sexually abusing female patients, in a criminal case that came after the university system made nearly $700 million in lawsuit payouts.
The Los Angeles jury found Dr. James Heaps, a longtime UCLA campus gynecologist, not guilty of seven of the 21 counts and were deadlocked on the remaining charges.
In the wake of the scandal that erupted in 2019 following the doctor’s arrest, UCLA agreed to pay nearly $700 million in lawsuit settlements to hundreds of Heaps’ patients — a record amount by a public university amid a wave of sexual misconduct scandals by campus doctors in recent years.
Heaps, 65, had pleaded not guilty to 21 felony counts in the sexual assaults of seven women between 2009 and 2018. He has denied wrongdoing.
Heaps was indicted last year on multiple counts each of sexual battery by fraud, sexual exploitation of a patient and sexual penetration of an unconscious person by fraudulent representation.
The jury delivered a guilty verdict on three counts of sexual battery by fraud and two counts of sexual penetration of an unconscious person. He was found not guilty of seven other counts of sexual battery and penetration, as well as one count of sexual exploitation. The jury was hung on the nine remaining counts, prompting the judge to declare a mistrial for those charges.
It was not immediately clear whether the district attorney’s office plans to refile the case on the deadlocked counts.
Heaps’ attorney and the district attorney’s office did not immediately return requests for comment Thursday.
“The horrible abuse he perpetrated on cancer patients and others who trusted him as their doctor has been exposed and justice was done,” attorney John Manly, who represented more than 200 women in civil cases against Heaps and UCLA, said in a statement after the verdict.
Sex abuse by doctors on college campuses has led to massive settlements at Ohio State University, Johns Hopkins University and Columbia University.
UCLA’s payouts exceed a $500 million settlement by Michigan State University in 2018 that was considered the largest by a public university. The University of Southern California, a private institution, has agreed to pay more than $1 billion to settle thousands of cases against the school’s longtime gynecologist, who still faces a criminal trial in Los Angeles.
UCLA patients said Heaps groped them, made suggestive comments or conducted unnecessarily invasive exams during his 35-year career. Women who brought the lawsuits said the university ignored their complaints and deliberately concealed abuse that happened for decades during examinations at the UCLA student health center, the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center or in Heaps’ campus office.
UCLA acknowledged it received a sex abuse complaint against Heaps from a patient in December 2017 and it launched an investigation the following month that concluded she was sexually assaulted and harassed, attorneys said.
Heaps, however, continued to practice until his retirement in June 2018. The university did not release its finding in the investigation until November 2019 — months after Heaps was arrested.
“UCLA Health is grateful for the patients who came forward,” the university said in a statement after the verdict. “Sexual misconduct of any kind is reprehensible and intolerable. Our overriding priority is providing the highest quality care while ensuring that patients feel safe, protected and respected.”
U.S. District Judge Henry Autrey wrote that because the six states — Nebraska, Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas and South Carolina — failed to establish they had standing, “the Court lacks jurisdiction to hear this case.”
Suzanne Gage, spokeswoman for Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson, said the states will appeal. She said in a statement that the states “continue to believe that they do in fact have standing to raise their important legal challenges.”
Democratic President Joe Biden announced in August that his administration would cancel up to $20,000 in education debt for huge numbers of borrowers. The announcement immediately became a major political issue ahead of the November midterm elections.
Barrett, who oversees emergency appeals from Wisconsin and neighboring states, did not comment in turning away the appeal from the Brown County Taxpayers Association. The group wrote in its Supreme Court filing that it needed an emergency order because the administration could begin canceling outstanding student debt as soon as Sunday.
In the lawsuit brought by the states, lawyers for the administration said the Department of Education has “broad authority to manage the federal student financial aid programs.” A court filing stated that the 2003 Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act, or HEROES Act, allows the secretary of education to waive or modify terms of federal student loans in times of war or national emergency.
“COVID-19 is such an emergency,” the filing stated.
The Congressional Budget Office has said the program will cost about $400 billion over the next three decades. James Campbell, an attorney for the Nebraska attorney general’s office, told Autrey at an Oct. 12 hearing that the administration is acting outside its authorities in a way that will cost states millions of dollars.
The plan would cancel $10,000 in student loan debt for those making less than $125,000 or households with less than $250,000 in income. Pell Grant recipients, who typically demonstrate more financial need, will get an additional $10,000 in debt forgiven.
Conservative attorneys, Republican lawmakers and business-oriented groups have asserted that Biden overstepped his authority in taking such sweeping action without the assent of Congress. They called it an unfair government giveaway for relatively affluent people at the expense of taxpayers who didn’t pursue higher education.
Chris Nuelle, spokesman for Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, said the plan “will unfairly burden working class families with even more economic woes.”
Many Democratic lawmakers facing tough reelection contests have distanced themselves from the plan.
The HEROES Act was enacted after 9/11 to help members of the military. The Justice Department says the law allows Biden to reduce or erase student loan debt during a national emergency. Republicans argue the administration is misinterpreting the law, in part because the pandemic no longer qualifies as a national emergency.
Justice Department attorney Brian Netter told Autrey that fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic is still rippling. He said student loan defaults have skyrocketed over the past 2 1/2 years.
The cancellation applies to federal student loans used to attend undergraduate and graduate school, along with Parent Plus loans. Current college students qualify if their loans were disbursed before July 1.
The plan makes 43 million borrowers eligible for some debt forgiveness, with 20 million who could get their debt erased entirely, according to the administration.
The university will offer an African American studies course named in the rapper’s honor during the spring 2023 semester, the course’s professor – Peace And Love El Henson – confirmed on Twitter.
Minaj responded to a tweet about the course on Thursday and expressed interest in dropping by a lecture.
“I’d love to stop by,” Minaj wrote.
The professor, a Black studies collaboratory postdoctoral fellow who goes by she/they pronouns, thanked Minaj for her response and added that the “class is interested in thinking critically about [Minaj] and [her] productions [within] the context of broader historical-social structures [and] hip hop feminisms.”
They later thanked Minaj’s fans, also known as the Barbz, for their love and interest in the class.
NEW YORK (AP) — A big catch of fish fossils in southern China includes the oldest teeth ever found — and may help scientists learn how our aquatic ancestors got their bite.
The finds offer new clues about a key period of evolution that’s been hard to flesh out because until now scientists haven’t found many fossils from that era. In a series of four studies, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, researchers detail some of their finds, from ancient teeth to never-before-seen species.
The fossils date back to the Silurian period, an important era for life on earth from 443 million years ago to 419 million years ago. Scientists believe our backboned ancestors, who were still swimming around on a watery planet, may have started evolving teeth and jaws around this time.
This let the fish hunt for prey instead of “grubbing around” as bottom feeders, filtering out food from the muck. It also sparked a series of other changes in their anatomy, including different kinds of fins, said Philip Donoghue, a University of Bristol paleontologist and an author on one of the studies.
“It’s just at this interface between the Old World and the New World,” Donoghue said.
But in the past, scientists haven’t found many fossils to show this shift, said Matt Friedman, a University of Michigan paleontologist who was not involved in the research. They’ve been relying on fragments from the time — a chunk of spine here, a bit of scale there.
The fossils from China are expected to fill in some of those gaps as researchers around the world pore over them.
A field team discovered the fossil trove in 2019, Min Zhu, a paleontologist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences who led the research, said in an email. On a rainy day, after a frustrating trip that hadn’t revealed any fossils, researchers explored a pile of rocks near a roadside cliff. When they split one rock open, they found fossilized fish heads looking back at them.
After hauling more rocks back to the lab for examination, the research team wound up with a huge range of fossils that were in great condition for their age.
The most common species in the bunch is a little boomerang-shaped fish that likely used its jaws to scoop up worms, said Per Erik Ahlberg of Sweden’s Uppsala University, an author on one of the studies.
Another fossil shows a sharklike creature with bony armor on its front — an unusual combination. A well-preserved jawless fish offers clues to how ancient fins evolved into arms and legs. While fossil heads for these fish are commonly found, this fossil included the whole body, Donoghue said.
And then there are the teeth. The researchers found bones called tooth whorls with multiple teeth growing on them. The fossils are 14 million years older than any other teeth found from any species — and provide the earliest solid evidence of jaws to date, Zhu said.
Alice Clement, an evolutionary biologist at Australia’s Flinders University who was not involved with the research, said the fossil find is “remarkable” and could rewrite our understanding of this period.
The wide range of fossils suggests there were plenty of toothy creatures swimming around at this time, Clement said in an email, even though it’s the next evolutionary era that is considered the “Age of Fishes.”
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
RESTON, Va., September 22, 2022 (Newswire.com)
– Publication Academy is excited to have the opportunity to continue providing best-in-class online training programs for a third consecutive year for grantees of the Templeton World Charity Foundation, Inc. (TWCF), a private foundation supporting diverse researchers around the world in discovering new knowledge, developing new tools, and launching new innovations that make a lasting impact on human flourishing.
As part of TWCF’s newly launched strategy to support new scientific research on human flourishing and to translate related discoveries into practical tools, Publication Academy will provide grantees with access to three customized curricula developed on its premiere training platform: (1) the TWCF Academic Writing Course, (2) the TWCF Technical Communication Course, and (3) the TWCF Grant Writing & Management Course. These hybrid courses will provide TWCF grantees with 24/7 access to over 90 hours of video-based On Demand programming, group-based live webinar coaching sessions every two weeks, and “Office Hour” sessions for grantees to receive 1-on-1 guidance.
Publication Academy’s courses will accelerate the pace at which discoveries move through the strategic pipeline by empowering TWCF grantees to successfully disseminate their project findings through academic publications (peer-reviewed journal articles, edited book chapters, conference presentations) and technical communications (social media and blog posts, digital newsletters, podcasts, press releases, and more). In addition, the courses will help support re-investment in currently funded projects by training grantees in how to find new external funding opportunities and then to write successful grant proposals.
The custom curricula developed for TWCF over the past two years have resulted in a significant increase in scholarly productivity across professions and cultural backgrounds. An analysis conducted in August 2021 found that participants in the TWCF Academic Writing Course tripled their total peer-reviewed publication output since the course was offered. Individual participants saw an increase of between 50% to over 500% in their rates of publication, with course completers consistently reporting that the programming contributed to achieving their personal goals and enhancing their professional expertise.
According to one grantee, a Professor of Education in El Salvador who completed the TWCF Academic Writing Course in 2021: “Before taking this course, I thought I understood how publication worked. Now having completed my Publication Academy course this year, I realize the gap in knowledge between what I thought I knew before and what actually must be done to get a paper published. The experience of having an instructor to ask advice from, the tips that he gave us, and the blueprints and exemplars that he provided us have really become essential in achieving my academic and professional goals.”
An Innovative Approach to Empower Underserved Students, Hosted by First Gen Support
Press Release –
Jul 26, 2022
CHICAGO, July 26, 2022 (Newswire.com)
– Higher education is more important to financial stability now more than ever as the bachelor’s degree (BA) now accounts for 56 percent of all good jobs, according to the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. However, students from underserved communities are not being afforded the same college preparation opportunities as their affluent peers as they face systemic barriers to college readiness, including lack of institutional support and adequate resources.
First Gen Support (FGS), a student-led 501(c)(3) nonprofit funded through a grant by Cornell University, is dedicated to empowering first-generation, low-income, and immigrant (FGLI) students to successfully navigate high school and achieve college readiness. Set to launch its first annual College Prep-A-Thon Aug. 2-6, 2022, FGS has made this prep-a-thon unique in its interactive experience by combining elements of past FGS mentorship programs and last year’s college fair. Students will have the chance to learn from speakers and mentors from college prep programs and top universities such as UPenn, Stanford, Harvard, and Cornell. The FGS College Prep-A-Thon seeks to foster a supportive and competitive environment filled with incentives to ensure students finish daily challenges for college readiness. This event is open to all high school students for free. More information can be found here at this link.
Featuring 30+ college mentors, 10+ speakers, and 400+ signups, FGS is looking for 1,000+ student signups, 50+ college students as mentors, and donors/sponsors to sponsor prizes and the future operations of FGS.
As a first-generation immigrant, FGS founder Julia Sun (Cornell ’25) found that college preparation opportunities were not built equal, especially for lower-income and first-generation students. Inspired by the Black Lives Matters movement, she witnessed the socio-economic inequities and realized the staggering challenges that encompass finding college preparation resources, especially for students whose parents did not go to college. Julia gathered passionate changemakers across the nation to empower under-resourced students to know that college is accessible. To learn more about how FGS began, click here.
First Gen Support is a volunteer-run 501(c)(3) organization with multiple advisors from top universities. Are you a rising college student? Do you have experience in higher education as a low-income, first-gen or immigrant student? Are you interested in partnering with First Gen Support to bring resources to underserved students? Or are you simply a student who wants to learn more about applying to colleges? If the answer is yes to any of these questions, learn more at this link.
First Gen Support relies on donations to get the word out, fund programming and connect with more students. Please visit the FGS website for more information.
‘O, Brawling Love!’ — the first project in John Paul the Great Catholic University’s Feature Film Program — finished filming on Tuesday
Press Release –
Jun 30, 2022
ESCONDIDO, Calif., June 30, 2022 (Newswire.com)
– O, Brawling Love!, the first project in John Paul the Great Catholic University’s Feature Film Program, finished filming on Tuesday. The film was shot in Escondido, California, using locations such as Escondido Charter High School, Grape Day Park, and the university’s soundstage. Over 50 JPCatholic students, along with several alumni, were involved both on and off set.
Prof. George Simon, Chair of Communications Media, is spearheading JPCatholic’s Feature Film Program. He announced the initiative last year as a way to integrate feature film productions into the curriculum, providing students the opportunity to collaborate with alumni and professors each year in bringing a new film to life.
“This program is made possible by the talent, creativity, and passion of our students,” he said. “Every day on set, these filmmakers set a standard of excellence and professionalism that is truly remarkable. We all knew it was possible to pull off a feature film with our students, but they didn’t just pull it off, they knocked it out of the park.”
As previously announced, JPCatholic’s faculty selected O, Brawling Love! from a pool of nearly 50 student and alumni pitches. An original story by senior screenwriting student Bella Lake, the script is about two rival acting students who are forced to reconcile their differences and play lovers Romeo and Juliet in their final school play, vying for a $25,000 cash prize.
The film was directed by JPCatholic alumna Maggie Mahrt (’10), whose resume includes work for Disney Digital, Paramount Studio, and NBC. In 2016, she was selected as one of eight women by the American Film Institute’s Directing Workshop for Women, through which she wrote and directed the award-winning short film Unbound.
Since January, students and faculty have been busy with courses on story development and pre-production applied directly to planning the project. Production spanned June 2-28, taking place primarily during the break between Spring and Summer quarter.
Several students also acted in the project, including senior acting student John Howard who was cast as the male lead. He participated in the blind audition process with Mahrt, and was selected from a pool of over 50 candidates from both inside and outside the school. “Starring in a feature film was a big step up from acting in short films,” he said. “It was a welcome and rewarding challenge.”
With production complete, Prof. Melinda Simon will lead a team of students this quarter in editing the project. Like previous stages of the film, the post-production experience is a class students are taking for credit. When the film is completed in late 2022 or early 2023, the university will seek distribution.
John Paul the Great Catholic University describes itself as “The Catholic University for Creative Arts and Business Innovation,” focusing on combining hands-on programs such as film, animation, graphic design, acting, and business entrepreneurship with a Catholic liberal arts education in theology, philosophy, and humanities. Launched in 2006 in the Scripps Ranch community of San Diego, JPCatholic relocated to a permanent campus in downtown Escondido in 2013 and has been accredited with WSCUC since 2015. JPCatholic operates on a year-round quarter system, with students earning a bachelor’s degree in just three years.
SOAR Texas announces a new program to provide funding, mentorship, and support to female leaders pursuing higher education. The first of the $250,000 in scholarship funds will be awarded this year as five $10,000 scholarships.
Press Release –
Feb 20, 2022
AUSTIN, Texas, February 20, 2022 (Newswire.com)
– SOAR Texas is proud to announce it has committed $250,000 to its annual scholarship program. This program provides scholarships to outstanding female students who are the future leaders of their schools, communities, and businesses.
Five students will be selected for the program each year to receive a $10,000 scholarship.The recipient will have access to continuing education, professional development, and mentoring throughout their college or graduate school experience. As new scholarship recipients are chosen each year, previous recipients will be invited to continue with their group. They will provide mentorship to the new recipients and continue to benefit from the ongoing relationships these circles will build.
This application opens February 22, 2022 and closes April 19, 2022 12:00 p.m. (Noon) CST.
For more information and eligibility details, visit https://lawofficeofamberrussell.com/soar or contact us, Contact@LOARtexas.com; and follow Law Office of Amber Russell PLLC (LOAR) on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn for more announcements.
