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" Preview: Obama's 2013 Budget February 13, 2012 - 3:00am By Libby A. Nelson WASHINGTON -- President Obama today will propose spending $8 billion on job training programs at community colleges over the next three years, part of a budget for the 2013 fiscal year that also would increase spending on Education Department programs and some scientific research. The president will outline the job-training proposal in more detail in a speech at Northern Virginia Community College this morning. But unlike past calls to spend more on community colleges, this plan is aimed squarely at an election-year message of "jobs, jobs, jobs" rather than the administration's goal of increasing the number of Americans with college degrees. The proposal, as outlined by Education Department officials Sunday evening, builds on job training programs already in existence -- especially the Trade Act Assistance Community College Career Training Program, which began making grants to community colleges in September. If approved by Congress, the president's proposal would provide $1.3 billion each per year to the Education and Labor Departments, on top of the trade act grants. While it's unclear whether the money would create new federal programs or build up existing ones, the funds would be spent at community colleges that train workers for jobs in high-demand fields, according to materials released by the Education Department. Programs that are especially successful at finding jobs for their graduates, or at placing those who traditionally have difficulty finding work, would be eligible for additional money. The grants would also be used to encourage partnerships between businesses, states, local governments and community colleges, and to create an online course to encourage entrepreneurs. The money would also support paid internships for low-income college students. But the plan would shut out for-profit colleges, which would not be eligible for the additional funds -- a move alm

"he Obama administration is drawing attention to the hemorrhage of low-income and minority students out of the educational pipeline as a current national problem heading toward a future national crisis. On target are government efforts to expand federal financial aid and community college. These strategies should result in more students with the means and academic support to pay for college and graduate."

"Beloit, Wis. - Born when Ross Perot was warning about a giant sucking sound and Bill Clinton was apologizing for pain in his marriage, members of this fall's entering college class of 2014 have emerged as a post-email generation for whom the digital world is routine and technology is just too slow. Each August since 1998, Beloit College has released the Beloit College Mindset List. It provides a look at the cultural touchstones that shape the lives of students entering college this fall. The creation of Beloit's Keefer Professor of the Humanities Tom McBride and former Public Affairs Director Ron Nief, it was originally created as a reminder to faculty to be aware of dated references, and quickly became a catalog of the rapidly changing worldview of each new generation. The Mindset List website at www.beloit.edu/mindset, the Mediasite webcast and its Facebook page receive more than 400,000 hits annually. The class of 2014 has never found Korean-made cars unusual on the Interstate and five hundred cable channels, of which they will watch a handful, have always been the norm. Since "digital" has always been in the cultural DNA, they've never written in cursive and with cell phones to tell them the time, there is no need for a wrist watch. Dirty Harry (who's that?) is to them a great Hollywood director. The America they have inherited is one of soaring American trade and budget deficits; Russia has presumably never aimed nukes at the United States and China has always posed an economic threat. Nonetheless, they plan to enjoy college. The males among them are likely to be a minority. They will be armed with iPhones and BlackBerries, on which making a phone call will be only one of many, many functions they will perform. They will now be awash with a computerized technology that will not distinguish information and knowledge. So it will be up to their professors to help them. A generation accustomed to instant access will need to acquire the patience of sch

According to lore, the academic terms "major" and "minor" first appeared in 1877, in a Johns Hopkins University course catalog. By the middle of the 20th century, the specialized major had become standard practice at almost every American college. Sophomore year: Agonized conversations with parents, and then the declaration of a major. Junior and senior years: Upper-level course work. Graduation day: A diploma that certified your skills in psychology, or physics, or, as the old joke goes, underwater basket weaving.

"Social justice and advocacy has been a current professional issue in the field of career development for over a decade. Although various professional organizations have attempted to focus on providing career development services to diverse individuals, some sociocultural groups remain underserved. For the purpose of this paper, an underserved population is defined as a particular sociocultural group that is historically marginalized and faces disadvantages based on their sociocultural identities. In an effort to offer our services to underserved populations, career practitioners and researchers may need supportive resources to expand career development knowledge and practice. "