What happens when a major construction project, made up of dozens upon dozens, if not hundreds of underlying interlocking contracts between contractors, suppliers, engineers and architects reaches a point where just one of those contracts is subject to dispute? A supplier isn't paid or an architect won't sign off a stage payment.
All too often the answer has been that the whole project grinds to a halt; and it's been a major bone of contention in the construction sector for years.
In a positive step aimed at boosting further growth in the construction sector the Indian Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEE) has approved a number of measures proposed by the Niti Aayog; all of them designed to stop underlying disputes and quibbles on contractual terms from holding up completion of the much bigger construction project of which they all form part.
The package includes measures for faster settlement of disputes between contractors and government departments; the introduction of a clever provision for the deposit of a security fund in escrow (similar to an adjudication process) which will allow disputes to be settled on an interim basis with final resolution awaiting the completion of the project (so as not to delay the completion itself) and a new secured system of appeals from arbitral award where the appellant is a government department.
It is a mechanism closely modelled on procedures which have been deployed in other jurisdictions (notably the English Law ICT Contract) where experience has shown it to yield real, indeed striking results in speeding up the construction process. In the specific circumstances of the new Indian Model it should also lead to fewer funds being locked up in arbitration which have made it particularly difficult in the past for construction companies to keep up with interest payments on borrowed funds.
The fact procedures and systems of this kind are now being introduced into the Indian Construction Sector is very much to be welcomed. It can be expected to lead to still more construction activity; driven by the assurance that a whole raft of technical blocks and red tape have been removed from the process. Those involved in the Construction Sector can now expect a lot more time on Site, and not in a Court or an Arbitrator's Office. Lawyers might not be happy with that but no doubt they'll be able to find other things to do.
They are both likely to be right, if only on the basis of the experience in other jurisdictions as referred to above.
"Anyone investing in property will be familiar with the horror stories which abound of perfectly good and promising plans for development being bogged down and often killed off by litigation and contractual disputes sparking off at an interim stage of the development. So I welcome these new provisions from the Indian Government.
They have the twin virtues of seeking to speed up the whole construction process which can only be a good thing and freeing up funding, too often locked up in lawyers' bank accounts whilst disputes rumble on, seemingly endlessly.
And of course we are living on a crowded planet; serious shortages of housing stock on the subcontinent are a matter of persistent and justified public concern. Anything which smooths out the process of releasing further stock has to be a good thing.
We can expect further growth in the Indian Construction and Property Sectors to follow.
India's Prime Minister, Narendra Modi has committed his Government to installing at least a further 100 GW of Solar Capacity, together with the complex base of supporting infrastructure such a huge project requires, by 2022 at the latest. It is a seriously challenging target; and one can't help but be reminded of the debacle in Indonesia following the similar policy commitments made by MEMR in 2014; commitments which were, of course, stopped in their tracks by the Supreme Court just as they were about to be rolled out. We are still waiting for the Indonesian Government to issue its first quotas.
But the situation is looking a lot more positive in India because interest in all forms of alternative energy has been growing strongly since 2014 and this week Gamesa Corp, which is, by market share, the largest wind turbine manufacturer in India, announced that it is to start build out on its first Wind/Solar Project on the Subcontinent within the next two months; and Suzion Energy is also expecting to get more active in Photovoltaic generation: announcing that it is expecting to become a lot more active in Photovoltaics and Hybrids in the first quarter of next year.
Hybrids are important to the ambitious Solar Programme which is now on foot on the Subcontinent; they provide a robust and complementary "kicker" platform for the Core Solar Model, the two sources combining technologies and sharing grid capacity in a way that developers believe will provide a realistic basis for the expected growth in overall capacity. That, no doubt, is why the Indian Government has also issued a new Draft Policy Paper committing itself to a target for Hybrid Production of 10 GW by the same 2022 Deadline in place already for Solar. It might only be a tenth of the equivalent Solar Target, but it should be enough to ensure the Solar Platforms get an additional catalyst for growth to achieve the full ambition of the Government's Policy Objectives.
And, of course, it's not just a numbers game.
On 6 September the G20 issued its Hangzhou Communique which is likely to accelerate still further India's push towards cleaner energy generation. You don't need the insight of Cassandra to work out that targeting of that kind is bound to drag Solar Rollout along with it; and if anything the target figure in the Government's Solar Policy might in the fullness of time start to look too light.
All of which may help to explain the timing of this week's announcement from Gamesa.
The Chief Executive Officer of Gamesa India, Ramesh Kymal, was obviously in no doubt: his company is targeting a perfect storm for growth.
And just look at the international context. Over the last year alone Toshiba and Mitsui announced the completion of a solar project in Japan's Aichi Prefecture and in Queensland Windlab and Eurus Energy are building out a large scale Solar and Wind hybrid platform. India is by no means alone in looking to Hybrid Generation as the ideal complement for Solar Growth.
Finally, and not unimportantly, it is worth remembering too that India's topography is ideally suited to the new model for growth. Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh all have the perfect geographic conditions for Solar Projects. Jain Devansh of Inox told Bloomberg this month that Inox is just waiting for MNER's Draft Policy to be finalised before moving forward with plans for alternative energy rollout in all three States.
"I am obviously glad to see that the Government's Policy is being given some much needed traction by these recent announcements; although my feeling is that there is still quite a lot of work to done in thinking through issues such as optimal transmission systems, available substation capacity and general issues on return on investment. If it is possible to get all of that right, which I am confident it is with a little insight, then it may well be that Hybrid as a whole could have the potential to generate stimulate even greater returns on Photovoltaic Production..
The G20 Communique earlier this month will obviously set the tone towards cleaner energy initiatives; specifically the joint protocol issued by the USA and China.
ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co. Ltd's initial public offering (IPO) is the first in the Indian insurance sector. With demand for shares running at 10.5 times availability (ICICI Bank will sell 181.34 million shares in the insurance company), this values the insurer at Rs 47,950 crore ($7.2 billion).
"the level of over-subscription did not surprise him. As the economy grows in India and the population movement from rural to urban areas continues, the expectations of the population change. They want the lifestyle they see others have so more people are looking to invest in funds that will grow their wealth. They know that they cannot get the returns they want, to pay for the lifestyle they desire, simply by putting their money in the bank.
As the population ages, the pressure on the younger generations increases. Families in India are having less children now than thirty years ago*, and there are few signs of this changing. Families are recognising the need for investment, for life assurance and for other wealth creation and planning solutions. Companies such as ICICI Prudential are providing these and so will be prime targets for investors when opportunities such as this IPO appear.
Why are Hybrids set to give added drive and growth in Solar Platforms?
I am obviously glad to see that the Government's Policy is being given some much needed traction by these recent announcements; although my feeling is that there is still quite a lot of work to done in thinking through issues such as optimal transmission systems, available substation capacity and general issues on return on investment. If it is possible to get all of that right, which I am confident it is with a little insight, then it may well be that Hybrid as a whole could have the potential to generate stimulate even greater returns on Photovoltaic Production.
It seems to me that India is certainly on the right track and has fixed on the right model.
Two of the measures introduced by the government to spur the growth of Indian renewable energy production are the feed-in tariff (FIT) and the renewable portfolio obligation (RPO).
Under FIT, a fixed tariff is guaranteed to the power producer for a certain number of years. For him or her, this is desirable as it ensures assured income that eliminates market risk. Furthermore, through this initiative power producers are able to raise finance easily as a guaranteed income makes their business far more attractive to investors.
Under the RPO, an electricity distribution company (DISCOM) is required to purchase a certain percentage of its total distributed electricity from renewable sources thereby stimulating the market. This is similar to China's model of penalising coal-based electricity producers unless they have an economically viable long-term renewable energy policy or give robust monetary incentives for the generation of renewable energy.
By making the purchase of renewable energy compulsory the Indian Government ensures that renewables enter the market, price-in and become competitive. This stimulates the growth of renewables throughout the energy market in India and ensures they are distributed at a competitive prices to consumers.
These are two examples of policy instruments that are creating an effective renewable energy market for all participants. Establishing these policies is essential for India as they will enable the Government to meet the energy demands of a growing nation. For investors, these policies remove supply-chain bottle necks, stimulate buying and selling, as well as remove systematic risk.
As India continues to develop it's renewable energy industry, investors are increasingly beginning to get excited about the sector. Oil marketing companies Indian Oil Corp. Ltd, Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd and the Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd are looking at expanding their renewable energy plans; state-run mining major Coal India has announced that they will develop solar power plants of 600 MW capacity in four states; and renewable energy investment from Japan, the US and China is at an all-time high.
The record-setting increase in investments is proof that renewable energy is becoming ever more central to low-carbon lifestyles of environmentally conscious people. It is valuable in societies where reliable energy can offer improvements in quality of life, economic development and environmental sustainability and the continued and increased renewable energy investment is not only good for the people and planet, but is a key element in achieving international targets on climate change and sustainable development.
Countries such as India have realised the potential of renewable energy to rapidly power their economy especially in the backdrop of a sluggish global economy. To find our more about Red Ribbon's project ARMAEC that develops wind farms to supply renewable energy, visit the ARMAEC website, here.
There's an old saying amongst bankers: there aren't any fleas on a dead dog, and even for those who take a less than charitable view of State Taxes, there is surely no better sign of a strengthening in the Indian Property Market than its local tax yield. But don't let's look at the usual culprits to test that thesis, because we all know about Mumbai and Delhi already; take a look further south instead at Telangana, newly constituted as a State as recently as 2014 and still taking its first steps as the twelfth largest state on the subcontinent. Its reported yields from property and building transactions suggests strongly that the real estate market both there and across India generally is getting stronger still.
Because, in India, the dog isn't even poorly, never mind dead.
Telangana this week reported a record growth in net revenue from stamps and registration fees on new property transactions: up by a whopping 32.1% at Rs 1.935.3 Crore. It's a report that any CFO or a major public company would be proud of.
And according to the Chief Minister's Office of Telangana, it's all down to an increased ease of doing business in the real estate sector; the spin offs from major new infrastructure projects in the State, including substantial infrastructure and power projects which inevitably act as a honey pot for new investment and the core catalyst of single window clearances.
Single window clearances can, of course, have a uniquely destructive effect on trade. We might remember the single window clearance point operated by the French State in Poitiers in the 1980's which required the Japanese company JVC to export all of its video machines through a single customs post which was (deliberately) configured to make it virtually impossible to secure anything like a normal import throughput; one French customs officer with a manual rubber stamp and a flip chart saw to that, which was why the procedure was rightly seen for what it was: a restraint on trade rather than a legitimate protection against illicit imports.
But that's all changed now, and India is reaping the benefits.
Nowadays, single window clearance is synonymous with increased efficiency through time and cost savings for traders in their dealings with governmental authorities. The relevant clearances and permits for a property transaction can now be obtained through a single agency which streamlines what can otherwise be a frustrating multi-agency process.
And from the recent statistics coming out of Telangana, it's obviously working. It has all led to what has been described as a "hectic growth" in the real estate sector.
Telangana has now set a full year target for stamps and registration fee yield at Rs 4,291.99 Crore and, to their great credit, 45% of this full year target had already been achieved by September of this year. In all, Telangana reported 5.76 lakh transactions of land and building transactions during the first six months of the current fiscal year; and with a resulting air which is perhaps becoming for such a young State, its CMO has predicted that where Telangana leads, others will follow.
As recently as the end of last month (September 2016) Wang Jialin, China's richest man and leading property magnate, warned that through a combination of an unseemly rate of credit expansion, government spending rates and internal "strictures", the Chinese Property market was facing the "biggest bubble in history".
India has none of that baggage and can show the way forward for how a properly modulated property market can thrive.
Because, after all, there aren't any fleas on a dead dog.
British Prime Minister, Theresa May, visited India at the invitation of Prime Mister Modi on 6th November; and infrastructure was high on her agenda.
This was her first bilateral visit outside Europe after taking over as Prime Minister in the aftermath of the Brexit Referendum, and it was self avowedly intended (by both politicians) to strengthen existing strategic partnerships between the two countries.
Is that all just pie in the sky?
Well, in a word: no.
Over $1 Billion of Rupee denominated Bonds (INR 7,500 crore) have been issued in London since July 2016 (a mere four months); The National Highways Authority of India and the Indian Railway Finance Corporation will each be issuing Rupee Denominated Bonds in the next few months and Indian Energy Efficiency Services and the Renewable Energy Development Agency will be issuing so-called Green Bonds (including rupee denominated Masala bonds) on the London Capital Markets over "the next few weeks". Technical assistance is already being provided as well for the redevelopment of Varanasi Railway Station as part of the Varanasi Smart City Development Plan.
But the really encouraging this is that all this new funding, energised by a raft of new policy initiatives will key in closely with what is already an admirably focused and managed Indian infrastructure climate.
Just take a couple of examples.
First, on 11th November, Indian Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari announced plans for an investment programme of Rs 25 Lakhe Crore over the next five years; his ministries have already awarded contracts worth Rs 3.17 lakh crore in roadworks on the subcontinent, where the pace of construction is currently 22 km per day, targeted to rise to 40km per day. The highways construction target for the current fiscal year is 15,000 km of which 3,600 had been completed by the end of October.
Then, on 10th November, the Indian Railway Minister, Suresh Prabhu, announced an investment of over Rs 5,000 crore to redevelop Guwahati Station where the plans will include construction of an all-new 12 km long section of elevated track. Indian Railways is to enter into a new joint venture with the state government so as to implement the project: "The three stations in Kamakhya, Guwahati and New Guwahati will be connected to metro line and the entire project will contribute to the smart city project", Prabhu commented when launching the scheme.
The United Kingdom has its own foreign policy and domestic issues to grapple with in the post Brexit Britain, and in many ways it is unsurprising that it should have reached out so soon to India, one of its oldest and most important trading partners, as it seeks to nurture links with the wider world beyond Brussels; but these things have a certain chemistry of their own. The sheer scale of the new finance which is to be raised through bond issues of the type signalled by the two Governments this month, would not in itself be enough to kick start the infrastructure sector on the subcontinent; but it doesn't need kick starting, it is already moving forward and those having stewardship of its planning certainly can't be accused of lacking ambition.
And capital funding on substantial scale contemplated by London and New Delhi this month really can then make a difference.
I don't think it was any surprise to learn that the British Prime Minister chose to visit India on her first major overseas trade mission following the European Union Referendum result in the summer. India is one of Britain's oldest and most reliable trading partners; and it is not just inward investment that matters, India is the third biggest source for investment into United Kingdom Industries, Jaguar Cars being a prime example.
But what I think is really important from the Governmental Statements following the mission is the emphasis that has been placed by both Prime Ministers on opening up access to the London Capital Markets by way of fresh infrastructure funding.
India already has the resolve and the planning to complete major new infrastructure projects over the next five years. Fresh capital sourcing of that kind, especially in rupee denominated bonds, can only give a further impetus to the process.


text:
Social Pro Daily
Snapchat Is Kicking Its Election Day Efforts Into High Gear
Nationwide Snaps, filters, face lenses, along with Snap Map integrations and post-vote coverage
Snapchat's nationwide filters for Election Day 2018 in the U.S.
With Election Day fast approaching in the U.S., Snapchat is ramping up its efforts to get people to the polls and keep them informed.
The messaging application announced a deep integration with TurboVote in September, in support of National Voter Registration Day, and it revealed last week that more than 600,000 users signed up for TurboVote's custom election reminders, and over 400,000 of those users were assisted by TurboVote during the voter-registration process.
Now, with the critical midterm election just days away, Snapchat said all U.S. users 18 and older will be sent a video and text Snap reminding them to vote Nov. 6. The Snap will link to voting information tool Get to the Polls, which will provide information about users' polling stations.
The mass Snap U.S. users 18+ will be sent
Filters and face lenses will also be available throughout the U.S. in the six days counting down to Nov. 6 so that people can remind their friends to take part in the election.
Snapchat's Snap Map location-based feature will contain a link to Get to the Polls, again leading users to their polling locations, as well as to Ballot Ready, giving them access to sample ballots so that they can be fully prepared to cast their votes. Snap Inc. said the Ballot Ready integration marks time an external link was used in Snap Map.
Voting-themed Bitmojis will also be added to Snap Map.
Snapchat's work will not be done when the voting ends, however.
As the polls begin to close across the U.S., Peter Hamby, host of Good Luck America, will create a series of exclusive episodes for Snapchat, starting at 6 p.m. ET Nov. 6 and focusing on the most important races.
Good Luck America will produce special Election Night episodes for Snapchat
The Washington Post will also go live on Snapchat for the first time, providing exclusive election night coverage and analysis.
And Snapchat will feature coverage from local stations, including Tegna-owned WFAA (Dallas), KHOU (Houston), WXIA (Atlanta) and WTSP (Tampa, Fla.).
https://adweek.it/2yItpHe
David Cohen is editor of Adweek's Social Pro Daily.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
using System.Collections.Generic;
using JetBrains.Annotations;
using JetBrains.ReSharper.Feature.Services.ContextActions;
using JetBrains.ReSharper.Feature.Services.CSharp.Analyses.Bulbs;
using JetBrains.ReSharper.Psi;
using JetBrains.ReSharper.Psi.CSharp;
using JetBrains.ReSharper.Psi.CSharp.Tree;
using JetBrains.ReSharper.Psi.Modules;
using JetBrains.Util;

namespace AlexPovar.ReSharperHelpers.ContextActions.AutoFixture
{
  [ContextAction(Group = "C#", Name = "[ReSharperHelpers] Remove Frozen AutoFixture attribute", Description = "Removes Frozen AutoFixture attribute.", Priority = short.MinValue)]
  public class RemoveFrozenAttributeAction : AutoFixtureAttributeActionBase
  {
    public RemoveFrozenAttributeAction([NotNull] ICSharpContextActionDataProvider provider) : base(provider, AutoFixtureConstants.FrozenAttributeType)
    {
    }

    public override string Text => "Remove [Frozen] attribute";

    protected override bool IsAvailableWithAttributeInstances(IList<IAttributeInstance> existingAttributes)
    {
      return !existingAttributes.IsEmpty();
    }

    // Remove existing, but don't create a new one.
    protected override IAttribute CreateAttribute(ITypeElement resolvedAttributeType, CSharpElementFactory factory, IPsiModule psiModule) => null;
  }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Jacob Barnett Video
Dedication Speech (2009)
MorningStar Solar Home
Indiana 21st Century Scholars program
Problems in Pennsylvania
Uninformed in Indiana
A long climb in California
Focus Spring 2015
Spring 2015 | issn: 23
Stymied Students
Despite best efforts,
too many are being lost
in higher ed's shuffle
Quanisha Smith during one of many frustrating trips to the bursar's office at Penn State University. Six years after enrolling, Smith is still 45 credits shy of her degree — and facing an unpaid bill of nearly $9,000 that has delayed graduation indefinitely.
"College changes lives."
We've all heard those words; and if you're at all like me, you've probably lived them. For most of us — without a doubt for me personally — the college experience was transformative. Higher education changed my life fundamentally, and very much for the better.
Sadly, for far too many of today's students, the life changes associated with college aren't always so positive. In fact, for a growing number of Americans, the college experience isn't so much a path to progress as it is an obstacle course … or a minefield.
Lacking adequate guidance for navigating a complex system, confronting ever-rising costs, juggling family and work responsibilities — today's students often face formidable barriers. They know that a college credential is the key to a better future, but they struggle to grasp that key and make it fit the lock of their daily lives.
This issue of Lumina Foundation Focus highlights those real-life struggles. It looks at the college experience through the eyes of three 21st century students. You'll read about:
Quanisha Smith, a Boston native who, during a campus visit as a high school student, fell in love with Penn State University and decided to enroll there to study energy business finance. Today, nearly six years later and still 45 credits shy of a degree, she's facing a debt of nearly $50,000 and has, at least temporarily, dropped out.
Tony Havens, a 33-year-old former art student now working as a customer service rep for an insurance firm in northern Indiana. Ten years after dropping out of Indiana University-South Bend when his scholarship expired, Havens is still trying to pay off $15,000 in student loans. He hopes to return and finish his bachelor's degree, but it won't be easy. He's been out of classes for so long that school officials haven't yet been able to tell him how many credits he lacks.
Damaris Ortiz, a native of Mexico who immigrated to California as a teenager, worked hard to learn English, excelled in high school, and then spent nearly 10 years earning what is commonly termed a "two-year degree." Ortiz, now 29, struggled mightily to earn that associate degree and is still working hard to make a good life for herself and her 1-year-old son. And her battle is by no means over. She will begin classes this fall in pursuit of her bachelor's degree, and she plans eventually to earn a law degree and work as an immigration lawyer.
There's also a wealth of information on our website, www.luminafoundation.org, and this issue offers several extra features, including audio clips and a photo slideshow on the life of another stymied student, Jacob Barnett of Marion, Ind.
All of these stories are at once inspiring and discouraging. They inspire us because they highlight the hope and determination that define the 21st century student population — a huge, growing and remarkably diverse group with unlimited potential. And yet these stories are also discouraging because they highlight serious deficiencies — not in the students, but in the system that is meant to serve them.
The simple fact is, today's higher education system has failed these students, at least to some extent, and it is failing tens of thousands of other students throughout the nation. Whenever a student is stymied — whenever he or she can't see or stay on the path to postsecondary success in a world that increasingly demands such success — something has to change.
We at Lumina are working to effect that change. We envision a better system of higher education — one that is student-centered, learning-based, committed to equity and focused on quality. We're working hard, with dozens of committed partners, to realize that vision — to build a flexible higher education system that serves all students well and puts them on a course to succeed in the workplace and in life.
It's our hope that you'll join us in that rebuilding process. Together, we can rewrite the stories of America's stymied students … because they all deserve a happier ending.
Quanisha Smith, 24, trudges across Penn State's snow-covered University Park campus. She loves the school, but finding a way to pay for it has made Happy Valley seem anything but happy for her in recent years.
Recurring Financial nightmare imperils a college dream
State College, Pa.- Just before 4 p.m. on a frigid Friday in mid-December, Quanisha Smith boards a Blue Loop bus on Penn State's University Park campus. She's heading to a place she's visited more times than she cares to count: the bursar's office. She's hoping to resolve the hold on her account, which shows an $8,800 balance.
For the past four months, she's been attending classes, earning mostly A's and B's. She's ready for finals. But with her bill unsettled — $3,800 of which she disputes, but $5,000 she definitely owes — her grades will not count, and neither will the 21 credits she's taken this semester.
For the better part of four years, Smith said, she's bounced from the registrar to the bursar to student aid to deal with numerous issues regarding her tuition and housing bills. She started college nearly six years ago, in fall 2009, and she still needs 45 credits to finish her degree. What she also needs is money. She works as much as she can as a cashier at a nearby Wegmans supermarket, lives with her boyfriend an hour from campus to save money on housing, and typically uses the library rather than buy textbooks. Still, she estimates that she's already $48,000 in debt, and she doesn't know where she's going to get the rest of the money to fund her education.
"It's so frustrating," she said, tearing up as she tells her story. "I feel like I've seen so many people whose families are well off, but they don't take it seriously. I feel like I take one step forward and 10 steps back. I never get a break and I'm just racking up all this debt for nothing, because in the end, I still don't have a degree."
Smith's story is all too common in higher education. Numerous studies have found that financial difficulty is among the top reasons that students drop out of college.
"Quanisha began missing assignments in early November, and I'm fairly certain that was a result of her trying to take on more shifts at Wegmans to get enough money to register," said Assistant Professor Chris Fowler, the instructor in Smith's Geography of the Global Economy class. "But she did about three-quarters of the work necessary for the class. It doesn't make any sense to me. She should either be on a plan where she can work and take class, or she should be working. (At) a big institution like this, it feels like students need a realistic plan when they come in here for how it's all going to work."
Smith visits Assistant Professor Chris Fowler, the instructor in Smith's Geography of the Global Economy class. "Quanisha began missing assignments in early November," Fowler said, "and I'm fairly certain that was a result of her trying to take on more shifts at (work) to get enough money to register."
'Cool, I'm going to college'
Smith is a vivacious 24-year-old with a quick laugh and an affinity for math (but not physics). She grew up in the tough Dorchester neighborhood of Boston and was bused to high school in Newton, a wealthy, largely white suburb consistently voted one of the best places to live in the United States. There, she played sports, was active in student government and heard lots of talk about college.
"They were talking about college so early, and that's not something I did back at home," she said. "So I was like, 'Cool, I'm going to college.'"
She talked to her advisers regularly about where to go to college. Less often discussed, she said, was how to pay for college beyond the first year. Of the schools on her list, she wanted to find one that was big — "I just love meeting new people and having so many things I could dabble in" — and not in Massachusetts because, like so many kids, she wanted to put some distance between herself and home. ("I regret that now," she said. "But whatever. Life is living and learning.")
Smith looked into Historically Black Colleges and Universities (and was wait-listed at Howard University), as well as schools both in state and out of state, including Penn State. On the campus tour, she saw the MorningStar Solar Home, a house that actually produces more energy than it consumes. She was fascinated.
Penn State accepted her with the understanding that she attend classes at a branch campus for her first two years. She chose the one in Hazelton, about 100 miles north of Philadelphia, which would put her five to six hours from home and cost her thousands of dollars less each year than the main Penn State campus. Her plan: Spend two years there taking mostly core classes, then transfer to the main campus at University Park, which offered her major — energy business finance — and would set her on a path that led, perhaps, to a career with the federal Department of Energy.
In August 2009, she began her college career with "tons" of scholarships.
With classmates (from left) Walter Unangst, Rohit Vadakattu and Tyler Regino, Smith rehearses the final presentation for the group's Energy Business Finance class. Smith, a Massachusetts native, was drawn to Penn State partly for its energy business finance program, her major.
"Freshman year was a breeze," she said. "Coming out of high school, you receive all these great scholarships. Advisers were helpful making sure you get in. Later, I realized they do such a good job of getting you in but don't do such a good job of keeping you there and helping you get through."
Sophomore year was a bit of a financial struggle, but her mother, who'd lost her job the previous year, had some savings. Smith also took out loans and got some help from her father's sister. She finished her two years at Hazelton with a debt of about $10,000.
When she arrived in Happy Valley, Smith discovered that her tuition had jumped about $10,000. With the help of her aunt, she signed up for a deferred payment plan and was able to get enough in loans to cover the fall semester. But there was no money for the spring, so she went home to Boston and worked as a swimming instructor, a waitress and a toll collector on the Massachusetts Turnpike.
"They do such a good job of getting you in (college) but don't do such a good job of keeping you there and helping you get through." Quanisha Smith Penn State student
She returned in fall 2012 thinking she was "financially fine," thanks to the deferment plan and loans. But in the middle of the semester, with payments of $4,000 a month hanging over her head, she dropped out. "I was more conscious of my bill and how it was going to get paid," she said. "I was like: 'How do people actually go through school? I don't understand.' "
While quitting classes helped minimize tuition costs, Smith still had a campus housing bill to settle. She made an agreement with Penn State's housing department to make monthly payments until the debt was cleared. And she went home again, returning for summer 2013 with financial aid to try to make up some of what she'd missed.
But that fall of 2013, she was told she'd taken too many credit hours over the summer and owed an extra $6,000 on top of her fall tuition. Since then, it's been a nonstop battle to keep her account current.
The university's perspective
Anna M. Griswold, Penn State's assistant vice president of undergraduate education and executive director for student aid, said Smith has received "significant institutional support."
"When I say 'significant,' that's not to say that there's been enough to pay the full bill," Griswold acknowledged. "But it's been higher than average." Aid has included one-time support to help Smith salvage one of her semesters. "At the same time, we had that conversation with her about whether she could continue and her family could continue at Penn State for the next two years. We would love for her to stay, but should she consider the possibility of transferring to a more affordable school for her?"
Griswold said Penn State tells students and families up front that it's not able to meet their full financial need. The university shows them the numbers — what it's going to take — and what options for financing are available. But with more than 46,000 students just on the main campus, individual guidance for everyone is impossible.
"If we met full need for the first 20 percent of the neediest students, we would be out of money," she said. "Our biggest challenge is (students and families) not wanting to believe that there won't be a scholarship — that 'even if it's on the day that I arrive on campus, someone's gonna save me.' It agonizes us."
George Washington University Professor Sandy Baum, who teaches higher education finance and policy courses, says universities could take several steps to help students like Smith. They could make financial aid simpler and clearer, so that before she even started her freshman year, she would know how much aid to expect all four years. Schools also could show students cost comparisons — in this case, between Penn State and Smith's home institution, the University of Massachusetts — so they could see the difference.
"In this computer age, there could be much better personalized guidance," Baum said, offering the idea that prospective students could look at an online cost comparison between schools while making sure they understand the difference between in-state and out-of- state tuition.
"You need them to understand the implications and make everybody go through something like that," Baum said. "And if they want to make that (more expensive) choice, then that's fine. And maybe it's worth it, and maybe they want to borrow that money. But make sure they know what it means to borrow that money."
Penn State professor Fowler has a similar view. "We support people with learning disabilities, we support people who are student-athletes," he said. "It's definitely non-trivial to try to pay for your college education, and in many cases, people who are working hard to try to pay for their college education may not have the social capital and experience for setting realistic goals about how that goes down."
For her part, Smith said she knew going in that money would be a challenge wherever she went, but she felt Penn State was the right fit. "It's a really great school. I'm just having trouble getting through."
In another effort to save money, Smith lives more than 40 miles off campus, sharing an apartment with her boyfriend, Derrick King Jr. Long commutes, long hours on the job and at her studies, her growing debt … it all weighs on Smith's mood.
Professors helpful, but…
Going into the fall 2014 semester, Smith spoke with her professors and kept them updated on her problems paying for school. "They've been helpful," she said, "but this hold — and I didn't find this out till a couple of weeks ago — cannot come off my account until the whole housing bill is paid in full."
Fowler said he's had other students in situations similar to Smith's. More common, he said, is that students overload their class schedules to try to earn enough credits to finish school early and save money.
"And they're not learning anything because they can't dedicate the time to it," he said.
Smith would love to have had a lighter course load and have been able to finish school at a more leisurely pace. And throughout this particular December Friday, in between her three classes, she gets signs from the universe that seem to suggest things will work out. Outside the HUB-Robeson Center, students hand out motivational quotes to inspire those about to take finals. "You are unique like a snowflake — or a Nittany Lion" is the one she gets. At lunchtime, a fortune cookie tells her that "failure is the mother of success."
The bursar's office is largely empty when Smith stops in just after 4 p.m. She goes up to the window to speak to a representative who, after a short conversation, delivers the bad news: If she doesn't pay the bill by 5 p.m., her semester will be erased. Seven classes, four months of work, 21 credit hours ... wiped out.
Though she says Penn State is "a really great school," Smith is still struggling to see the bright side of her situation. "I'm doing so well (academically), but I feel like I've wasted five years of my life. I gained the knowledge. I met great people. So? In t he real world, what does that get you? Nothing. … I need that piece of paper."
Neither side was blameless in failing to resolve the billing dispute that torpedoed Smith's semester. With earlier, clearer and more thorough communication — from both parties — the disaster might've been avoided. And there still may be a way to reach a resolution and put the pieces back together.
For now, though, Smith is defeated. She walks out of the bursar's office, quiet and dejected. Her last class of the semester begins at 4:45 p.m., but she's skipping. She doesn't plan to take her finals either. Back on the bus, her frustration level rises. "I knew this was going to happen," she said. "I knew it, I knew it, I knew it, I knew it, I knew it. All the work — it's like I did it for fun. And it wasn't fun."
As the bus passes the MorningStar Solar House, which inspired her to study energy business finance, she reflects on what has been another agonizing day.
"I'm doing so well, but I feel like I wasted five years of my life," she said. "I gained the knowledge. I met great people. So? In the real world, what does that get you? Nothing. The field I want to get into, I need that piece of paper that says I got this from this place." ■
As of this writing, Quanisha Smith is working with Penn State to resolve her bill. She did not enroll in classes for the spring semester.
Back in 2000, when Tony Havens first enrolled at Indiana University-South Bend, the school's Education and Arts Building wasn't even on the drawing board. Today, Havens would love to complete his studies and earn his art degree, but he sees no clear path to that goal.
15 years later and $15k in debt, poorly guided student still off track
South Bend, Ind. — Every month, $64 is withdrawn from Tony Havens' checking account to pay off his student loans. For him, it's both a financial hit and a grim reminder that he spent five years in college and left with approximately $15,000 in debt … but no degree.
What makes it even more painful is that with better guidance and a little more information about his finances, Havens, 33, most likely could have graduated from Indiana University-South Bend in four years. Instead, he still needs roughly another year of credits to earn his degree.
"I didn't realize that my scholarship would only cover me for four years, and I ended up taking history and political science courses before I finished the requirements for my degree," said Havens, sitting in his apartment, which is roughly two miles from the IUSB campus. "If I had it to do over again, I would have focused on the requirements that I needed to graduate and completed my degree in drawing and painting."
Havens accepts the lion's share of the blame for what happened to his college career. He just wishes someone had told him then what he knows now.
'Sign it. Just sign it. It's good'
Havens remembers being called to his guidance counselor's office while in middle school and signing up for the 21st Century Scholars program — a state-funded program that gives lower-income students the opportunity to earn up to a four-year scholarship at an Indiana college or university.
In signing the pledge, Havens joined other would-be Scholars who promise to stay on top of their grades, complete college-preparation activities and stay drug- and alcohol-free. In exchange, they receive tuition assistance — this year, it's slightly more than $7,500 a year to attend a four-year public university, or $3,900 a year for a two-year school. The money does not cover room and board or books.
"I was like, 'I don't even know what it's about,'" Havens recalls. "And the counselor was like, 'Sign it. Just sign it. It's good.'"
So he did. Between then and 2000 — when he graduated from Penn High School in Mishawaka, Ind. — he doesn't remember hearing another word about the scholarship. It wasn't until he applied for financial aid to get into IUSB that the university reminded him the money was waiting. Between those funds and a Pell Grant, his education was covered.
Emily Sellers, director of outreach and engagement for the Indiana Commission for Higher Education, which oversees the 21st Century Scholars program, said it's entirely likely that Havens never heard anything else about the scholarship. "That's something we're improving," she said. These days, recipients of the scholarship receive direct, frequent, student-friendly correspondence. They also participate in a new Scholars Success Program, which helps them learn to plan, prepare and pay for college.
"The Indiana commission is working hard to ensure Scholars are better prepared at the secondary level and better supported once they arrive on our college and university campuses," she added in an e-mail. "We have developed new systems to better support and track Scholar program and success throughout high school and have bolstered our postsecondary-level supports to ensure students are persisting to an on-time degree."
In fall 2000, Havens became the first in his family to go to college. He looked at three schools and chose IUSB for its proximity to home — he would be a commuter — and its art program, which focused on realism rather than abstraction. He enrolled as a fine arts, drawing and painting major. And for three years, he followed that path toward a degree.
Havens had been creating art since he was young and said he learned a lot in college. To this day, he uses what his IUSB professors taught him about painting with oils as opposed to watercolors and acrylics. That knowledge is on display in the apartment he shares with his girlfriend, Jessica Platz, 29. There, in a bedroom he converted to a studio, he's completing a series of futuristic, vibrant oil paintings that he started at IUSB. "I just picked up a brush, dabbed it in paint and started to come up with the rough sketch of what that ended up being," he said. "A friend of mine said the first one would be 'creation,' this second one would be 'the midway point,' and the one I'm finishing now is 'decay.' I thought that was a pretty good explanation."
In the bedroom/studio of his home, Havens works on one of his paintings, the third of a three-piece series of oils he started while a student at IUSB. "A friend of mine said the first one would be 'creation,' the second one would be 'the midway point,' and the one I'm finishing now is 'decay.' I thought that was a pretty good explanation," Havens said.
As much as he enjoyed — and still enjoys — art, though, Havens began to feel that he might need a more secure career than his major could provide. One of his more influential professors, Ron Monsma, understands that position, but he doesn't necessarily support it. He insists that businesses look for people with arts degrees because employers can teach them how to do certain things, but they can't teach them how to be creative.
"I give them grounding that will enable them to do what they want to do for the rest of their lives at a higher-skilled level," he said. "Maybe they won't get a job doing it; no one gets a degree in drawing and painting and walks into a gallery and hands the director their sheepskin and says, 'Where do I hang my work?'" But art students find work, he said. Many become teachers — and some do become artists.
'Sidetracked by other interests'
Havens didn't want to be a teacher. "It takes a very special person to teach and teach well, and I don't believe I would fit that mold," he said. So he spent much of his fourth year taking history and political science courses — so many that, if he had graduated, he would have earned minors in both subjects. At the time, he remembers, his faculty adviser asked why he wanted to take so many courses outside his major. Havens' answer: I want to know more. His adviser's response: That's not a bad thing.
No, but it did put Havens far behind where he needed to be to finish his degree in four years.
"I got sidetracked by those other interests," Havens said, "and I didn't realize the scholarship would only cover me for four years. I would have liked to have somebody tell me that, because I would have planned things out a little differently, definitely. I would have focused on the classes I needed for my major and then, if I was done with that, if I still wanted to go through with the other classes that interested me, I would have been able to afford that with just the Pell Grant. I could have taken one class a semester and started to work."
But the scholarship did, in fact, run out. For two semesters, Havens borrowed money to fund his education, but "I decided I didn't want to continue to take out loans for a major in drawing and painting because I was pretty certain that I would end up working at a place like Walgreens — which is where I did end up — having to pay back a large amount of debt."
Havens accepts responsibility for his decision to drop out of college in 2005, yet he wishes that he'd been offered better counseling about forging — and staying on — a clear path to his degree. "I got sidetracked by other interests," Havens admits, and didn't realize his scholarship had a four-year time limit. "I would have liked to have somebody tell me that, because I would have planned things out a little differently, definitely."
Havens was a little ahead of his time when it came to fear of student loan debt. "But back when he was a student," said Jamie Dickenson, a West Virginia-based education planner, "the interest rates on student debt were much lower than they are now. I remember when student loan rates were 2.2 percent and parent loan rates were 3.2 percent. That was doable. When the cost of college attendance shot through the roof, coupled with 8.45 percent on student loans, that is when things became unbearable."
Havens said universities could help people like him by laying out a financial plan when students start school and conducting a yearly review of financial aid and loan balances. "You'd be able to know the financial situation you're going to find yourself in when you leave," he said. "I've met a lot of people who've gone to school, and they did what I did to a greater degree and left with a lot of debt. They didn't even realize how much debt they were getting into."
After his fifth year, Havens had amassed $15,000 in debt — to pay for school, for a car to get him to and from school, and for housing. He had lived at home for the first three years of school, but then he was on his own, paying rent to live in his uncle's house.
Wistfully examining a studio space at IUSB, Havens contemplates the possibility of resuming his art studies. It's not likely to be simple, though. The registrar's office has told him that, since he's been out of school so long — nearly 10 years now — it will take some time to determine precisely how many credits he needs to graduate.
Havens liked school, and he had the intellectual curiosity to continue. But his art classes required so many hours in the studio that it was next to impossible for him to hold a job, and he worried about paying off the loans. So in 2005, feeling "burnt out," he left school.
Havens didn't expect to be out of school for what's now approaching 10 years. "I take what responsibility I can for the decisions that I made because it was my decision to discontinue going," he said. "I can't blame that on anybody else, and wouldn't." But he has plenty of company among 21st Century Scholars. Only 15 percent earn their associate or bachelor's degree on time (compared with 23 percent of all Indiana public college students), and only 33 percent graduate after three or six years (compared with 42 percent for all Indiana public college students).
Good start, painful finish in retail
After Havens left school, he took a job at a CVS store. He spent two years there, then moved over to Walgreens, where he started making "really good money" as an assistant manager. But six years in, after several cuts in pay and benefits, the job lost its allure — in part because it forced him to be on his feet all day. "I would get home from work in retail and my feet would throb," he said.
He tried unsuccessfully four times to land a position with a national insurance company in South Bend. The fifth time, though, he was hired. In September 2014, he started as a customer service representative and licensed insurance agent, working a 1:30-10 p.m. shift.
Still, he said, there's that nagging feeling that he should have completed college. "I would really like to finish my degree," he said. "I don't want to just throw away all that work that I did." He and Platz — who also has a year of college remaining and works for the same firm that employs Havens — said they talk often about the subject.
But they're expecting their first child — a girl — in May, "so it's more like a timeline kind of conversation," Platz said. "For me, it's the debate of: 'How long do you wait after the baby is born to figure out going back to school and working while trying to raise a family?'
"We've both said we want to settle into more of a family rhythm to be able to know where we're going from here," she added. "But we both have a strong desire to finish. It's something neither of us has lost sight of." For Havens, though, it's becoming harder to see the finish line — and to chart a path that will get him there. When he checked with the registrar's office in January to see how many credits he needs to graduate, he couldn't get a clear answer. IUSB officials told him that he's been out of school so long that it won't be easy to determine how far he has to go.
"The only info I was able to gather on my progress was that I was over halfway," Havens said. "They said the program has changed so much that it would take a lot of evaluation to determine how much needs to be done to graduate."■
As of this writing, Havens and Platz hope to eventually use the benefits offered by their employer to return to school. Havens would like to finish his art degree, but he has also considered taking business courses relevant to his insurance job. Platz, who started college as a nursing major, would like to complete her degree in English literature.
Damaris Ortiz and her boyfriend, Yasert Ortega, share breakfast with their 1-year-old son, Ezra, in their apartment in San Rafael, Calif. Ortiz, 29, left Mexico as a teenager, worked hard to excel in high school and then spent nearly 10 years pursuing an associate degree, which she earned in 2012.
Immigrant's promise not yet realized, but she's still climbing
San Rafael, Calif. — To reach the apartment Damaris Ortiz shares with her boyfriend and their young son, you drive partway up a mountainous road, then trudge up four flights of stairs. The steep ascent could well be a metaphor for the climb Ortiz has faced daily since moving to California from Chiapas, Mexico, in search of educational advancement and a better life.
During that 14-year stretch, she has fought through the language barrier, undocumented status, financial struggles and more. It took her nearly 10 years to earn an associate degree, which she finally received in 2012.
Her story is one of perseverance. But she also recognizes that now, at age 29, she still has years to go to achieve her educational and career goals.
"I feel OK," she said, sitting in her living room while her boyfriend, Yasert Ortega, feeds 1-year-old Ezra. "I'm not really proud because I expect more. But I'm OK with where I'm at. I don't feel like I've been lazy."
In 2001, Damaris (pronounced deh-ma-REESE) and her brother left their mother and a sister in Mexico to live with her father, stepmother and their three children outside San Francisco. "My dad told me there were more opportunities in California than there were in Mexico," she said. She enrolled in Petaluma High School and excelled.
"I remember she didn't speak a lick of English when I first met her," said Jonathan Knox, who taught the English as a Second Language class that Ortiz took at Petaluma High, a 1,300-student school with a graduation rate of nearly 97 percent. "By the time she graduated, I was helping her write essays in English that were amazing. In four years, acquiring English at this level? That's unheard of at the high school level."
Speaking in lightly accented English, Ortiz says it helped to go home to her stepmother, two half-brothers and a stepsister — all of whom spoke English as their primary language. "I was also translating books and into learning really fast, so I just pushed myself to do it," she said.
An information gap
High school prepared her academically for college, and her teachers stressed the importance of higher education, she said. She remembers taking a test that helped direct students toward their best career options. But there was no discussion of how to pay for school — not for ESL students, anyway. She said it would have helped if someone had come to ESL classes to talk about resources — such as scholarships or private funding — that can help make college possible for students like her.
"This information — maybe it was there and I didn't see it — but I don't know how I would have missed it," she said. "I was always in my books and studying and trying to get through. But there was no information in the career center, in the bilingual center, in my high school. At no point in high school was there anybody telling me all this information. It was just: 'Go to college, go to college, yeah.'"
Knox agrees — students in Ortiz's situation receive little in the way of college preparation. "Most of those kids are just struggling to survive, learning how to get along in an English-language society," he said.
Elena Macias, staff emeritus at California State University-Long Beach, said Ortiz's experience was common among undocumented students then — and still is today. It's a combination of problems, starting with low expectations.
Ortiz now spends most of her days with Ezra, caring for him while serving as a nanny for another 1-year-old. Soon, though, she hopes to return to her studies. She plans to enroll in San Francisco State University this fall to begin work to complete her bachelor's degree.
"But secondly, people don't know," said Macias, who started the AB 540 Training Project, in which volunteers teach faculty and staff at universities across California to give undocumented students the best possible advice about how to remain in the country.
"Some of the most educated people have no idea how undocumented people live or what's available to them and what is not," she said. "And when you live in the shadows, you don't exactly advertise to others that you need help; you don't know who's your friend and who's going to turn you in. So a lot of these kids learn to get by with underground expectations, hoping for good luck, hoping for the best, trying to realize the dream, and at the same time trying to work and help their families."
Ortiz finished high school in 2003, a semester ahead of her graduating class. She went immediately into Santa Rosa Junior College, taking classes at both the Petaluma and Santa Rosa campuses, and paying non-resident tuition because she didn't know about AB 540. That California law, which passed in 2001, covers all students who graduate from a California high school and have been at that school for more than three years, giving them the opportunity to pay the significantly lower in-state tuition. (This year at Santa Rosa, California residents pay $46 per credit hour — $552 a semester — while out-of-state students would pay more than four times that — $2,364 per term.)
"AB 540 has leveled the field for any child who came to the United States and was undocumented but grew up going to school here," Macias said.
Ortiz's father, a house painter, had been helping out financially, but when he couldn't afford to assist any longer, she had to fend for herself.
"I would have finished college right away if I'd been able to pay," she said. "By this time, I'd have a good job and be able to help other people."
Working hard, getting nowhere
During this time, Ortiz was working (without a Social Security number, which limited her employment options), sending money to her ill mother in Mexico, and going to school, with the plan to study architecture. At 18, she moved out of her father's crowded apartment — six people, three bedrooms, one bathroom — which added to her expenses.
She took the jobs she could get, which included working at a pizza place for a little while ("I didn't like that job"). After taking computer classes, she became a receptionist at an insurance office. Since that job was full time, she couldn't focus on school as much as she needed. When she got a C in a math class and had to drop another course because she was doing even worse, her community college career ended.
"I was bummed and I was like, 'Maybe I should take some time off,' And that time became longer and longer and longer," she said. "Once you work, it's just tough. You can work part time and go to school part time, or maybe full time. But then when you have this low income because you can't get a better job, it's tough because you have to pay for everything — the books and the transportation and insurance and gas."
By the time she got back to school, Ortiz was 23 and a business student, this time getting good grades at San Jose City College. But she still struggled to make ends meet while paying for school. She withdrew again and moved to Catalina Island, just off the southern California coast, and worked at a hotel. She held that job for a year, then returned to northern California with plans to finish her associate degree.
She was going to college full time once again and working as a waitress at a pancake restaurant. Then she got hired as a dance instructor — teaching salsa, kizomba (an Angolan dance) and other steps at a San Francisco studio. (Around this time, she met Ortega.) That job paid enough that she was able to afford school. In 2012, she finished her associate degree at City College of San Francisco, including all of the prerequisites needed for a bachelor's degree in international business.
Her plan was to go from City College to San Francisco State University. Then she learned she was pregnant with Ezra.
Sitting outside Petaluma High School, Ortiz can look back on a long and difficult road as an undocumented immigrant — and ahead to the rewarding career she wants to build. She wants to be an immigration lawyer, helping other undocumented students find their way to college success.
"I had to debate: 'Do I really want to miss out on my baby's life, or do I want to take a break?'" she said. "So I made a decision to be with my baby for a year and then go back to school. So that has given me more time to actually get prepared to go and plan everything. But I still have the same goal."
She took a job as a nanny, and now she watches another 1-year-old along with Ezra. She also helps Ortega teach soccer. And to prepare to go back to school, she's been talking to Knox, her former high school teacher, about helping her ramp up her writing skills.
"She wants to go to school," Ortega said. "And whatever she wants, she goes for it. I'm very proud of her."
This time, school should be somewhat easier for Ortiz — and many students like her. "When she came to the United States, she was practically in the middle of a new rise in the fight for education and undocumented students — and specifically the right to higher education," said Gaby Pacheco, program director for TheDream.us. Pacheco's organization is the largest national scholarship fund for "dreamers" — immigrant students in states that have passed a version of the DREAM Act (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors) and those who benefit from the Obama administration's executive order expanding the immigration policy known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).
Pacheco points out that, when Ortiz graduated high school, only six states offered in-state tuition options to undocumented immigrants. Today, such options exist in more than 20 states.
Last year in California, which has been a leader in expanding educational opportunities, the University of California system set aside $25 million to support DREAMer centers on each of its campuses, Macias said. The California State University system is moving in that direction too, with Cal State campuses in Los Angeles, Northridge, Long Beach and Fullerton all appointing coordinators for DREAMer services.
And last year, the California legislature passed a modification to AB 540 — AB 2000 — that qualifies students for in-state tuition as long as they attended elementary, middle or high school in California for three or more years or attained credits from a California high school equivalent to three or more years of full-time high school coursework.
"So it's much more flexible now than it ever was," Macias said.
Uncertainty stifles aspiration
DACA also makes life easier for those who entered the United States before age 16, have had five years of continuous residence and actual physical presence in the U.S. since June 15, 2007, and have enrolled in or graduated from high school or other qualifying educational program or obtained a GED certificate. DACA recipients are eligible for work authorization, which allows them to be lawfully employed in the United States; to apply for Social Security numbers (Ortiz finally got her number in September 2013, though she does not have citizenship); and, depending on the state in which they live, possibly to obtain a driver's license.
While helping partner Yasert Ortega with his job as a soccer instructor, Ortiz takes time out for a quick snuggle with Ezra. With Ortiz and her boyfriend, the support system works both ways. "She wants to go to school," Ortega says. "And whatever she wants, she goes for it. I'm very proud of her."
But as Macias notes, DACA is a short-term fix. There are 25 states suing to stop some of its provisions. And, nearly 14 years after its introduction, there's still no federal DREAM Act to cover undocumented students.
"When there is no way to regularize their status, students don't aspire to something they find too expensive and unachievable," Macias said. "But at least a small percent of the undocumented do dream, go to college and graduate, albeit through tremendous obstacles. I only wish more students would not give up on their dreams."
Ortiz doesn't know whether students like her are aware of what's available to them. Someday, she said, she'd like to be in a position to spread the word to other undocumented students that higher education is open to them. But first, she has to take care of business.
"I want to go to high schools and talk about this," she said. "But how am I going to tell them if I haven't finished school?"■
As of this writing, Damaris Ortiz is planning to return to college in the fall at San Francisco State University. Her goal is to finish her bachelor's degree in two years, then start law school. She would like to be an immigration lawyer.
The three stories in this issue of Focus were reported and written by Indianapolis-based writer and editor Marc D. Allan. Allan, a longtime newspaper journalist, is the News Manager at Butler University, where he also has served as an adjunct professor of journalism.
© Lumina Foundation
~ May 2015 ~
As a private foundation, Lumina Foundation does not support or oppose any legislation.
Lumina provides educational information, nonpartisan research and analysis to advance Goal 2025.
Writing: Marc D. Allan


text:
IT Management Features
Lloyds looks to rationalise its IT estate with help from Apptio
The UK bank has been embarking on a massive consolidation effort to cut its IT spend
Scott Carey
Scott is the Group Editor for B2B titles at IDG UK. He covers the big IT and cloud vendors, the SaaS market and digital transformation stories at UK enterprises.
Scott Carey September 26, 2017
Lloyds Banking Group is looking to rationalise its IT spend across its stable of 4,500 applications by getting better asset visibility with the help of specialist vendor Apptio.
Apptio specialises in what it has coined as technology business management (TBM) software. The company, which successfully went public last year, is already helping some of the UK's biggest banks shut down costly applications and rationalise their IT spend.
© Lloyds
Colin Rowland, SVP for EMEA at Apptio explained TBM to Computerworld UK as "supply chain management for IT".
Read next: Cloud benchmarking service allows firms to compare IT costs to peers
Essentially, Apptio brings cost transparency to CIOs looking to understand their increasingly complex cost base, be that cloud infrastructure and services or internal labour and support. Once they get this visibility, IT leaders can start to spot pinch points and inefficiencies and reallocate funds.
"What used to happen is organisations got the cost of the app and spread that across the whole business based on their value or headcount, and that is an unfair allocation as people pay for things they aren't using. With Apptio you can start to do more consumption-based pricing," Rowland explained.
Lloyds turns to Apptio
This software is proving popular in the financial services sector, as those organisations tend to have lots of legacy technology and a huge IT cost base. Nationwide and RBS have already used Apptio to rationalise their IT spend, with Nationwide expecting to save £6-8 million in IT costs after its first year of implementation, and now Lloyds Banking Group is looking to do the same.
Read next: Nationwide Building Society gets a grip on its IT costs
Keith Pearson, head of systems and programmes, IT CIO at Lloyds Banking Group was tasked with getting a view of all of the bank's IT assets 18 months ago. The aim is to allow the bank to "run the business of IT effectively", he explained during a speech made at a Gartner event in London last week.
So Pearson wanted to be able to take any IT asset, be that a business-critical software application, or a piece of hardware like an on-premise data centre, and be able to see: "Who owns it, what attributes it has, is it secure, is it resilient, how much does it cost, will we be fined? These are fundamental questions we couldn't answer about an asset."
By implementing Apptio the IT department at Lloyds could start to answer some of these questions. "Understanding an asset and its cost links to our ability to have effective cost analytics," Pearson added.
Read next: Lloyds Banking Group prepares for open banking by shifting towards realtime data feeds
Pearson admits that Lloyds is in the early stages of its work with Apptio, but says that the organisation has already seen an increased ability to view "what is driving the cost of provisions and whether it is the optimised cost, so entitlement vs consumption".
For example, Lloyds uses the Falcon fraud detection platform sold by FICO. Pearson says that the company thought it knew what it was spending on Falcon, but after implementing Apptio, saw that it was spending five times more than the bank suspected.
Lloyds is currently using Apptio on a project-by-project basis to assess the cost of single applications like Falcon at this early stage, but the aim is to get "that flowing cost transparency and asset cost control" as they become more comfortable with the tool.
"I want to get to a level where we have platform economics," Pearson explained. "Which means if someone in business wants to know the cost of introducing a new mortgage customer, we can give a drill down of every IT component related to that new mortgage."
Aside from initial cost savings of closing down unnecessary applications across its estate of 4,500 apps, Apptio can also become an effective dashboard for IT leadership to monitor its assets.
The IT department at Lloyds has historically been "good at fixing things" according to Pearson, but that now "I think service management needs to become a cognitive and analytics-led capability where you can predict things breaking and fix them with no fire to put out."
Lloyds has also been working with IBM to see if it can apply this data to the cognitive Watson platform to start getting predictive insights related to its IT assets. Lloyds signed a £1.3 billion cloud deal with the vendor back in June.
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Gov. Rick Scott has announced that August�s statewide unemployment rate dropped to 7 percent. This is down from 7.1 percent in May, June and July, and down 4.1 percentage points since December 2010.
The statewide unemployment rate has remained below the national average of 7.3 percent for the sixth consecutive month. Florida has created 365,500 private sector jobs since December 2010.
Since December 2010, Florida�s statewide unemployment rate has dropped 4.1 percentage points, from a rate of 11.1 percent to August�s rate of 7.0 percent.
In the same timeframe, the national unemployment rate has dropped 2.0 percentage points.
Florida�s unemployment rate has now declined year-over-year for 34 consecutive months.


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About Penrith Partnership
A voice for Penrith
We help set the direction for Penrith's development, from the community's point of view. We run projects to improve aspects of life in Penrith, in partnership with other organisations, businesses and residents.
We consult with local people to give their views a voice and represent what the community wants to change and improve about our town. We then bring people together to make those changes happen.
The projects we tackle are pretty diverse - from improving green spaces and street furniture through to running events that add to the vitality and economy of the town. But we also try to influence wider issues that are out of the community's control, building up good working relationships with councils and other agencies.
We're a small team of volunteers from different walks of life in Penrith, but our strength comes from working with others to enhance the town. We bring people and groups together to co-ordinate and promote activity in the town and neighbouring area.
We link with a wide range of groups, from Eden District Council to the town's Rotary Club, and we do our best to represent the views of the community and speak in the interests of Penrith.
We also champion and encourage community activity led by others, offering advice where we can and sharing our experience and contacts.
Find out more about our team
By the community, for the community
We believe that our community should take responsibility for improving our own area, steering the developments local people want and harnessing support from bodies like our local councils.
Our approach has always been to talk to the community about the improvements they want for the town and then organise projects to tackle them. For each project, we bring together groups or residents who have an interest in that issue or who have the skills to help.
We're currently consulting widely with local people to find out what issues we will tackle together over the next few years. These will be at the heart of the new Penrith Community Plan, which we're creating in partnership with other local groups, to steer improvement in the town.
Find out more about Penrith Community Plan
We strive to make Penrith:
a safe, attractive and economically strong market town, which is pedestrian and cycle friendly, and with very high environmental standards
a pre-eminent rural service centre that is admired as a destination market town - dynamic, economically active and distinctive, with an enviable quality of life


Amroha lies to the east of Delhi in the north of India. The artist, Thomas Daniell, saw this Idgah (Muslim religious building) while travelling in India with his nephew and collaborator William during the years 1786-94. The Daniells' paintings and prints, particularly the publication Oriental Scenery (1795-1808), introduced a western audience to the landscapes of India.
The trees that frame and balance the scene were a well-established pictorial convention, derived from the classical landscape paintings of the French artist Claude Lorrain. In this way, Daniell's picture casts an unfamiliar landscape into a format more familiar to western eyes.
Inscribed 'T.DANIELL 1810' on a stone b.c.
Canvas, 38¿ x 53½ (98 x 136).
Purchased from Dr Maurice Shellim through Mr W.G.Archer (Grant-in- Aid) 1971.
Exh: R.A. 1813 (220, as 'The Eed-gah, a place designed for the performance of solemn festivals by the professors of the Mahomedan religion, near Amrooah, in the Rohilla district, East Indies').
Lit: Thomas Sutton, The Daniells, 1954, P.45.
The Daniells visited Amroha in the Moradabad district between 20 and 22 March 1789. The idgah seen here is an enclosed area used by Mohammedans for congregational prayer.
Through their paintings, drawings and aquatints (especially Oriental Scenery), the Daniells did much to familiarize the English with this sort of Indian architecture, the influence of which was to culminate in the Royal Pavilion at Brighton.
Joseph Mallord William Turner Somer-hill, near Tunbridge, the Seat of W.F. Woodgate, Esq.


Unlike other political leaders, BJP President Amit Shah has his own style of managing party affairs.
Ms Soni has argued in internal meetings that they should avoid fielding Akali Dal leaders indiscriminately.
Mr Naidu is quick to take on the Opposition both inside and outside Parliament just as he did in his earlier avatar.
Mr Kejriwal's role in the ongoing battle against the Modi government.


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Expanding foam is a can of liquid that quickly expands and hardens once sprayed. Once dried, it can be trimmed, sanded and painted. It is ideal for sealing gaps around pipes and wires; essential for energy efficiency, to keep your home warm.
Using a large, dry paint brush, sweep away any dust or loose particles in and around the area. When the area is clean, spray it lightly with water. Expanding foam needs moisture to cure, so this will help the foam cure evenly.
Before applying the expanding foam, read the manufacturer's instructions. Expanding foam is a skin irritant so it is essential to wear protective gloves during its use. The expanding foam is applied using a gun or nozzle that comes with the product. Attach the nozzle and shake the can thoroughly. Hold the can upside down, insert the nozzle into the area to be filled, and apply the foam carefully bearing in mind it will more than double in size once applied.
Immediately after applying the foam, mist it with water. If you apply more than one layer of foam, spray water between each layer to help the foam adhere. Leave the foam to cure fully, which usually takes one hour depending on the manufacturer's instructions.
When the foam is fully cured, carefully use a hacksaw to cut off any excess.
Use sandpaper to sand the foam and give a smooth finish. The expanding foam can now be plastered or painted over.