$20 Million Grant Awarded to Kentucky and Pennsylvania Schools

By Sandra Kelly

Low income students in the Louisville, Ky and Erie, PA areas just got a boost to their college educations.  As a part of the Investing in Innovation program, which was created as a part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, is granting $20 million dollars to increase college access for first generation, low-income, minority students.  The $20 million dollar grant was awarded to the D.C. based, non-profit Council for Opportunity in Education which will give out the money to specific schools.

This grant money will be used to support the Using Data to Inform College Access Programming in the 21st Century High School initiative, which aims to get help from local colleges and businesses to help raise college access for students who are least likely to seek a college education after graduating from high school.  These low-income, minority students attend and graduate from college at a much lower level than other middle and upper class students, which makes this grant money all the more important.

The program aims to help these low-income students in a variety of ways including combining online courses with physical classroom settings to help determine a student’s learning progress.  Computer programs will then determine the various subjects certain students need to focus on in order to be successful at the collegiate level.  Students will also receive extra counseling and academic advising as part of this program. This counseling will surely help less successful students focus their academic paths and figure out what classes they should take during their first couple of years in college.  By providing structured advertising, the Using DICAP program will allow students to get on a fast, concise track to graduation and not waste any precious money on college classes that will not be used towards a specific college degree.

Indian Catholic University Launches Seven Online Degree Courses

A Catholic university in the northeast Indian state of Assam is offering global access to its degree courses in seven programmes in three disciplines.Claiming to be the first of its kind in the country, Assam Don Bosco University based in Guwahati, already in its third year, is all set to launch its first online degree programmes.

``We hope to target thousands of working-class young people across the globe,`` says the Vice-Chancellor of the University, Dr. Stephen Mavely SDB, explaining how the classes and study will take place on the Web, enabling students to have access to the best professors from around the country. Using the state-of-the-art Virtual Classroom Technology, the varsity will run the programmes designed for working executives and professionals looking for study projects that complement their work and their need to juggle a career, a family and a degree programme.             These programmes give an option for anyone anywhere to be part of Don Bosco University (DBU) backed by its worldwide network in education and other developmental works. Currently Don Bosco Society operates in 132 countries.             The DBU OnLine programme director, Dr. Joseph Anikuzhikkattil, says, ``From this year, we are offering study programmes in the following subjects: Executive MBA (1 year), MBA in Information Technology (2 years), MBA in Entrepreneurship (2 years), MBA with Specialisation (2 years), MS (Information Technology) (2 years), Bachelor of Business Administration (3 years) and Bachelor of Computer Applications (3 years).`` Details of registration are available at www.dbuglobal.com             Programme coordinator, Arnab Kumar Choudhury, adds: ``This will be followed by many more degree/diploma/certificate programmes in a modular structure in quick succession.``             Currently, DBU conducts regular degree courses in Management, Engineering, Information Technology and Computer Applications from Don Bosco College of Engineering and Technology at Azara and Don Bosco Institute of Management at Kharguli, Guwahati.             Construction work on the 272-acre main campus at Tapesia Gardens, 16 km from state capital Dispur, is to commence shortly. Within three to five years, the DBU main campus residential complex is expected to house some six thousand students and staff. Besides the academic and administrative complex, the campus will also have a tea plantation, orange grove, sports complex, chapel, convention centre, hospital facilities, bio-diversity park as well as a free high school for one thousand poor students. BY SR SHIJI JAMES MSMCH