Author: Nola Jones

The mailbox seldom brings good news for millions of Americans who are burdened with federal student loan debt. In contrast to most policy changes, the U.S. Department of Education discreetly announced last week that borrowers enrolled in autopay would see their interest rates lowered by a full percentage point beginning on July 1. Not with much fanfare, but more akin to cautious relief. On paper, the change is simple. The interest rate will be lowered by one percentage point for borrowers who have already enrolled in autopay or who enroll before September 30 of this year. The discount is valid…

According to her mother, Karmin Baldassari was a force. Brimming with enthusiasm and affection, this child effortlessly illuminates a space. That was prior to the second grade at Saugus, Massachusetts’ Belmonte STEAM Academy. Lori-Ann Baldassari, her mother, still finds it difficult to discuss what transpired there over the course of several months without her voice becoming tense. Karmin’s weight and appearance were made fun of by her classmates. Before she could eat it, they threw away her lunch. When she eventually reached her breaking point in class one afternoon, she turned around and stepped on a boy’s foot after a…

The streets surrounding Crowborough had a subtly strange quality by Wednesday morning. There were no groups of teenagers wearing blazers. There are no younger children crossing at the lights with big backpacks. The Beacon Academy was shut down. Chailey School in South Chailey was also. In actuality, dozens of other businesses in East and West Sussex were closing their doors hourly. The heatwave that has forced Sussex schools to close has happened quickly, but it wasn’t totally unexpected. Temperatures have been rising to levels that most British buildings, including schools, were never intended to withstand due to a “heat dome”…

There’s a good chance that someone nearby is waiting on an Amazon delivery if you stroll around any college campus on a Tuesday afternoon. Perhaps a package of printer ink. Two days prior to an exam, a used textbook was ordered. An impulsive midnight snack. Amazon’s Prime for Young Adults membership almost seems like a natural extension of being enrolled somewhere because the company has quietly and gradually made its way into student life. Most likely, it’s not an accident. The program, formerly known as Amazon Prime Student, has been renamed Prime for Young Adults and is now available to…

Being a healthcare student comes with a certain type of fatigue. Long shifts, never-ending coursework, blurring clinical placements—and somewhere in the middle of it all is the very real, very banal challenge of choosing what to wear. Of all things, scrubs take on unexpected significance. And that’s precisely where FIGS has created something meaningful. FIGS began as a direct-to-consumer healthcare clothing company with a simple yet subtly ambitious concept: create scrubs that people would genuinely want to wear. Not only is it affordable and practical, but it’s also well-made, cozy, and strong enough to endure the kinds of days that…

These days, it seems almost uncommon to enter your first year of college with a well-defined financial plan. Government student loans frequently fail to cover actual living expenses, tuition continues to rise, and rental prices in the majority of Canadian cities have become a separate crisis. Products like the Scotiabank ScotiaLine® Personal Line of Credit for Students typically find their audience in this gap—the actual, monthly, eat-or-study gap. The fundamental structure is fairly simple. Depending on the year and course of study, undergraduate students can borrow anywhere from $5,000 to $80,000. You don’t have to pay the principal during school;…

There is a shortage of veterinarians in Canada. For a farmer tending to a sick cow while waiting on hold for a veterinarian who might or might not have an opening that week, or for anyone living in a rural town who has driven three hours to get a sick dog treated, that is nothing new. The Atlantic Veterinary College in Prince Edward Island is expanding, which is news and truly encouraging even though it doesn’t solve every problem. It will increase the number of seats from 70 to 95 starting in August 2027, adding 25 new students annually. Twenty-five…

Something a little strange is occurring on a street in Wilkoppies, specifically 27 Dr. Yusuf Dadoo Avenue. On a weekday morning, you’ll see kids coming from all over South Africa as you pass the gates. Some are said to have come as far as Tanzania. That detail is noteworthy for a school located in Klerksdorp, a city that most South Africans may not immediately associate with elite academics. The reputation of Ashton John’s Private School has been steadily growing. It functions as a Cambridge International School, offering the globally acclaimed Cambridge Assessment International Education curriculum from Grade R through Grade…

The image of a student entering a university exam room while a button on their shirt silently records everything has an almost cinematic quality. Not a prop for a movie. The plot is not thrilling. According to reports, this occurred during a University of Sydney final exam earlier this month, and the consequences are still being felt. Like many contemporary scandals, it began on social media. Questions from the paper surfaced on Douyin, the Chinese equivalent of TikTok, and Xiaohongshu, also known as RedNote in English, around the time of the University of Sydney’s Introductory Microeconomics exam, ECON1001, a unit…

The way Veterans Education Benefits operate is strangely quiet. Many eligible veterans and their families never fully utilize the billions of dollars in programs that are available every year to pay for housing, books, vocational training, and tuition. It appears that part of the issue is just not knowing where to begin. Most of the time, that beginning point is just one phone number. The GI Bill Call Center, which is manned Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Central Time, can be reached by calling the VA Education Benefits number, 888-GIBILL-1 or 888-442-4551. It sounds almost too…