Latest news with #college
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
GradGuard Honors National Insurance Awareness Day by Awarding $15,000 in Scholarships to College Students
Each student will receive $3,000 to help offset tuition, books, housing, or other college-related expenses. GradGuard's 2025 Scholarship Recipients PHOENIX, June 28, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- GradGuard, the authority in helping protect students and their families from the risks of college life through its pioneering tuition and renters insurance programs, is pleased to announce the winners of its inaugural scholarship program, awarding $3,000 each to five outstanding students across the country. As part of its mission to help schools educate and protect students from the risks of college life, GradGuard launched the no-essay scholarship program to highlight the importance of being prepared for the unexpected. With nearly 600 applicants nationwide, the five winners were selected for their content, creativity, and presentation style in sharing personal college experiences, stories, or real-world scenarios that demonstrate the value of tuition or renters protection to enable students to overcome common disruptions to college life. 'Hearing the authentic voices of students helps to demonstrate that the risks are real,' said John Fees, GradGuard's co-founder. 'With nearly 2,000 annual campus fires and more than 22,000 crimes reported annually the value of renters insurance to protect students from theft or damages is a vital consideration, while tuition insurance can helps to safeguard their financial investment if they need to withdraw for a covered reason such as an accident, injury or physcal or mental health condition.' 2025 Scholarship Winners: Emily Goldner-Morgan, Boise State University Jazmin Goodwin, Arizona State University Kara Haj, University of California, Los Angeles Wes Orr, Abilene Christian University Michael Seepersaud, Georgian Court University Each student will receive $3,000 to help offset tuition, books, housing, or other college-related expenses. National Insurance Awareness Day, observed annually on June 28, serves as a vital reminder for the nearly 20 million college students to assess their insurance needs and ensure adequate protection against the unique risks of college life. GradGuard's scholarship program and its work with more than 650 colleges and universities help to promote greater financial literacy and enable students to make smart decisions to protect themselves from financial risks that can otherwise disrupt their education. "We believe in investing directly in students, and our scholarship program is a testament to that commitment," adds Fees. 'Congratulations to Emily, Jazmin, Kara, Wes, and Michael. We are incredibly proud to support their academic pursuits and wish them all the best." For more information about GradGuard's college renters and tuition insurance programs, and to learn about future scholarship opportunities, please visit About GradGuard: GradGuard is the authority on helping schools educate and protect students from the risks of college life. As the #1 source of college tuition and renters insurance, GradGuard's pioneering protections have served more than 1.8 million students at more than 1,900 unique institutions. To learn more, visit Attachment GradGuard's 2025 Scholarship Recipients CONTACT: Natalie Hubertus GradGuard 602-341-5947 nhubertus@ in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
College calls for new facilities due to disrepair
Jerseys only further and higher education college has written a letter to the States of Jersey to request new facilities. The letter from Jo Terry-Marchant, principal at Highlands College and University College Jersey, said the current college estate was "outdated, inflexible, and no longer fit for purpose in many areas." It added due to limited capacity in workshop areas it wasn't able to meet the demands of 14 to 16-year-olds from local schools. It said a "new, modern campus is a strategic necessity". The letter added the existing site presented additional barriers as the facilities were not fully compliant in relation to disability access. This affected learners who needed opportunities from Life Skills (students with complex needs) and inclusion programmes. More news stories for Jersey Listen to the latest news for Jersey The letter stated in order to support the development of the workforce it must move beyond "reactive repairs" and "incremental fixes." It said: "A new, modern campus is a strategic necessity, being central to the education eco-system, delivering a sustainable, future-ready education system that can support industry needs, social mobility, and the Island's long-term economic resilience." It understood that the maintenance requirements would wipe out most of the Jersey Property Holdings (JPH) maintenance budget for it's wider portfolio and the pressure on the public purse. It said unless a study into a partial rebuild, "focusing on modern workshops is conducted, we will be constrained in our ability to meet government aspirations without capital investment." Follow BBC Jersey on X and Facebook. Send your story ideas to One-off funding for college courses to continue College sees big rise in students Students 'relieved' after receiving exam results Highlands College Government of Jersey
Gizmodo
a day ago
- Business
- Gizmodo
Dell's Best-Selling Laptop (32GB RAM, 1TB SSD) With Windows 11 Pro Is Nearly Free at 73% Off
Schools is out but the next semester will be here before you know it. Is your college student equipped to take on all their classes? Make sure they are kitted with the right laptop to get all their class work and homework done reliably without any technical issues. Amazon is making that easy as they've knocked more than half the price off this Dell portable student and business laptop. It's down from $2,399 to just $649 — a savings of $1,750. That's a 73% discount. See at Amazon This laptop from HP is equipped with a 13th Gen Intel Core processor. The CPU is designed for use with writing your college essay in Word or Google Docs as well as help you swiftly browse the web for all your research needs. It has 32GB of memory allows for smooth performance across a diverse range of applications, whether your using them for school work or for leisure. Also bundled in is a license for Window 11 Pro, so you can use the latest operating system from Microsoft to help attend to all your school needs. The display is nice and large at 15.6 inches across, capable of HD 1920 x 1080 resolution to accurately display all the info you need to see. There's hardly any bezel at all so you really maximize your screen real estate while keeping the laptop compact. And the laptop itself is thin and lightweight, keeping it easy to bring back and forth from the classroom to the dorm room. Portability at its finest. The battery is reliable, able to keep your laptop powered for up to 12 hours. That's plenty of time for all your classes and daily homework. Connectivity is simple with the laptops many ports. It has one USB 2.0, one USB 3.2, one USB-C, an HDMI so you can connect to an additional monitor, Ethernet, an SD card slot, as well as a 3.5 mm AUX port. It also supports Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2. Again, it's 73% off now on Amazon, which is lowest price ever. See at Amazon
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
These college kids are swearing off smartphones. It's sparking a movement
There was no way around it: Charlie Fisher was addicted to his smartphone. He scrolled on TikTok and Instagram first thing in the morning, picked it up to answer text messages between classes and relied on it as a crutch in social settings. It was a 'never ending pattern.' 'It just basically created this pattern where I was anxious, and so I'd open my smartphone, and then I would hate myself for opening my smartphone, which made me more anxious,' Fisher says. If you told him a few years ago that he wouldn't be living with a smartphone, he would've been shocked, but the 20-year-old says his life is better because of it. He's part of a movement of college students who are trading in their smartphones for what's now considered trendy hardware: flip phones. Fisher grew up playing with basketballs and nerf guns around his cul-de-sac with a group of neighborhood kids. But when they all downloaded Snapchat, it changed the way they interacted – they no longer had to knock on each other's doors to ask to play and hangouts started to involve screens. By the time he entered high school, everyone in his classroom had a phone. He's not alone. Nearly half of teens say they're online constantly, according to 2024 data from the Pew Research Center. And 48% of teens aged 13 to 17 say social media has a negative effect on kids their age. 'It got to the point where I didn't even know what being present was,' Fisher says. 'Someone said flip phone. I was like, 'Wait, you can do that?'" He bought a $20 Nokia flip phone from Walmart with a $6 per month plan. For a year, he waffled between his smartphone and the flip phone until he pulled the trigger and fully ditched his smartphone in March. Seán Killingsworth, 22, had long noticed that his peers' interactions were impacted by the smartphones in their pockets. He coined the term a 'social wasteland' to describe the 'zombies' around him who were unavailable for social connection. He got a flip phone his sophomore year of high school. Whenever a new friend asked for his Snapchat, the conversation would quickly come to an awkward halt after he explained he had a flip phone. When he tried to call people – texting on his flip phone's keyboard was tedious – it was anxiety inducing or off-putting for his peers, who often stopped reaching out. 'I ran into a lot of barriers just trying to make a friend because of the mode of communication I'd chosen to use,' Killingsworth says. When he enrolled in school at the University of Central Florida, he wanted things to be different, and started hosting casual get togethers with friends without phones. Eventually, the idea turned into the Reconnect Movement, which has clubs at Rollins College, the University of Florida and the University of Central Florida. Another chapter is on tap to launch at Simpson College in Iowa this fall. The events involve activities like painting, playing outdoor sports or hosting lighthearted 'goofy debates' where students argue over topics like mountains vs. the beach. Many times, though, the event at hand morphs into an afternoon where everyone just hangs out. 'It's a way to see and be able to experience what is possible with just connecting with a group of people for no reason and just hanging out purely to hang out,' Killingsworth says. 'That doesn't really happen anymore, because everything's so facilitated and planned out by technology.' More: Why quitting tech and social media is harder than quitting cigarettes Addiction spans devices and platforms and is most heavily tied to algorithms that feed curated content to users, according to Digital literacy expert Kaitlyn Regehr, who is the author of 'Smartphone Nation.' A combination of factors – the refresh screen, the device's color saturation, notifications and prompt system – impact how the addiction functions. Child psychiatrist and Yale School of Medicine professor Yann Poncin says smartphones impact the brain in three key ways: impacting productivity and prioritization, depleting the brain's cognitive patience and threshold for tolerating frustration, and rewiring the brain's pleasure pathways and dopamine release. 'Your dopamine system, over time, over multiple events, is getting set in a way that to trigger dopamine release and a feel good release, you actually now need this phone, because nothing else in life is regularly going to give you that level of dopamine satisfaction,' Poncin says. Poncin says teenage years are a core time when young people start developing their identity and determining who they are in relation to their larger peer group. The hormonal and biological changes young people experience make them more attuned to social comparison, something a social media presence can heighten as teens compare their followers and likes with those around them. 'The natural state of adolescence that is prone to feeling left out, prone to maybe feeling blue, sometimes prone to social anxiety; it is not caused by social media, but it is aggravated by social media,' Regehr says. In the time since Fisher got a flip phone, he says he's returned to old hobbies. He's a musician, and has made more time to play harmonica, mandolin, banjo and guitar. He used to miss details on the screen when he watched movies, but when he watched the 2005 action film 'Sahara' this week on vacation, he could vividly remember the details afterwards. 'I've been seeing things more like when I was a kid,' Fisher says. 'You really see things for how they are in the physical world, and your emotions are really attached to that.' For incoming Oberlin College junior Logan Lane, an unexpected benefit of ditching her phone was developing her fashion sense. The 20-year-old rose to prominence after a 2022 New York Times profile featured the Luddite Club she founded for high schoolers in Brooklyn. During the COVID-19 pandemic, her outfits were heavily influenced by her TikTok for you page. But sitting in front of a trendy coffee shop in Brooklyn's Cobble Hill neighborhood, she donned an outfit reflective of her personal style: one of her mother's striped button downs, a bolo tie necklace and clogs with striped navy socks. Through the Reconnect Movement, Killingsworth has watched his peers come out of their shells. The first meeting started off a little awkward – after all, the students weren't used to going without their phones. But 15 minutes into the event, he says even the most socially anxious participants were having energetic conversations 'You'd be surprised how many other people are feeling the exact same way you are about social media,' Killingsworth says. The majority of the club's members don't have a flip phone, and Killingsworth acknowledges making the switch isn't for everyone. Sammy Palazzolo, a content creator who uses a flip phone part time, says she can't imagine not having access to TikTok, where she regularly posts advice and story time videos to 490,000 followers. But on nights out, she carries her flip phone. She and two friends purchased the phones during their freshman year after they realized all of the negative experiences they had while going out were tied to their cell phones, whether it was sending a text they regretted or neglecting to be present in the moment. Palazzolo recalled waking up with 'major anxiety' one morning after realizing she had accidentally posted a video on her Instagram story. 'These are supposed to be the best moments of our life, but you look around and people are scrolling,' Palazzolo says. It didn't just make her more aware of her phone usage. Carrying the flip phone was trendy, and made for better photos on nights out. 'It really captured the vibe of the night better with it being blurry and kind of vintage feeling,' Palazzolo says. More: How does social media affect mental health? It's complicated. Fisher warns that going cold turkey can be a jolt to the system. Instead, he recommends those looking to make a change to start by detoxing their social media and slowly weaning off of their smartphones to adjust to not having services like Google Maps. There are learning curves: texting on a T9 keyboard, navigating dating without access to apps and managing the demands of modern work without constant access to Microsoft Teams or Slack. Lane started drawing maps by hand to keep track of directions to parties. Fisher is a music engineer and missed having his music apps, so he burned his CD collection onto an iPod. Ultimately, though, the young people who've ditched smartphones say it's harder for those around them to adjust.'It just requires more planning,' Lane says of coordinating her plans sans smartphone. For those who aren't ready to make the jump, Regehr recommends keeping a 'phone-fed journal' with notes on when you opened your phone, what you did on your phone, how long you were on it and how you felt afterwards. Turning a phone on grayscale mode, turning off notifications and setting app time limits can provide short term relief. She also suggests trying a digital spring clean or unfollowing spree. This might mean making a separate work-related social account if you're seeing work content after hours or unfollowing that swimsuit brand that doesn't make you feel good. Regehr refers to this active decision making process as algorithm resistance – curating a digital diet where the user, not the algorithm, is at the helm. 'Decide what you want to see more of and what you want to see less of,' Reghr says. 'Actively search for things you want, that you want to be part of your digital diet, and quickly move past things you don't.' Rachel Hale's role covering Youth Mental Health at USA TODAY is supported by a partnership with Pivotal Ventures and Journalism Funding Partners. Funders do not provide editorial input. Reach her at rhale@ and @rachelleighhale on X. (This story has been updated because an earlier version included an inaccuracy. ) This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Gen Z is into flip phones and throwing their smartphones away
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
College bus river crash investigation continues
An investigation is continuing after a double-decker bus carrying college students plunged into a river. The bus was seen swerving through oncoming traffic and ploughed through railings on the wrong side of Bishopstoke Road in Eastleigh, Hampshire, at about 10:00 BST on Thursday. Work to remove the bus, seen severely damaged to the front, was carried out overnight with the bus lifted onto the road in the early hours. The bus has been towed away and the road is fully open. The driver and one of 19 Barton Peveril Sixth Form College students on board were seriously injured. A witness said the driver reported that his brakes and accelerator failed at the same time. Kelly West, who was one of the first on the scene, said: "It does appear that what he was saying was that the brakes didn't work and the accelerator was jammed because it was horrifically fast, it was speeding massively." The Bluestar bus crashed into a lamp-post, shattering a windscreen, before leaving the road, according to student Freddie Sampson, who was on the top deck. The 18-year-old said: "It was like we couldn't stop and had to weave through traffic trying not to hit any cars and then the bus driver lost control - we went flying into the river." Five people, including the bus driver who was initially trapped, were taken to hospital for treatment, police said. The B3037 Bishopstoke Road was closed in both directions while police gathered evidence. You can follow BBC Hampshire & Isle of Wight on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram. Two seriously injured as bus 'careers into river' Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary
