There are 18 million adults in the United States who do not possess a high school diploma. In many states, after age 21 they are no longer eligible to receive one, and must get a GED, which typically offer less promising outcomes.Goodwill saw this gap and launched the Excel Center, an adult, tuition-free adult charter school that also offers services like childcare and life coaching, to ensure the success of their students.They saw what they believed was great success at their flagship, Indianapolis location, but they lacked data to help it grow, so they invited Notre Dame’s Wilson-Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities (LEO) to assess their program.Its study showed graduates from the Excel Center saw a 40 percent increase in earnings in five years. Graduates were also more likely to move into jobs that became careers, and to support their families long-term.Based on this data, states like Arizona have changed their legislation and pledged money to build Excel Centers.Learn more: https://go.nd.edu/ImproveEducationPolicies
More from What Would You Fight For?
- 2:01Fighting For Those With Cystic FibrosisIreland has the highest rates of cystic fibrosis in the world. One in every 19 people carries the gene for the genetic condition that damages the lungs and other organs through repeated infections.Together with partners at Trinity College Dublin, two Notre Dame professors, Al Cerrone ‘09 and Rob Nerenberg, are considering new ways to treat the disease. Because cystic fibrosis patients often take antibiotics, resistance and toxicity are chronic fears. Finding ways to make the antibiotics more effective, even reducing dosage amounts, could prevent side effects.The multidisciplinary team is looking at unusual combination treatments involving antibiotics and ultrasound, which have shown remarkable effectiveness.Learn more: https://go.nd.edu/7d31ab
- 2:01Fighting for Intelligent Solutions that Save Lives
- 2:01Fighting to Grow the Good in BusinessVictoria Nyanjura ’20 MGA survived a harrowing capture by the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda. Her story of sorrow and distress eventually brought her to hope. That hope came from education, and she’s committed to providing it to other women at Saint Bakhita’s Vocational School where she is now the head of school.Saint Bakhita’s opened to serve LRA kidnapping survivors like Victoria, but for many years, the school teetered on the brink of closure. Then Notre Dame Professor Wendy Angst stepped in to help. She and the students in her Innovation and Design Thinking class in the Mendoza College of Business are working alongside the students at Saint Bakhita’s to develop creative ways for the school to become self-sufficient and profitable.Learn more: https://go.nd.edu/FightingtoGrowGoodinBusiness
- 2:01Fighting to End CorruptionWhen undergraduate students decide to study in Notre Dame’s Washington Program, they often hope for exposure to politics and policy, for an internship at the Capitol, for an urban living experience. But for Greg Miller ’22 and his classmates, their time and work in D.C. brought them to the very thick of U.S. State Department decisions against corrupt Maltese officials.Greg took Professor Tom Kellenberg’s class on the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act and learned how to assemble formal dossiers on corrupt government officials. The students were so inspired by the work that they returned to campus and created the Student Policy Network, a club dedicated to public policy projects, like the one they completed under the Magnitsky Act. The club members created a dossier on Isabel dos Santos, the daughter of the former Angolan prime minister, and Africa’s richest woman. She is accused of siphoning public funds to build her personal wealth to $3.5 billion while the average person in her country lives on less than $2 per day. Shortly after the students’ dossier was submitted to the State Department, dos Santos was officially sanctioned by the U.S. government.Learn more: https://go.nd.edu/FightingtoEndCorruption
- 2:01Fighting for Water SustainabilityJ.P LaBrucherie’s family has farmed in southern California for generations, but he’s uncertain about their future there. After years of drought, the 2002 law graduate is struggling to get enough water for his crops, which supply our supermarkets, our favorite restaurants, and our plates.But two Notre Dame professors believe they have an innovative solution for the global issue of water scarcity. Tengfei Luo, an engineer, and Brandon Ashfeld, a chemist, have worked together to create technology that can desalinate seawater or purify unclean water. Importantly, their method is more energy- and cost-effective than existing options. That potential offers hope to folks like J.P., and all of us who rely on clean water to eat, drink, bathe and more.Learn more: https://go.nd.edu/96cb64
- 2:01Fighting for Renewable EnergyIn 2017, Hurricanes Irma and Maria hit Puerto Rico, causing widespread destruction. For six months, Notre Dame student Lucas Barreto's family went without power on an island totally dependent on traditional energy infrastructure.The experience solidified his desire to study engineering and help his home someday become energy stable. This spring, he returned home with a group of undergraduates and the ND Energy team to better understand the complex energy situation in Puerto Rico.Plans for renewable energy are still years away, but the group took early steps by installing solar panels for some of the residents most in need.Learn more: https://go.nd.edu/FightingForRenewableEnergy
