Student Union
- By Julie Taboh
Indian Student Excels in America's High-Tech Field
FAIRFAX , VIRGINIA — Dolica Gopisetty raises her hand multiple times during a statistics class at George Mason University in Virginia, where she's pursuing a bachelor's degree in information technology.
Gopisetty gives a correct answer each time, which is typical of the 21-year-old college senior, who has excelled since arriving in the United States at the age of seven.
"I love technology. I love taking things apart and putting them back together and seeing how things work," she said. "I think that's one of the reasons why I've always been passionate about engineering."
Cloud is the future
That passion led her to become the first — and youngest — student to be certified in George Mason's newly launched bachelor degree program in cloud computing, which, together with Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA), has partnered with Amazon Web Services (AWS).
The program is designed to help students pursue careers in cloud architecture, cybersecurity, software development and DevOps, a system of software development and delivery.
The certificate helped Gopisetty get a paid internship at USA Today, a national newspaper where she works part-time as a software development engineer with the content engineering team.
"I think that's what really got me the recognition that I did, and I'm really thankful for that because the certification has definitely changed my career's trajectory," she said.
Gopisetty is also involved with opportunities beyond the classroom.
She is founder and president of the campus Association of Engineers, which aims "to provide students a bridge between learning and career."
"Google was here a couple of weeks ago to share their career options, talk about the kinds of jobs they're hiring for, and where they are hiring," Gopisetty explained. "They also shared with us their interview process, and what they look for in a candidate."
And earlier this year she represented George Mason at the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Public Sector Summit in Washington, where — as the only woman on the panel — she spoke about the impact of cloud computing in education.
She was also a keynote speaker — the only college student among eight presenters — at Imagine: A Better World, A Global Education Conference, hosted by AWS in Seattle, Washington.
She was the youngest panelist at both events.
"It was surreal," she said about the experience. "And I think that was a moment where I felt that all the hard work that I did in college, in high school, in my entire life, paid off."
GMU model
GMU Interim President Anne Holton says Gopisetty is a great example of a Mason success story.
"The diversity that she brings in perspective and in experience and background is the kind of diversity that employers are really looking for, because it helps them do their work well," she said.
"Dolica was one of [a] hundred students that I had in class, but she's the one who stood out in those hundred students," said Kamaljeet Sanghera, Associate Professor in Information Sciences and Technology Program at GMU. "So she is doing fantastic with the knowledge that she's learning and going beyond what we are providing her."
Aging out of visas
Gopisetty says she is grateful for the opportunities she's been given, but like many international students, feels unsettled about her visa status.
She came to the U.S. with her parents in 2005 as a dependent, on an H-4 Visa. Fourteen years later, when she turned 21 this year, she had to leave the U.S., return to her country of origin — India — and come back to America on an F-1 student visa.
"In order for me to legally stay in this country and continue my education, I had to have something that said that I'm legally allowed to stay, and the only thing was a student visa for me," she said.
The main downside of her visa situation, she added, "Is not having stability, security, and as a student right now, having to pay out-of-state tuition."
Gopisetty is among more than one million international students in the U.S., with 20 percent coming from India.
Becoming a legal American
Gopisetty says she's grateful for her friends and mentors at George Mason and that she longs to become an American.
"Having stayed in this country for the past 14 years, I just want to be able to call this country my home, legally," she said. "I want to say 'Hey, I'm a green card holder,' or Hey, I'm a citizen of this country,' and always say no matter where I go in the world, that I'm coming back to my home."
See all News Updates of the Day
- By VOA News
Florida program helps migrant students tutor younger children
The 40-year-old initiative pairs migrant students in high school with elementary school children. High schools earn college scholarship money for their work. (April 2024)
Former students at for-profit Art Institutes are approved for $6 billion in loan cancellation
The Biden administration Wednesday said it will cancel $6 billion in student loans for people who attended the Art Institutes, a system of for-profit colleges that closed the last of its campuses in 2023 amid accusations of fraud.
Saying the chain lured students with “pervasive” lies, the Education Department is invoking its power to cancel student loans for borrowers who were misled by their colleges.
“This institution falsified data, knowingly misled students, and cheated borrowers into taking on mountains of debt without leading to promising career prospects at the end of their studies,” President Joe Biden said in a statement.
The Education Department will automatically erase loans for 317,000 people who attended any Art Institute campus between Jan. 1, 2004, and Oct. 16, 2017.
The department says it's taking action after reviewing evidence from the attorneys general of Massachusetts, Iowa and Pennsylvania, which previously investigated complaints of fraud and sued the for-profit chain.
According to the department's findings, the chain misled students about the success of graduates and about employment partnerships that would help students find jobs.
The chain told prospective students that more than 80% of graduates found jobs in their fields of study, but that was largely based on doctored data, the Education Department said. The true employment rate was below 57%.
Campuses also advertised graduate salaries that were based on fabricated data and included extreme outliers to make averages look better, the department said.
One campus included the annual salary of tennis star Serena Williams to skew the average salary, investigators found. Williams studied fashion at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
The chain's tactics led borrowers to borrow high amounts of debt for programs that didn't pay off, the department said.
“The Art Institutes preyed on the hopes of students attempting to better their lives through education,” said Richard Cordray, chief operating officer of the Education Department's Federal Student Aid office. “We cannot replace the time stolen from these students, but we can lift the burden of their debt."
On Wednesday, the Education Department will start emailing borrowers who will get their loans canceled. They won't need to take any action, and payments already made on the loans will be refunded.
At its height, the chain had dozens of campuses across the country, including in New York, Chicago, Miami and Los Angeles. It was operated for decades by Education Management Corp., which collapsed in 2018 after years of legal trouble.
The company reached a $95.5 million settlement with the Justice Department in 2015 over allegations of illegal recruiting tactics. Soon after, it began closing campuses and later sold the remainder to another company.
The final eight campuses were shuttered last year.
The Biden administration has continued to cancel student loans through several existing programs even as it pursues a wider plan for one-time cancellation. That plan is a follow-up to one that the Supreme Court rejected last year.
In total, the Democratic administration says it has approved the cancellation of almost $160 billion in student loans, including through programs for public workers and those defrauded by their schools.
Amid pro-Palestinian protests, Jewish students sue Columbia University for failing to protect them
Tensions on U.S. campuses enter a new phase as a Jewish student files a proposed class action lawsuit alleging students were displaced from Columbia University because its administration could not guarantee their safety. VOA's Natasha Mozgovaya has the story.
- By VOA News
Police arrest pro-Palestinian protesters after takeover of Columbia University building
Clashes erupted early Wednesday at a pro-Palestinian protest camp at the University of California, Los Angeles, with counter-demonstrators repeatedly throwing objects and trying to dismantle barricades at the camp. On the opposite side of the country police in New York City cleared a pro-Palestinian protest site at Columbia University where demonstrators had occupied a campus building.
Officials at UCLA declared the protest, which is seeking to have the university divest from Israel, to be unlawful and in violation of university policy. The protesters and counter-protesters were initially apart from each other late Tuesday, but the situation turned more violent in the early morning hours as the counter-protesters shot fireworks, advanced on the camp barricade and repeatedly launched objects at the protesters.
There were small clashes between the two sides in front of the barricade, and while police deployed to the area at the request of university leaders, officers did not immediately separate the two sides.
In New York, police equipped with helmets and riot shields arrested dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters at Columbia University and others at The City College of New York about 20 blocks away.
A Columbia spokesman said in a statement the university’s administration decided to call in police in order to “restore safety and order to our community.”
“We regret that protesters have chosen to escalate the situation through their actions,” the spokesman said. “After the University learned overnight that Hamilton Hall had been occupied, vandalized and blockaded, we were left with no choice.”
A Columbia University faculty group criticized the administration’s decision to turn to police, saying faculty members had tried for two weeks to intervene and defuse the situation only to be rebuffed by university leaders.
"NYPD presence in our neighborhood endangers our entire community. Armed police entering our campus places students and everyone else on campus at risk,” said a statement from the Columbia University Chapter of the American Association of University Professors.
The faculty further said it would hold the university’s leaders “responsible for the disastrous lapses of judgment that have gotten us to this point."
Protesting Israel's war in Gaza and demanding university divestment from the country along with amnesty for demonstrators, students entered Hamilton Hall early Tuesday, hours after the university began suspending students for refusing to take down tents at a nearby protest site.
Hamilton Hall has been central to protests at the university since the 1960s.
White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters Tuesday that President Joe Biden believes students occupying an academic building is “absolutely the wrong approach,” and “not an example of peaceful protest.”
Democratic Congressman Jamaal Bowman, who represents a New York district near Columbia University, called on the school to stop what he called a “dangerous escalation.”
"Educational institutions should be spaces to nurture critical thinking skills and learn to work together with diverse communities to enact a more just and peaceful world,” Bowman said in a statement. “The militarization of college campuses, extensive police presence, and arrest of hundreds of students are in direct opposition to the role of education as a cornerstone of our democracy."
The Columbia student radio station WCKR reported that all student journalists were escorted away from Hamilton Hall, and that later they were threatened with arrest if they left the Pulitzer Hall building that houses the university’s journalism school. Still, the student journalists continued to broadcast and report on what was happening.
Due to a significant number of online listeners, WCKR experienced intermittent outages and had to lower its sound quality in order to accommodate increased demand.
Shortly after police carried out arrests at Columbia, officers also arrested pro-Palestinian protesters at The City College of New York, located about 20 blocks north of Columbia.
Building takeover
Facing calls to resign over how she has handled the protests, Shafik released a statement Monday condemning calls for violence and reiterating the university's commitment to "academic freedom and to ensuring that all members of our community have the right to speak their minds."
Insisting Columbia will not divest from Israel, Shafik said the school has instead "offered to develop an expedited timeline for review of new proposals from the students by the ... body that considers divestment matters."
After smashing through glass door panels and chaining them shut, students draped a banner reading "Hind's Hall" from an upper floor. Protesters have identified Hind as "a 6-year-old Palestinian child murdered in Gaza by the Israeli occupation forces funded by Columbia University."
Israel denies targeting civilians in its war against Hamas, alleging that militants are using civilians as human shields. More than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's assault on Gaza, many of whom are women and children, according to Gaza's health ministry.
Israel launched its offensive in response to an Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel that killed about 1,200 people and saw some 250 taken hostage.
Three hours after students commandeered Hamilton Hall, Columbia University issued a notice that the campus would be closed to all except for residential students and essential employees.
Nationwide demonstrations
Students have been protesting Israel's war in Gaza on campuses throughout the country. Dozens of students were pepper-sprayed and arrested by police on Monday at the University of Texas at Austin, while students at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, in Arcata, California, were detained early Tuesday.
Protesters and administrators at Brown University in Rhode Island reached an agreement Tuesday for demonstrators to close their encampment in exchange for a commitment by the university to vote in October on whether to divest from Israel-linked funds.
U.N. human rights chief Volker Türk expressed concern over the force being used against protesters throughout the United States, saying, "Freedom of expression and the right to peaceful assembly are fundamental to society."
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called it "essential in all circumstances to guarantee the freedom of expression and the freedom of peaceful demonstration."
"Hate speech is unacceptable," he said, adding that it is up to the university authorities to manage the unrest.
Chris Hannas and Liam Scott contributed to this report. Some information in this report came from Reuters, The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.
Florida Democrats hope abortion, marijuana issues draw young voters
Jordan Vassallo is lukewarm about casting her first presidential ballot for President Joe Biden in November. But when the 18-year-old senior at Jupiter High School in Florida thinks about the things she cares about, she says her vote for the Democratic incumbent is an “obvious choice.”
Vassallo will be voting for a constitutional ballot amendment that would prevent the state of Florida from prohibiting abortion before a fetus can survive on its own — essentially the standard that existed nationally before the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the constitutional protections to abortion and left the matter for states to decide.
Passage of the amendment would wipe away Florida's six-week abortion law, which Vassallo says makes no sense.
“Most people don't know they are pregnant at six weeks,” she said.
Biden, despite her reticence, will get her vote as well.
In Florida and across the United States, voters in Vassallo's age group could prove pivotal in the 2024 election, from the presidency to ballot amendments and down-ballot races that will determine who controls Congress. She is likely to be among more than 8 million new voters eligible to vote this November since the 2022 elections, according to Tufts University Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement.
While some of those voters share Vassallo's priorities of gun violence prevention and abortion rights, recent protests on college campuses about the war between Israel and Hamas, including at some Florida campuses, have thrown a new element of uncertainty into the mix. In Florida and elsewhere, observers across the political spectrum are looking on with intense interest.
Florida Democrats hope young voters will be driven to the polls by ballot amendments legalizing marijuana and enshrining abortion rights. They hope the more tolerant views of young voters on those issues will reverse an active voter registration edge of nearly 900,000 for Republicans in Florida, which has turned from the ultimate swing state in 2000 to reliably Republican in recent years.
According to AP VoteCast, an expansive survey of the electorate, about 8 in 10 Florida voters under age 45 in the 2022 midterm elections said the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade had an impact on their decision to vote and who to support. The youngest voters, under age 30, appeared more likely than others to say the decision was the single most important factor in their votes, with about 3 in 10 saying that, compared with about 2 in 10 older voters.
Nathan Mitchell, president of Florida Atlantic University’s College Republicans, questions how impactful abortion will be in the election.
According to AP VoteCast, relatively few Florida voters in the 2022 midterms believed abortion should be either completely banned or fully permitted in all cases. Even among Republicans, just 12% said abortion should be illegal in all cases. About half of Republicans said it should be banned in most cases.
Voters under 45 were slightly more likely than others to say abortion should always be legal, with 30% taking that position.
Mitchell said while abortion is a strong issue, especially for women, he doesn't think it will drive many younger voters to the polls.
“I think other amendments will probably do that, especially the recreational marijuana amendment,” Mitchell said. “I think that’s going to bring out a lot more voters than abortion will.”
The AP VoteCast survey lends some credence to his thinking. About 6 in 10 Florida voters in the 2022 elections favored legalizing the recreational use of marijuana nationwide, the survey found. Among voters under 45, that was 76%. Still, it’s unclear how important that issue is for younger voters compared with other issues.
The big question is whether other issues can override Biden's enthusiasm problem among young Florida voters and elsewhere.
Six in 10 adults under 30 nationally said in a December AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll that they would be dissatisfied with Biden as the Democratic Party nominee in 2024. About 2 in 10 said in a March poll that “excited” would describe their emotions if Biden were reelected.
Young voters were crucial to the broad and racially diverse coalition that helped elect Biden in 2020. About 6 in 10 voters under 30 backed Biden nationally, according to AP VoteCas. A Pew Research Center survey showed that those under age 30 made up 38% of new or irregular voters in that election.
In Florida, Biden won 64% of young voters — similar to his national numbers.
New issues that concern young voters have emerged this year. Biden's handling of the Israel-Hamas war has sparked protests at college campuses across the country, and Biden's inability to deliver broad-based student loan forgiveness affects many young voters directly. Concern about climate change also continues to grow. AP-NORC data from February shows that majorities of Americans under 30 disapprove of how Biden is handling a range of issues, including the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians, immigration, the economy, climate change and abortion policy.
But in Florida, it will be abortion rights and marijuana that give voters actual control over issues beyond a presidential rematch most did not want but got anyway, said Trevian Briskey, a 21-year-old FAU student.
Tony Figueroa, president of Miami Young Republicans, said the abortion issue is important to many young voters, regardless of where they stand. He noted, however, that Florida “is a very conservative state.” That means some of the young voters motivated by the issue favor stricter abortion laws.
“Given how Florida has become so much more red over the past couple of years, really it’s more of a way to galvanize or mobilize young voters where this is an important issue for them,” Figueroa said. “It’s really a way to get them to come out in droves.”
Matheus Xavier, 21, who studies biology at Florida Atlantic University, said he considered voting for Trump at some point, but changed his mind since Biden fell more in line with the things he cares about, including the preservation of abortion rights.
“At the end of the day, you got to go with what you support," he said. "I guess Biden kind of shows more of that. If there was another option that was actually good, I’d probably go for that.”
