Colleen Connolly

Lima, Minneapolis

Freelance Contributor at Freelance

Freelance journalist. Words in @TheImprintNews, @SmithsonianMag, @guardian, etc. Hablo español. Now in 🇵🇪 Past: @chicagotribune, @LatAmDispatch, @GloJo_NYU

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Articles

Arkansas Looks to Get More Workers Into the Dating Pool with Employers

1 week ago | workshift.org | Colleen Connolly

When Mike Rogers, Arkansas’ chief workforce officer, set out to build a new jobs platform for residents of the state, he envisioned “eHarmony meets Indeed.” The goal: Successful pairings of workers and employers. “I wanted to make a love connection, and both parties have to be able to offer something,” Rogers says. What resulted was Arkansas LAUNCH. It functions as a job search website and a career map for those looking to upskill.
Coaching and Cash

2 weeks ago | workshift.org | Colleen Connolly |Paul Fain

Washington State taps state and federal funds to offer longer-term training, coaching, and financial support. Also, a Tech Hubs redo as Republicans advance tax benefits for workers and cuts to Pell Grants, Colorado’s push to align education with the workforce, and an essay on the great career reinvention. (Was this forwarded to you? Subscribe here.)Ann-Jannette Molinari was feeling defeated when she showed up at WorkSource SW Washington.
Washington Jobs Program Finds Success with Career Coaching, Education-and Cash

2 weeks ago | workshift.org | Colleen Connolly

Toward the end of 2020, Ann-Jannette Molinari, now 50, was barely scraping by. The Vancouver, Washington, mother was caring for her teenage daughter and her 80-year-old mother who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. She was working part-time at Costco, making $20 an hour with no opportunity to work overtime—or even a full 40-hour week. In fact, her hours were being cut from 30 to 25.
With Meta University’s Closure, a Sign of Changing Times in Tech

1 month ago | workshift.org | Colleen Connolly

Meta will soon bring in the last cohort of students at Meta University, its diversity-focused training program that had been a model for the industry. The program’s impending closure is part of a larger shift away from diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts among tech giants, and other companies that began amid backlash a couple years ago and has intensified since Donald Trump returned to office in January.
Minnesota legislators introduce Foster Youth Bill of Rights

1 month ago | sahanjournal.com | Colleen Connolly |Alberto Gomez

This story is being co-published with The Imprint, a national nonprofit news outlet covering child welfare and youth justice. Advocates seeking to codify the rights of foster youth in Minnesota are hoping a last-minute push to have the bill considered by lawmakers will result in its passage before the Legislature’s quickly approaching deadlines.
N.C. puts big money on graduating more community college students in high-wage fields

1 month ago | ednc.org | Colleen Connolly

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in Work Shift. Several months ago, leaders at Cape Fear Community College in Wilmington, North Carolina, looked at their data on college completion rates and noticed that students in their career technical education programs were not finishing. Among them were machining, diesel mechanics, mechatronics, and construction—relevant programs in a growing region where companies including GE Hitachi and Corning have a big footprint.
Minnesota Considers Comprehensive Foster Youth Bill of Rights

1 month ago | imprintnews.org | Colleen Connolly

Advocates seeking to codify the rights of foster youth in Minnesota are hoping a last-minute push to have the bill considered by lawmakers will result in its passage before the legislature’s quickly approaching deadlines. Crafted by Minnesota’s Office of the Foster Youth Ombudsperson less than a year after the watchdog agency’s official opening, the Foster Youth Bill of Rights seeks to enshrine more than 150 rights into law — some already existing under current law, others entirely new.
N.C. Puts Big Money on Graduating More Community College Students in High-Wage Fields

1 month ago | workshift.org | Colleen Connolly

Several months ago, leaders at Cape Fear Community College in Wilmington, North Carolin, looked at their data on college completion rates and noticed that students in their career technical education programs were not finishing. Among them were machining, diesel mechanics, mechatronics, and construction—relevant programs in a growing region where companies including GE Hitachi and Corning have a big footprint.
Workforce Training Programs Grapple with Threats to Federal Funding

2 months ago | workshift.org | Colleen Connolly

Up until the last few months, the job training program Jewish Vocational Service (JVS) had been in “expansion mode.” Over the last several years, they’ve grown from their base in San Francisco to sites across California, training workers in healthcare, skilled trades, and tech. But with threats to federal funding for workforce training programs and a crackdown on DEI initiatives, JVS is pausing its growth.
Global perspectives: EMBA students gain business insights through international immersion

2 months ago | newsroom.haas.berkeley.edu | Colleen Connolly |Kim Girard

For Krissy Estrada, a trip to Mexico last June was both a new experience and a homecoming. As a Mexican American, Estrada had traveled to the country many times before, but never to Mexico City and never as a business student. “From a business perspective, when you take yourself out of your comfort zone, you just get a different viewpoint on whatever problem you’re trying to solve, and you just never know what that can unlock,” she said.