College Students

Counting the days until summer vacation starts, students at Brea-Olinda High School who are hoping a job will fall into their laps may be in for a bit of a jolt. Normally, the Orange County school's job board is stocked with 25 to 30 notices from prospective employers this time of year. This spring, however, there are only half as many job offers on the board. "We haven't been getting a lot of calls from business people," said Jim McWilliam, the school's career guidance specialist.

WASHINGTON - Setting the stage for another showdown with the Obama administration, Republicans in the House on Friday narrowly passed legislation to prevent a rate hike on student loans - to be paid for with funds from the nation's new healthcare law. Democrats objected to raiding a public health and disease prevention fund to pay for keeping loan interest rates low, calling it an attack on women and children who benefit from the health programs....

Four college students were killed Saturday when their car collided with an oncoming vehicle on a two-lane Napa Valley highway, the California Highway Patrol said. The victims, who were pronounced dead at the scene, were identified as Boaz Pak, 20, Luke Nishikawa, 22, Simon Son, 19, and Chong Shin, 20. All attended Pacific Union College, a four-year liberal arts school in Angwin, a small town in the hills above Napa Valley. The four were in a Honda Civic that was struck by a Toyota pickup truck.

While her classmates agonize over which college to attend, high school senior Samantha Morgan is passing up offers from Cal State campuses in Long Beach and San Jose. She is heading out of California to avoid overcrowded classes and other state budget problems. And she can afford it thanks to a little-known program that offers discounts at public colleges and universities to students from 15 states, most of them in the West. Morgan is taking advantage of the Western Undergraduate Exchange to enroll at Northern Arizona University this fall.

Byron Herman rolled out of his dorm bed, yanked on snow pants and a beanie and stumbled across the parking lot to his 8 a.m. math class. By late morning, the 19-year-old Tehachapi student was on his snowboard, cutting crescent shapes into a mountain slope glistening under ice-blue skies. What was unusual about this scenario last month was that Herman attends not a select academy or elite university, but Cerro Coso Community College, a public two-year institution with a campus in Mammoth Lakes.

It's mid-June. School's out. Now what? For college students, the answer is almost anything. Bolstered by a resurgent economy, the number of summer jobs and internships available to area college students is approaching pre-recession highs, job analysts said. And many positions are still unfilled. Creative college students can finagle summer jobs, especially unpaid ones, in almost any field through perseverance and networking.

Five scholarships--each worth $2,000--were awarded by a drawing at West Virginia University. All students in good standing--those not on academic probation--in the college's 2,700-member freshman class were eligible for the drawing, held in a ballroom on the university's Morgantown campus. The only hitch was winners had to be present when their ticket stubs were drawn from a big drum Saturday night. One student missed out because he was a no-show.

Nicholas George planned to brush up on his Arabic vocabulary during a flight in August from Philadelphia to California, where he was to start his senior year at Pomona College. So he carried some Arabic-English flashcards in his pocket to study on the plane. But those flashcards changed George's life far beyond the classroom. The 22-year-old from Pennsylvania is speaking out against what he contends are abuses by federal authorities in airport security measures. George, a physics major who is considering a career as a U.S. diplomat in the Middle East, is suing the Transportation Security Administration, the FBI and Philadelphia police for jailing him after his flashcards were found and confiscated in a Philadelphia airport screening.

They weren't looking to make a political statement or to be pioneers of gender liberation. Each just wanted a familiar, decent roommate rather than a stranger after their original roommates left to study abroad. That's how Pitzer College sophomores Kayla Eland, female, and Lindon Pronto, male, began sharing a room this semester on Holden Hall's second floor. They are not a couple and neither is gay. They are just compatible roommates in a new, sometimes controversial, dormitory option known as gender-neutral housing that is gaining support at some colleges in California and across the nation.

First Lady Barbara Bush offered a strong defense of private lives, including her own, saying Wednesday that she sympathizes with Wellesley College students who raised questions about her speaking at their graduation, but she thinks they don't understand "where I am coming from." "That's all right," Mrs. Bush said. "I chose to live the life I've lived, and I think it has been a fabulously exciting, interesting, involved life. I hope some of them will choose the same. . . .

TEMPE, Ariz. -- A former president of the University of Arizona pleaded with Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney on Friday to support some version of the Dream Act to give "a glimmer of hope" to college students who are not in the United States legally. "They're bright, they can help carry this country forward," Manuel Pacheco told Romney during a roundtable discussion with Latino business leaders in Tempe. "I think it would be a shame to lose that particular talent that they bring.

TEMPE, Ariz. - A former president of the University of Arizona pleaded with Mitt Romney on Friday to support some version of the Dream Act to give "a glimmer of hope" to college students who are not in the United States legally. "They're bright. They can help carry this country forward," Manuel Pacheco told the Republican presidential candidate during a round-table discussion with Latino business leaders in Tempe. "I think it would be a shame to lose that particular talent that they bring.

About 100 students protesting a plan to offer high-priced courses at Santa Monica College this summer tried to storm into a meeting of the college's Board of Trustees on Tuesday evening. A handful of protesters suffered minor injuries as campus police tried to prevent dozens of chanting students from disrupting the meeting during a public comment period. Several were overcome when pepper spray was released just outside the meeting room as officers tried to break up the crowd. Two people were taken to a hospital.

El CAJON, Calif. —This day's English lessons for Iraqi immigrants at Cuyamaca College involved learning how to talk about bad news. From their text, "Day by Day: English for Employment Communication," the 25 students repeated dialogue wrapped around common occurrences: "I lost my wallet" and "My husband got fired from his job. " But the students had a horrific piece of real news on their minds: the March 24 death of an Iraqi immigrant who...

Nixon Presidential Library & Museum, 18001 Yorba Linda Blvd., Yorba Linda; (714) 983-9120, http://www.nixonlibrary.gov . Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sundays. Admission is $11.95 for adults, $8.50 for seniors ages 62 and older and military personnel. $6.95 for college students and $4.75 for children ages 7-11. Children 6 and younger admitted free. Pat Nixon centennial exhibit on display through Sept. 3.

The investigation into a controversial police killing of a college student last weekend took a dramatic twist Wednesday when Pasadena authorities arrested a 911 caller, alleging his fabrication led to the shooting. An officer shot 19-year-old Kendrec McDade on a narrow street in the city's Northwest district about 11 p.m. Saturday. Police were dispatched to the scene after a man, identified as Oscar Carrillo, called 911. He said two armed men had stolen his laptop computer and backpack as he was buying tacos at a stand on Orange Grove Boulevard.

In the cafeteria of Los Angeles Southwest College, Sandra Narro, a 16-year-old South Gate High School student, is taking a junk-food break between classes with her friends, also high school students. A little too giggly, they don't quite blend in with the older college students around them. But that does not seem to bother anyone. In fact, Southwest College students appeared to welcome the presence of the high school youngsters on their campus--and for good reason.

If you're facing years of student loan payments but aren't making much money because you're working in public service, the federal government has some good news for you. A law that takes effect Tuesday could allow you to have some of your college debt forgiven.

The pair of college friends can't suppress a conspiratorial giggle when they talk about the passion that's consuming them. "It's an amazing feeling," says Nawal, as her close friend and fellow schemer, Lina, listens closely in a cafe here in the Syrian capital. "It's like you've broken all the injustice and fear. " Some college students gate-crash parties. These two young women ditch classes and roam the streets of Damascus and its suburbs, searching for protests calling for the ouster of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The decision by California State University to slam the doors on new applicants next year will have a devastating impact on tens of thousands of hopeful students if it comes to pass. No one would be accepted for the spring semester except a handful of transfers at a few campuses, and all newly admitted students for the following fall - usually about 90,000 in all - would be warned that their spots were not secure. University officials say the only way this won't happen is if tax increases are passed to slow the mounting cuts at the state's most affordable and accessible four-year colleges.