Houseless MCTC students have "No Place to Call Home"
To all of those currently enjoying being of the "Have" & "Have-more", please, at least, think the next time you decide to spit, ridicule, defame, curse and/or otherwise treat with harm "The Houseless", for they might be the next generation of academia, and those who you may depend upon for your existence in the future.
"The Houseless"
Poke your head into any community
college classroom. Can you pick out the homeless students? Peter
Koeleman can.
"I look for people who are late all
the time. I look for people who are not showing up," said Koeleman, a
teacher at Minneapolis Community & Technical College. "I've had
students in my classes who drop out mid-semester and end of semester
because they've become homeless or are about to become homeless and it's
overwhelming."
Koeleman produced a video with his
journalism students to show the determination of homeless students who
want to get an education. The documentary, "No Place to Call Home,"
profiles four students struggling to get a college education while
homeless. It's estimated about 1,400 MCTC students, roughly 10 percent
of the student body, are homeless.
Students are increasingly struggling
to find stable housing, MCTC administrator Mary Ann Prado told MPR's
The Daily Circuit.
"We are a metropolitan college. We
are near two major shelters," she said. "We are right on the bus line
and so we serve a lot of low-income students and housing has always been
an issue."
MCTC has a resource center to help
students, and this fall, Augustana Health Care Center will provide room
and board for up to 10 MCTC nursing students who will "work for their
keep" and gain work experience in the process.
Lest we not forget!
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