Staff Blog

The image most of us have of a college student—the quintessential 18-22-year-old living the idyllic college life—needs updating. According to new data from Advance Vermont, today’s Vermont students are juggling work, family and other life responsibilities like no generation before them. Twenty-five percent are parents. Over a third experience food or housing insecurity. Over half commute and 28% attend online. This requires a reckoning on the part of college and career training systems whose ethos and services are primarily designed to meet the needs of those 18-22-year-old full-time students.

If you are driving north on Interstate 89 and you get off at Exit 4 and turn left towards downtown Randolph, you’ll see this stunning image. (photo by Zac Freeman) The image of Whale Dance is particularly remarkable at the beginning or end of day, when the shadows are long and the colors roll through the valley and pool at the base of Braintree Mountain.

On Thursday, December 5th fundholders and friends of the Community Foundation gathered in Putney to discuss faith, spirituality, and philanthropy. Fundholders tell us that their beliefs and values are powerful motivators to why they give and the particular causes they support. That isn’t surprising; studies show that people who say faith or spirituality are important to them volunteer more, give more, and give more often, to both religious and secular causes. How do your beliefs and values inform your giving?

Last year, the Curtis Fund piloted a new program for students seeking certificates or credentials in “promising careers” identified by the J. Warren & Lois McClure Foundation and the Vermont Department of Labor as highly beneficial to job applicants and to potential employers. Vermonters of all ages, life experiences, personal skills, and educational histories now have another promising path to success.