Older Students

Coppin State University should enroll higher-caliber freshmen, focus more on transfer and returning students, and reorganize its academics and administration, a committee plans to report Wednesday to the University System of Maryland Board of Regents. The recommendations, from a panel convened in December to study Coppin State, are meant to turn around the stressed institution, one of Maryland's four historically black colleges and universities. The school has one of the lowest six-year graduation rates for first-time, full-time students in the country at 15 percent as of fiscal year 2012 and is underenrolled by more than 2,000 students, the committee said.

Anne Arundel Community College officials say that for some prospective students, particularly adults who have spent years away from a formal classroom setting, the stresses of school begin well before enrollment. The school will hold an open house next month called "College 101" to help ease anxieties for adults looking to begin long-delayed goals to attend college or those who are returning to the classroom. The program will be offered at the school's Arundel Mills campus in Hanover on Aug. 3 and at its main campus in Arnold on Aug. 6. "The program was initiated because many adults have been away from school for many years," said Frances Turcott, director of AACC's Off-Site and Weekend College.

It's never too late to learn.At least that's what three Carroll women who have gone back to college believe."I took a year leave without pay before I retired, to decide whatI was going to do when I grew up," said Joan F. Taylor, 57, a religious studies major who's on the dean's list at Western Maryland College in Westminster."

Maryland's in-state undergraduates will pay a few hundred dollars more per semester this fall under a new tuition-and-fee plan approved Wednesday by the university system's Board of Regents. Out-of-state students will be hit a little harder, paying as much as $1,060 more, for example, at the University of Maryland, College Park. The plan marks the fourth year that tuition for resident undergraduates at most Maryland schools has gone up 3 percent — an increase characterized by university system officials as moderate and lower than many states.

A newly built outdoor classroom at Piney Ridge Elementary School gives students and teachers an opportunity for hands-on learning about wetlands, aquatic life and the environment.The outdoor classroom, the first at a county elementary school, was made possible, in large part, through the efforts of Piney Ridge fifth-graders, who won a $3,000 grant for materials from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, and students from South Carroll High School, who contributed labor to the project.The children and the teen-agers spent about six hours Tuesday building bridges, trails, an observation deck and a classroom on 8 acres of wetlands behind the school.

On Wednesday afternoons, Bryn Mawr School sophomore Lindsay Hamilton can be found in the Roland Park branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library helping Masuma Islam with her homework. Sitting at a small table in the basement, Lindsay goes over Latin, math and other assignments with Masuma, who attends Roland Park Middle School. Lindsay also teaches her organizational skills and memory tricks. "I'm more comfortable asking Lindsay questions," said Masuma, 11, a sixth-grader from the city's Remington neighborhood who has been working with Lindsay since October.

THE GIRLS in the school library are studying ancient Greece. A sign on a wall says, "Reach for the World." The school is the Institute of Notre Dame, 901 N. Aisquith St. To reach for the world, the girls here don't have to reach across the centuries. Sometimes, they just have to sit at a desk and listen for echoes. Two of America's most prominent women came of age in this little school, though some of the girls are just beginning to absorb such a remarkable fact. Nancy D'Alesandro, Class of 1958, grew up here.

After meeting for nearly two hours Friday with parents from Stoneleigh Elementary School, Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz agreed to fund $2 million in architectural designs for upgrades to the 81-year-old school building. Securing the design money is a major goal for the parents, many of whom were concerned by Kamenetz's recent comments that school officials should consider moving students from overcrowded elementary schools to under-enrolled middle schools as an alternative to new construction.

They're men, and they're minorities in the nursing profession. But they're more welcome than a date to the senior prom."Men are stillin the minority," said Addie Eckardt, president of the Maryland Nurses Association. "We are trying to attract men into the profession because there a lot of opportunities. There's also a shortage of nurses."Men have always been a minority -- actually, almost non-existent -- in the practical nursing program at Carroll County Career and Technology Center, too.But this year, there are three men enrolled inthe year-long program, which began with a six-week session earlier this summer.