Julie Bowman was predestined to become a teacher, she says. Her maternal grandparents were both teachers, her aunts were teachers, even her mother was a school teacher.

During the final days of Tennessee's legislative session, lawmakers approved a bill that requires anyone applying for public benefits to prove they are in the country legally.

Undercooked or expired food, distribution of used underwear and detainees being kept in segregation for more than 60 days are some of the violations found in Georgia's four immigration detention centers, the ACLU reported Wednesday.

Default rates on student loans have risen in Chattanooga and across the country, reaching their highest levels in at least three years.

From early on, Marlen Rodriguez knew she wanted to go to college, but it wasn't until she was in middle school and joined a summer program at Dalton State College that she actually felt it could become a reality.

As the pressure builds for colleges not only to enroll more students but actually graduate them, more schools are turning to their admission requirements as part of the solution.

A world of possibilities awaits five area high school students awarded one of the nation’s most prestigious and competitive college scholarships.

UTC's Philip Oldham is expected to be named the next president of Tennessee Technological University, pending approval by the Tennessee Board of Regents on Friday.

NASHVILLE — The majority of states that followed Georgia's lead in creating lottery-funded state scholarships now are coming up with policies to deal with increasing demand and declining revenues.

Sonia Shostak has called the United States home for more than three decades, and the 64-year-old has spent more time in her adoptive country than in her native Honduras.

"Copy it down. Copy the whole equation," Debra Weiss tells student Daniel Munson as she stands over his shoulder. "What color socks are you wearing today?" she asks him. Apparently when Munson wears gray socks, he has an easier time with math equations -- at least that's the inside joke between them.

Bad news for Dalton State College students: tuition is going up again. The good news is, they will pay only $35 more per semester if they're in-state residents. Dalton State students also will pay $20 more in student fees, bringing that total to $443 a semester.

The number of Hispanics in Hamilton County in the area is still not too large compared with the total county population, but it’s definitely growing.

Just as student-loan debt has reached a record $1 trillion, need-based student loan interest rates will double to 6.8 percent July 1 if Congress doesn't act.

A Tennessee bill that requires police to arrest people involved in serious car accidents but don’t have a driver’s license and proof of insurance is awaiting the governor’s signature.

Aleksandr Migovich has completed Calculus I, II, III and Differential Equations at Cleveland State Community College -- basically his math requirements for an engineering degree. And he hasn't even finished high school.

Immigrants are experiencing a faster rate of job growth than native-born Americans in the economic recovery, data show.

Creole is the language of Haiti, but big brown eyes speak in ways that anyone can understand. Joshua Mauk was standing and smoking outside a school and orphanage in Port-au-Prince when he first noticed the boy, who kept looking at him, then hiding, looking and hiding.

Twice before, the Southern Baptist Convention has called for the federal government to do something about illegal immigration.

The number of thefts are down at the University of the South at Sewanee, Tenn., but burglaries are up.

Martha Berry, an Alabama native and Georgia resident, made it possible for low-income children to go to school by opening her own school in the early 1900s.

In less than two years, Dalton State College students may have a new building to show off — seven years after it first was proposed. This week, the Georgia Legislature approved a budget for fiscal 2013 that includes $15 million for construction of an academic building with labs at the school.

Ike Plemons' higher education road has taken many turns and traveled through four different schools since he graduated from high school in 1996.

A couple of years ago, La Paz Chattanooga started a women’s group called “Entre Nosotras” — “Among Ourselves” — intended to give local Hispanic women a place where they could talk about anything on their minds.

To better serve an increasingly diverse community, many organizations offer assistance and cultural activities that represent a wide range of countries and cultures.

It didn't take long for a group of four Belgian exchange students to adapt to life in Dalton. Their first outing straight from the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on Feb. 5 was to a local Applebee's restaurant, where football fans closely were following the Super Bowl.

There's always tension with planning and UTC's latest master plan is no exception.

Chattanooga State Community College is expanding its community halfway around the globe to include Taiwan.

SEWANEE, Tenn. -- Tim Keith-Lucas is the type of person who always has a Plan B. He's the type of person whose plan for a black-tie dinner for 600 includes a blueprint of where every table is going to be on the floor and a number system for guests.

Chelsea Catlin stopped by the University Center at UTC one recent evening to grab a snack. She bought a small bag of Jack Links beef jerky and a 20-ounce vitamin water.

Covenant College is acquiring a new president and possibly a West Coast campus at the same time.

At Tennessee Tech University, some students learn about engineering while giving back to the community.

For about 40 years, Beate Ziehres' mother circumvented the Iron Curtain that divided East and West Germany.

Students at Georgia Northwestern Technical College now will be able to go directly to Bryan College to finish a bachelor’s degree in business administration, knowing all of their credits are transferable.

Georgia is working to become the third state to bar illegal immigrants from attending public colleges and universities. A Senate bill deals with verification of legal status for anyone receiving public benefits.

For most of his 71 years, David Dill lived in the Short Tail Springs area, sometimes called “Dilltown.” But he never saw the force of a storm like the one that drove a pine branch through his living room ceiling and half-buried a crowbar in his front yard.

Dozens of volunteers began showing up about 8 a.m. today at Ooltewah High School, the staging point for storm relief efforts in this community.

Human trafficking. It's the $60 billion-a-year industry that, up until a few years ago, was almost unknown and invisible in the region. But activities by nonprofits, government agencies and colleges are raising awareness and inspiring people to fight the sale of forced labor and sexual services on the street or over the Internet.

Thirty-two-year-old Horace Traylor, wearing a blue suit, tie and matching handkerchief and shiny black shoes, arrived at the Registrar's Office of the University of Chattanooga.

The rest of the world is moving at fiber-optic speeds, yet textbooks still seem to be more Gutenberg than 4G. And college students are paying the price. On average nationwide, a student in a four-year college spends about $600 a year on physical textbooks.

Discrimination still exists in Tennessee, it just looks different than it did 30 years ago, a state official says.

Hamilton County ranks third in the state in the number of discrimination claims filed, according to a Tennessee Human Rights Commission official.

Over the last 30 years, women have gone from enrolling in college in greater numbers than men to earning more bachelor's degrees to earning the majority of master's and doctoral degrees.

A local attorney plans to appeal a judge’s decision to deny a motion for a new trial for a Guatemalan couple who lost custody of their children almost four years ago.

A Whitfield County Judge denied a Guatemalan couple a motion to reconsider their parental rights termination.

Dalton State's library has become the temporary home to artwork from high school students across the region.

The use of adjunct professors soared at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in the five years ending in 2009, but since then officials have improved parity by hiring more full-time, tenured faculty.

A top U.S. State Department official, who spent two days in Tennessee discussing the state's refugee resettlement program, said he wants to give communities a "louder voice in the process."

At 69 percent, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga has the lowest freshman retention rate among the University of Tennessee's three campuses.

The first signs that HOPE scholarship changes made last year are hurting some Georgia students and colleges are starting to crop up just as Tennessee considers imposing even tougher academic requirements of its own.