#benefits of paid education

[unilifeabroadcareersolution]

Benefits of Paid Education in Lithuania

Benefits of paid Education in Lithuania

A small European country, Lithuania is home to nearly 50 higher education institutions. Higher education institutions have many faculties including Engineering, Medical, Humanities, Economics, Management and Many more. University degrees are offered in three cycles. The first cycle is undergraduate ( Bachelor degree )  The second cycle is graduate ( Master and specialized professional studies  ). The Third cycle is Postgraduate ( Doctoral).

There are two types of higher education institutions in Lithuania, colleges and universities. Collegesare focused on practical training for particular professions. Bachelor degrees and professional qualifications are offered at universities. There are 23 universities and 24 colleges in Lithuania. In comparison to other European countries, it is a quite big number. 

Low Tuition Fee

The tuition fee is quite affordable for international students. The tuition fee is refundable if you cannot attend university due to any reason. Tuition fee varies between 2000 EUR to 5000 EUR per year. .As compared to many EU countries, International students pay very low tuition fee for bachelor’s and master’s degree courses.

100% success rate for Visa

What about the chance to get a visa for Lithuania? In recent time, Lithuania has a 100% success rate for visa applications. So, you can apply for a study visa in Lithuanian Embassy in your country due to its high acceptance rate of international students.

High-quality education

 

Lithuanian universities are renowned for providing top-notch education. They consistently rank among the best universities in Europe, and employers highly value their graduates. Many universities in Lithuania offer English-taught programs, making it an excellent choice for non-Lithuanian-speaking international students

High quality of life

What’s great is that the low costs translate to a comfortable standard of living in Lithuania. It’s easy to get around as public transportation is inexpensive and widely available. There are numerous leisure and sports activities, as well as accessible public parks and amenities. The country is famed for its clear lakes and verdant pine forests, but also for developing a wide range of green products. On top of that, you will be able to keep safe and healthy thanks to world-class health infrastructure and expertise.

Travel around Europe while studying in Lithuania

Given its location, studying in Lithuania can be your gateway to the rest of Europe. Lithuania is bordered by Latvia, Belarus, and Poland, and isn’t too far away from Germany and Denmark. You can find flights to major European destinations at the Vilnius and Kaunas airports, or take advantage of the well-connected railway network. This way, you can get pop over to Paris one weekend and Amsterdam the next.

Contact us : 8428440444 , 8428999090 , 8608777070

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[puppyeared]

i wrote this as a joke because I wanted to strangle a guy watching tiktoks without headphones on the bus, but im genuinely disturbed that we've gotten to a point where convenience comes first. and it depresses me even more that its used to justify and monetize greed

[mutopians]

it is insane to me that while educators berate students for using AI, we turn around and have discussions on how we can use AI as teachers as well without ever actually seeing the irony of it all

[mtjester]

I’m tired of my coworkers not finishing the work they promised and leaving the team scrambling to create curriculum last minute I’m tired of doing the brunt of the work for three different courses when my coworkers are only teaching the one course I’m tired of my coworkers using the work I created and the data I compiled on their gradwork that’ll justify an increase in their pay when I get no pay increases for my own work I’m tired of the workload I’m tired of the hypocrisy I’m tired of the lack of compensation I’m tired of the burnout of education

[fischotterkunst]

when the workday is so shitty u get home and immediately down two shots and apply to three new jobs

[batboyblog]

Things Biden and the Democrats did, this week.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau put forward a new regulation to limit bank overdraft fees. The CFPB pointed out that the average overdraft fee is $35 even though majority of overdrafts are under $26 and paid back with-in 3 days. The new regulation will push overdraft fees down to as little as $3 and not more than $14, saving the American public collectively 3.5 billion dollars a year.

The Environmental Protection Agency put forward a regulation to fine oil and gas companies for emitting methane. Methane is the second most abundant greenhouse gas, after CO2 and is responsible for 30% of the rise of global temperatures. This represents the first time the federal government has taxed a greenhouse gas. The EPA believes this rule will help reduce methane emissions by 80%

The Energy Department has awarded $104 million in grants to support clean energy projects at federal buildings, including solar panels at the Pentagon. The federal government is the biggest consumer of energy in the nation. The project is part Biden's goal of reducing the federal government's greenhouse gas emissions by 65% by 2030. The Energy Department estimates it'll save taxpayers $29 million in the first year alone and will have the same impact on emissions as taking over 23,000 gas powered cars off the road.

The Education Department has cancelled 5 billion more dollars of student loan debt. This will effect 74,000 more borrowers, this brings the total number of people who've had their student loan debt forgiven under Biden through different programs to 3.7 Million

U.S. Agency for International Development has launched a program to combat lead exposure in developing countries like South Africa and India. Lead kills 1.6 million people every year, more than malaria and AIDS put together.

Congressional Democrats have reached a deal with their Republican counter parts to revive the expanded the Child Tax Credit. The bill will benefit 16 million children in its first year and is expected to lift 400,000 children out of poverty in its first year. The proposed deal also has a housing provision that could see 200,000 new affordable rental units

[txttletale]

I'm asking this genuinely, as a 19 yo with no education in economics and a pretty surface level understanding of socialism: can you explain the whole Bananas discourse in a way someone like me might understand? In my understanding it's just "This is just a product we can give up to create better worker conditions and that's fine" but apparently that's not the full picture?

alright so some pretty important background to all this is that we're all talking about the fact that bananas, grown in the global south, are available year-round at extremely low prices all around europe and the USA. it's not really about bananas per so--the banana in this discourse is a synechdoche for all the economic benefits of imperialism.

so how are cheap bananas a result of imperialism? first of all i want to tackle a common and v. silly counterargument: 'oh, these ridiculous communists think it's imperialist for produce to be shipped internationally'. nah. believing that this is the communist objection requires believing in a deeply naive view of international traide. this view goes something like 'well, if honduras has lots of bananas, and people in the usa want bananas and are willing to pay for them, surely everyone wins when the usa buys bananas!'.

there are of course two key errors here and they are both packed into 'honduras has lots of bananas'. for a start, although the bananas are grown in honduras, honduras doesn't really 'have' them, because the plantations are mostly owned by chiquita (formerly known as united fruit) dole, del monte, and other multinationals--when they're not, those multinationals will usually purchase the bananas from honduran growers and conduct the export themselves. and wouldn't you know it, it's those intervening middleman steps--export, import, and retail, where the vast majority of money is made off bananas! so in the process of a banana making its way from honduras to a 7/11, usamerican multinationals make money selling the bananas to usamerican importers who make money selling them to usamerican retailers who make money selling them to usamerican customers.

when chiquita sells a banana to be sold in walmart, a magic trick is being performed: a banana is disappearing from honduras, and yet somehow an american company is paying a second american company for it! this is economic imperialism, the usamerican multinational extracting resources from a nation while simultaneously pocketing the value of those resources.

why does the honduran government allow this? if selling bananas is such a bad deal for the nation, why do they continue to export millions of dollars of banans a year? well, obviously, there's the fact that if they didn't, they would face a coup. the united states is more than willing to intervene and cause mass death and war to protect the profits of its multinationals. but the second, more subtle thing keeping honduras bound to this ridiculously unbalanced relationship is the need for dollars. because the US dollar is the global reserve currency, and the de facto currency of international trade, exporting to the USA is a basic necessity for nations like honduras, guatemala, &c. why is the dollar the global reserve currency? because of usamerican military and economic hegemony, of course. imperialism built upon imperialism!

this is unequal exchange, the neoimperialist terms of international trade that make the 'global economy' a tool of siphoning value and resources from the global south to the imperial core. & this is the second flaw to unravel in 'honduras has a lot of bananas' -- honduras only 'has a lot of bananas' because this global economic hegemony has led to vast unsustainable monoculture banana plantations to dominate the agriculture of honduras. it's long-attested how monoculture growth is unsustainable because it destroys soil and leads to easily-wiped-out-by-infection plants.

so, bananas in the USA are cheap because:

the workers that grow them are barely paid, mistreated, prevented from unionizing, and sometimes murdered

the nations in which the bananas are grown accept brutally unfair trade and tariff terms with the USA because they desperately need a supply of US dollars and so have little position to negotiate

shipping is also much cheaper than it should be because sailors are chronically underpaid and often not paid at all or forced to pay to work (!)

bananas are cheap, in conclusion, because they're produced by underpaid and brutalized workers and then imported on extortionate and unfair terms.

so what, should we all give up bananas? no, and it's a sign of total lack of understanding of socialism as a global movement that all the pearl-clutching usamericans have latched onto the scary communists telling them to stop buying bananas. communism does not care about you as a consumer. individual consumptive choices are not a meaningful arena of political action. the socialist position is not "if there was a socialist reovlution in the usa, we would all stop eating bananas like good little boys", but rather, "if there's a socialist revolution in the countries where bananas are grown, then the availability of bananas in the usa is going to drop, and if you want to be an anti-imperialist in the imperial core you have to accept that".

(this is where the second argument i see about this, 'oh what are you catholic you want me to eat dirt like a monk?' reveals itself as a silly fucking solipsistic misunderstanding)

and again, let's note that the case of the banana can very easily be generalised out to coffee, chocolate, sugar, etc, and that it's not about individual consumptive habits, but about global economic systems. if you are donkey fucking kong and you eat 100 bananas a day i don't care and neither does anyone else. it's about trying to illustrate just one tiny mundane way in which economic imperialism makes the lives of people in the global north more convenient and simpler and so of course there is enormous pushback from people who attach moral value to this and therefore feel like the mean commies are personally calling them evil for eating a nutella or whatever which is frankly pretty tiring. Sad!

tldr: it is not imperialism when produce go on boat but it is imperialism when produce grown for dirt cheap by underpaid workers in a country with a devalued currency is then bought and exported and sold by usamerican companies creating huge amounts of economic value of which the nation in which the banana was grown, let alone the people who actually fucking grew it, don't see a cent -- and this is the engine behind the cheap, available-every-day-all-year-everywhere presence of bananas in the usa (and other places!)

[floraleevee]

Damn.

Job countered my counter-offer even lower than I thought they would. They called back IMMEDIATELY after I accepted to say “teehee actually we have to pay you $1k less because our counter was above the max pay for the position sowwy. Do you still wanna work with us pwease?”

[unilifeabroadcareersolution]

Benefits of Studying in Bulgaria| Paid Education

Unile abroad career solutions

Benefits of Studying in Bulgaria | Paid Education

Affordable tuition fees

 Bulgarian universities offer relatively low tuition fees compared to many other European countries, making higher education more accessible and affordable for international students.

High-quality education

 Bulgarian universities maintain high academic standards and provide quality education recognized worldwide. Many universities have modern facilities, well-equipped laboratories, and experienced faculty members.

Diverse range of programs

Bulgarian universities offer a wide variety of study programs in various fields, including engineering, medicine, humanities, social sciences, business, and more. Students have the opportunity to choose programs that align with their interests and career goals.

Multicultural environment

 Bulgaria is a diverse country with a rich cultural heritage and history. Studying in Bulgaria allows international students to immerse themselves in a multicultural environment, interact with students from different backgrounds, and experience diverse perspectives.

Scholarship opportunities

Bulgarian universities offer various scholarships and financial aid options for international students, including government scholarships, university-specific scholarships, and grants based on academic merit or financial need.

English-taught programs

Many universities in Bulgaria offer study programs taught in English, particularly at the postgraduate level. This multilingual environment provides international students with the opportunity to improve their language skills and study in a language they are comfortable with.

Safe and welcoming environment

 Bulgaria is known for its hospitality and friendly atmosphere. International students often find it easy to adjust to life in Bulgaria, thanks to the warm and welcoming nature of the local population.

Gateway to Europe

Located at the crossroads of Europe, Bulgaria serves as a gateway to exploring other European countries. Students have easy access to neighboring countries and can travel and explore different cultures and destinations during their studies.

Unilife abroad career solutions

Contact us : 8428440444 , 8608777070 , 8428999090

Mail ID : anagha@unilifeabroad.com , diya@unilifeabroad.com

[directactionforhope]

"Starting this month [June 2024], thousands of young people will begin doing climate-related work around the West as part of a new service-based federal jobs program, the American Climate Corps, or ACC. The jobs they do will vary, from wildland firefighters and “lawn busters” to urban farm fellows and traditional ecological knowledge stewards. Some will work on food security or energy conservation in cities, while others will tackle invasive species and stream restoration on public land. 

The Climate Corps was modeled on Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps, with the goal of eventually creating tens of thousands of jobs while simultaneously addressing the impacts of climate change. 

Applications were released on Earth Day, and Maggie Thomas, President Joe Biden’s special assistant on climate, told High Country News that the program’s website has already had hundreds of thousands of views. Since its launch, nearly 250 jobs across the West have been posted, accounting for more than half of all the listed ACC positions. 

“Obviously, the West is facing tremendous impacts of climate change,” Thomas said. “It’s changing faster than many other parts of the country. If you look at wildfire, if you look at extreme heat, there are so many impacts. I think that there’s a huge role for the American Climate Corps to be tackling those crises.”  

Most of the current positions are staffed through state or nonprofit entities, such as the Montana Conservation Corps or Great Basin Institute, many of which work in partnership with federal agencies that manage public lands across the West. In New Mexico, for example, members of Conservation Legacy’s Ecological Monitoring Crew will help the Bureau of Land Management collect soil and vegetation data. In Oregon, young people will join the U.S. Department of Agriculture, working in firefighting, fuel reduction and timber management in national forests. 

New jobs are being added regularly. Deadlines for summer positions have largely passed, but new postings for hundreds more positions are due later this year or on a rolling basis, such as the Working Lands Program, which is focused on “climate-smart agriculture.”  ...

On the ACC website, applicants can sort jobs by state, work environment and focus area, such as “Indigenous knowledge reclamation” or “food waste reduction.” Job descriptions include an hourly pay equivalent — some corps jobs pay weekly or term-based stipends instead of an hourly wage — and benefits. The site is fairly user-friendly, in part owing to suggestions made by the young people who participated in the ACC listening sessions earlier this year...

The sessions helped determine other priorities as well, Thomas said, including creating good-paying jobs that could lead to long-term careers, as well as alignment with the president’s Justice40 initiative, which mandates that at least 40% of federal climate funds must go to marginalized communities that are disproportionately impacted by climate change and pollution. 

High Country News found that 30% of jobs listed across the West have explicit justice and equity language, from affordable housing in low-income communities to Indigenous knowledge and cultural reclamation for Native youth...

While the administration aims for all positions to pay at least $15 an hour, the lowest-paid position in the West is currently listed at $11 an hour. Benefits also vary widely, though most include an education benefit, and, in some cases, health care, child care and housing. 

All corps members will have access to pre-apprenticeship curriculum through the North America’s Building Trades Union. Matthew Mayers, director of the Green Workers Alliance, called this an important step for young people who want to pursue union jobs in renewable energy. Some members will also be eligible for the federal pathways program, which was recently expanded to increase opportunities for permanent positions in the federal government...

 “To think that there will be young people in every community across the country working on climate solutions and really being equipped with the tools they need to succeed in the workforce of the future,” Thomas said, “to me, that is going to be an incredible thing to see.”"

-via High Country News, June 6, 2024

--

Note: You can browse Climate Corps job postings here, on the Climate Corps website. There are currently 314 jobs posted at time of writing!

Also, it says the goal is to pay at least $15 an hour for all jobs (not 100% meeting that goal rn), but lots of postings pay higher than that, including some over $20/hour!!

[aux-squiggle]

BRITISH COMMUNIST PARTY SAYS SEX WORK ISN'T WORK

To be more specific, they say the mantra "sex work is work" should be retracted by trade unionists and society at large.

Some highlights:

Women and girls should be able to secure well-paid jobs, good housing and education without the need to prostitute themselves. Prostitution is not a genuine and free choice; it is a survival behaviour, mostly engaged in by working class women and girls who suffer economic disadvantage.

Prostitution is inherently violent and requires in and of itself the subjugation of women and girls – there is no form of work where this could ever be acceptable.

Health and safety regulation is impossible in the sex trade: in any occupation that involves exposure to bodily fluids workers wear masks, gloves, gowns, and goggles to protect themselves. Prostitutes can never benefit from these levels of protection because of the nature of prostitution.

Extreme levels of violence, rape, degradation, and humiliation cannot be regulated against as they are part and parcel of prostitution. Such levels of harm against workers in work would never be tolerated. Women in prostitution experience more physical and sexual violence that women on average. A study by Germany’s federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth reports that 41% of women in prostitution experience physical or sexual violence, or both, in the context of prostitution.

The sexual sadism that prostitutes are exposed to causes the type of physical internal injuries and psychological trauma that should never be accepted in the world of work.

The murder rate is particularly high in the sex trade. Prostitutes are almost nine times more likely to be killed than soldiers in combat. Legalisation of the sex trade does not protect the lives of prostitutes. Since Germany’s legalisation of the sex trade in 2022, there have been 85 homicides of prostituted persons committed by clients. In addition, there have been at least 49 attempted homicides.

Pregnancy and even multiple pregnancies are risks arising out of prostitution which have adverse implications for the woman herself, for children born out of prostitution, and for society itself. This should never be accepted as an overhead of “employment”.

The high levels of substance use necessary to enable prostitutes to cope with the abusive practices of the men who buy sex should never be tolerated in the world of work.

Alternating bolding for readability.

Highly suggest reading the whole thing!

[star-anise]

are we talking about broke therapists yet?

I've been out of things for a couple of years now, which is why I'm willing to talk about it, and maybe the pandemic has helped things a little, but holy shit the counselling and psychotherapy field is not equipped to help its practitioners in the gig economy.

Of all my interests and talents, I pursued a degree in psychology because being a therapist is supposed to be a safe, stable, well-paid job. Every therapist I met who was registered before 2008 worked and lived under that assumption. And oh boy are all the fee structures--registration, supervision, continuing education, conferences--set up for that scenario.

After getting my Master's, I struggled like hell to get a job. It was especially bad because to get my license, I needed a supervisor to take me on. To take me on, most supervisors wanted me to already have a caseload and client base. To get a caseload and client base, I needed a job.

Friends: Every single job I heard back on wanted me to have my license before I could even land an interview.

Professors and career advisors and professional development specialists all advised me very earnestly to just keep cold-calling people on the supervision list, and it began to feel a lot like my parents' friends telling me to hit the bricks and hand out resumes. That's what worked for them, right?

I finally got a supervisor who agreed to take me on, and I'd be able to use her clinic for advertising and workspace, and we were doing the paperwork to send in with my registration, when she called me up and said, "Is this job going to be your only source of income? If you're trying to depend on getting clients and building your practice for your basic needs, this is not going to work out. This has to be something you're doing on top of a basic salary. Okay, so you're not working anywhere else right now? I'm sorry, I can't move forward with this."

Even once I landed a supervisor and a job building my own private practice, I struggled. I have ADHD and am not great at self-promotion, so trying to do all my own advertising, scheduling, bookkeeping, billing, and records management (on top of counselling) was an enormous strain. One my bosses, supervisors, and other senior professionals watched with a slightly critical eye, but consoled me about because in their early days, their clinics had had business managers, receptionists, filing clerks, and accountants, and getting used to doing everything online yourself was a bit of a learning curve, wasn't it?

I counted my pennies very carefully, because I had to pay my supervisor roughly $180 for their services every 6 hours of in-person counselling I did. This meant that to break even I had to charge my clients an average of about $30 (plus room rental and service fees) an hour--and my clients, being people with complex trauma, were frequently poor, disabled, unemployed, and had no health benefits, so even $10 or $20 a session was a lot for them.

Maybe it would have been easier if I could have taken some of those nice comfortable organization positions where they find clients and funding for you and you work 40 hours a week and get benefits and a pension, but I had to be disabled into the bargain, so working 40 hours a week just isn't possible for me. I start passing out from stress and exhaustion. Older colleagues gave me serious-faced advice about approaching my employer and asking them for some flexibility and accommodation in my schedule, and I tried to explain across the gap between us that employers simply did not hire me if I made the slightest noise about the workload. They weren't going to invest in me as a person; they were hiring 40 units of work a week, and if I wouldn't do it there were a dozen applicants after me who would.

At one point I broke down enough to email my licensing body because the Annual General Meeting/Professional Development Conference was coming up, and I wanted to attend, but I could not produce $500 to do it with. Was there some kind of way I could attend anyway? I felt ashamed to have to ask, and then absolutely mortified when the response came from the organization president, who needed to personally sign off on me being too poor to attend the single most important event in my profession's calendar year.

I honestly felt so ashamed all the time at how I was apparently failing to be a successful therapist, failing to be rich and successful, and every time I mentioned it around mentors and bosses, I could feel myself shrinking from a person to a problem to be solved. My closest therapist-friends and I have reflected on how much more difficult, poorly-paid and underworked, our various career starts have been than we were ever warned about. About the classmates and coworkers who couldn't get disability exceptions when they fell behind in their registration requirements, or burned out and left the field, or dropped their registrations and took up as life coaches, or moved their whole family somewhere exceptionally remote or rural because it was the only good job available, or worked for some godforsaken app skirting the bounds of malpractice like BetterHelp.

I like those conversations, because I feel less like an absolute fuck-up in them. There's less "Hey Lis, you were so talented in grad school, I really admired you, what are you doing now?" "Oh, I, uh... am professionally disabled, so I get government benefits, and I... sell embroidery patterns on Etsy now."

My own therapist kept asking if and when I felt like going back to being a counsellor, and I finally told him: I don't, actually. I don't want to go back and do it like I was doing it before. It was a profession I loved to the depths of my soul, and it profoundly did not love me back. I can't even imagine what would have to change, in me or it, to make it have a space in it that could fit me.

All of which I was way too scared to admit to at the time, because the more I let people know I was struggling, the more they hinted that maybe I just wasn't in a place in my life where this was a job I could do, and I needed to take a little break and wait to come back until money and disability just weren't issues for me anymore.

Eventually my cups of doubt and exhaustion did overflow, and I quit. I'm here now, living a much different life. And at the very least, all my years of helping people in bad life situations set me up perfectly for my own. I already knew what form to fill out for financial assistance, which student clinics to access for mental health support, and which government agency would, if pressed, cough out pharmacy coverage for the genuinely destitute. It gave me that much.

I hope this is just me being in extraordinary circumstances, sitting at the intersections of a few different shitty life situations that most people skip right past. Because it's on one level comforting, but another deeply infuriating, if I'm not, and I've just missed it or we've just all been too afraid to admit it to each other.

[bumblebeeappletree]

In the northeastern part of India, the greater adjutant stork has been considered an ill omen for generations, and the endangered bird has paid the price. Its breeding population here fell to just 115 birds by the 1990s.

But when biologist Purnima Devi Barman witnessed villagers chop down a tree crowned with the storks’ nests — and chicks — she launched a grassroots effort to do something about it. Today, 10,000 women across the region have banded together to protect nests, raise fledglings, and run educational programs for children and adults explaining the benefits the storks bring to their communities. They even produce textiles that celebrate the giant bird — and bring critical income and empowerment to the local women who are safeguarding its future.

These efforts have been a resounding success for greater adjutant stork conservation. A recent survey found 1,830 of the distinctive birds in Assam, and the species’ status on the IUCN Red List has been changed from “endangered” to “near threatened” — a testament to what can be achieved with community conservation.

[sarkos]

Student debt also largely didn’t exist in America before the Reagan Revolution. It was created by Republicans here in the 1980s — intentionally — and if we can overcome Republican opposition, we can intentionally end it here and join the rest of the world in once again benefiting from an educated populace. Forty years on from the Reagan Revolution, student debt has crippled three generations of young Americans: over 44 million people carry the burden, totaling a $2+ trillion drag on our economy that benefits nobody except the banks earning interest on the debt and the politicians they pay off. But that doesn’t begin to describe the damage student debt has done to America since Reagan, in his first year as governor of California, ended free tuition at the University of California and cut state aid to that college system by 20 percent across-the-board. After having destroyed low income Californians’ ability to get a college education in the 1970s, Reagan then took his anti-education program national as president in 1981. When asked why he’d taken a meat-axe to higher education and was pricing college out of the reach of most Americans, he said, much like Ted Cruz might today, that college students were “too liberal” and America “should not subsidize intellectual curiosity.” It was the 1980s version of today’s “war on woke”: Reagan hated college students. On May 1, 1970, Governor Reagan announced that students protesting the Vietnam war across America were “brats,” “freaks” and “cowardly fascists,” adding, as The New York Times noted at the time: “If it takes a bloodbath, let’s get it over with. No more appeasement!” Four days later four were dead at Kent State, having been murdered by National Guard riflemen using live ammunition against anti-war protesters. Before Reagan became president, states paid 65 percent of the costs of colleges, and federal aid covered another 15 or so percent, leaving students to cover the remaining 20 percent with their tuition payments. It’s why when I attended college in the late 1960s — before Reagan — I could pay my tuition working a weekend job as a DJ at a local radio station and washing dishes at Bob’s Big Boy restaurant on Trowbridge Road in East Lansing.

The real reason Republicans oppose efforts to cancel student debt - Raw Story

[kiame-sama]

Humans Are Extinct (Yandere!TWST x fem!Reader) Monster AU pt 18

(Epel and other flowering Earth/Plant Nymphs have a symbiotic relationship with the bees of Twisted Wonderland. Where the flowers don't create seeds for the Nymph, they can still be benefited by the introduction of pollen from other flowers the bees visit, as it helps their immune systems to fight off plant related pests and infections. The immune system of a Earth/Plant Nymph is not the same as the blooded creatures of Twisted Wonderland because most Nymphs of all kind have no true blood.

Fun fact: Trees are rather carnivorous and will crack open bones with their roots if close enough for the marrow. They can consume meat very quickly. This is true for the Tree Nymphs of Twisted Wonderland.)

Warnings; multiple yanderes, platonic and romantic yanderes, mostly fluff focused chapter with a strong dash of angst and toped off with a bit of dodgy humor from Floyd, food focused chapter (fried food, fruit, meat, sweets), Floyd has no chill, Hellcat, Dragon, Vampire Bat, Shinigami, Nemean Lion, Gnoll, Harpies, Selkie, Shadow-man, Minotaur, Sphinx, Raiju, Cervitaur, Unicorn, Kelpie, Water Nymph, Cecaelia, Mermen, mention of Drider

~~~~~~~~

Despite the stress earlier on in your already delicate balancing act of life, the rest of the week passed quietly. Even getting your stitches removed went without a hitch and you were somewhat able to return to your daily life. Though you had been cleared to walk on your leg for more than a day, Malleus had been insistent on keeping you off of it until he was certain.

In the early morning you awoke before the rest of your ever present nestmates. Malleus had reluctantly agreed to let you walk around a bit the night before and you were eager to get back to moving around on your own. Despite how kind Silver was to be carrying you around, your classes were not his own and he had an education to attend to. Not to mention the fact you refused to allow Malleus to join you for classes.

You slowly slid out of the nest, taking care to not wake the Dragon that had curled himself around you as you all slept. During your gentle extraction from the nest, you managed to scoop up the still sleeping Grim without waking him. His little paws stretched out somewhat as you cuddled him close. You grabbed comfortable clothes and easily snuck away from the Hoard and the Dragon that guarded it.

It was nice to have some time to yourself, even in those small moments. It had become a little more than suffocating to live the way these monsters did.

The faint sound of a videogame could be heard as you quietly padded down the steps and past the main lobby where Ortho and Idia played a co-op platformer. They were so immersed they didn't even glance in your direction as you walked by.

It was early enough that you could still justify sneaking around a bit, wanting to get to making the things you knew you missed. Grim was still in a deep sleep as you quietly grabbed a blanket from one of the couches and wrapped him up in it before setting him on the table in the kitchen gently. He curled up much like a regular cat with his wings tucked in at his sides, snoring softly.

It began with acquainting yourself with the new deep-fryer that Idia had constructed for you, noticing it was mostly a hands-off kind of tool unlike the ones from your world. Once you got it heating to get the thick oil to the right temperature, you set to gathering up the ingredients you would need. Your cupboards had been restocked with a wider variety of spices and food-items thanks to Sam and paid for by the elder Shinigami Papa Hades.

You were going to start the day with breakfast and then move on to the other meals. Thankfully, you didn't have classes that day and intended to ask several of the various monsters you had met to come to your dorm. The reason you were inviting them was simple as you intended to put them to work helping and tasting the foods. Due to your own experience in the kitchen and what you were lacking from home, you already had plenty of foods in mind that you needed to make for your own comfort. Beyond just the fryer, there was the standing mixer that you planned to use to make a donut dough and glaze for the donuts.

The first task you set to was shredding the potatoes and forming them into patties to be fried. While you worked on shredding, another pair of hands joined your work. Clearly the three Shinigami of the Dorm did not need much sleep, nor did they sleep often as Papa Hades silently began to aid you in your cooking endeavors.

It was nice to work with someone who knew what they were doing, his only moments of unguarded curiosity being when you began frying up the shredded potato patties. You figured he was curious as he had not touched the new fryer despite the fact that Idia had been the one to make it. The other possibility was that he didn't wish to use it before you did and without knowing the primary purpose of it. He also seemed curious as you chose a particular cut of pork-belly, cutting the meat so that it had clear stripes of marbling before tossing it into a pan to begin cooking.

Various savory scents began to permeate the air as you flipped the patties to fry on the other side, an ever familiar sound of yapping and scratching drew your attention. Ruggie's familiar sandy-brown hide made you smile as you opened the door to greet the hungry Gnoll. He wasn't the only one waiting. Standing with Ruggie was a mostly asleep Leona who looked like he was regretting getting up.

"Morning you two. I expected Ruggie, but good to see you too, Leona."

"I'm only here because Ruggie never shuts up about the food here and you still owe me that meal your promised."

"Well, then be prepared to be here all day, seeing as Crowley said everyone should have no classes today. I'm making a full feast for every meal today and something tells me there's going to be more than a few visitors. Come in, but please try to be quiet because Grim is still sleeping."

Ruggie muffled his own excited yapping even as his tail wagged at max speed at the idea of a day of feasting. Even Leona seemed pleased by your words, taking deep breaths of the food you already had cooking as they entered the kitchen. Papa Hades only spared the two a single glance as he returned to his task, already having made more than enough for double the amount of visitors you technically had to feed.

Leona surprised you by walking over to the table, sitting down in one of the chairs closest to Grim and settled down for a nap. He seemed to pause with his head resting on his arms before he reached out and pulled Grim over to him, careful not to wake the kit. Once he got his arms situated around the sleeping Hellcat, he was quick to join the slumber.

You were bold enough to snap a quick picture of the Nemean Lion cuddling the Hellcat to send to Falena, having gotten the number of the Sunset Savana King. Surely it was rare to see Leona deign to be protective of any young especially after his fumble with Cheka, and you figured the Lion King would appreciate the domestically comfortable photo of the less than domestic Leona. Even Ruggie seemed amused by your quick photo as he chuckled softly and the Lion's ears twitched in response to the sound.

You were taking the potato hot-cakes out to cool when your phone buzzed impatiently in your pocket. It was Crowley saying he and the other staff members were on their way over to discuss the idea of you starting a Magicam account of your own. Apparently he already told Vil and the Harpy would be arriving around midday with Rook to discuss how to proceed. Though you hadn't expected the decision to be so quick, you had figured Vil and Rook would be involved as they were the ones who seemed more knowledgeable on the various platforms. Luckily, there was going to be plentiful food for these interlopers as you had made extra as well, given your excitement to use the new cooking tools you had been gifted.

A sudden thumping noise paired with the sound of quick steps told you the rest of the Hoard woke up and had taken your absence in the nest as a sign of danger. Malleus was first to enter the kitchen, his emerald green eyes glowing in the early light of the morning. That glow seemed to dim somewhat as his sight landed on you and he began to relax as he took in your uninjured and relaxed appearance. The Dragon was followed by his two retainers and teacher who all seemed to calm upon seeing you cooking away.

"Good morning, Malleus. Be sure to keep your voice down, Grim and Leona are asleep."

He glanced at where the Lion and Hellcat slept, then back to you with a nod.

"I am glad to see you are uninjured, (Y/n). It was... concerning... to wake without you and your cub tucked away safely in the nest. I trust you aren't straining your leg?"

"My leg is fine, Malleus. I've been itching to move around and try out some of these new gadgets in the kitchen. I will say now, however, I intend to be making meals and treats all day, so you may want to pace yourself if you choose to partake. I do hope you'll like what I'm going to be making."

Lilia was quick to join the conversation, bouncing over to you with a pleased smile as he wrapped his wings around you. The Bat nuzzled your neck and hummed with a kind of content joy that made you wonder why he was being so cuddly that morning. Curious if he was seeking more blood or not.

"Though I do detest early mornings, it is always a pleasure to see you, (Y/n)."

"Flattery gets you nowhere, Vanrouge."

"It isn't flattery if it's the truth. Good to see you walking again, though. You seemed so ready to burst with boredom!"

"You try sitting around for a week and see how bored you get."

Lilia just chuckled and let you return to your tasks, sitting at the table as you finished up cooking with Papa Hades. While you transferred the plentiful food to their proper serving dishes, Idia and Ortho entered the room with the five staff members you recognized in tow. Ortho was quick to set the table with Idia's aid, Sam jumping in to help out as well as he got a good look at the delicious smelling feast. From fresh fruits to the pancakes stacked high, even Crewel, Trein, and Vargas seemed rather enthused at the prospect of a good meal.

You grabbed one piece of bacon and walked over to Leona and Grim, holding the warm cooked meat close to the nose of Hellcat who woke with a loud snort. Leona was also quick to rise at the smell of food and eyed the meat in your hands with a more than interested look. He didn't argue as you picked up the blanket and kit from his arms, missing the almost smug look the Lion gave to the seething Dragon behind you.

Grim was quick to eat the nicely crisped piece of bacon and purred excitedly from the quickly melting fat of the meat. Seeing Grim get to have the first bite of that feast sent Ruggie into a loud cackling protest, wanting to take as much as he possibly could. Clearly the others were of a similar mind as everyone took their seats, Malleus once again making a clear show of sitting next to your place at the table and keeping others from taking the chair-high-chair hybrid.

You were eager to see what the others thought of the hash-brown patties and thankfully got first pick for most of the food at the table before the others got to it. Papa Hades took his seat at the head of the table, Crowley sitting across from you and excitedly serving himself a decent share of the food. Grim was eagerly using his tiny paws to stuff food into his face, his little tail waving as he bit into the warm hash-brown and immediately purred loudly. The others had a similar reaction to the fried food, all seeming to savor the crisp golden outside and warm inside.

"So crispy, so fluffy..! Is this what you wanted to make so badly with that oil fryer you had me create?"

"One of the things. I'll be making several foods today with that fryer and even some sweets. Trust me when I say, you haven't lived until you've had some of these foods. Of course, everything in moderation, I won't lie and say they are fantastic for your health if you have too many or too much all at once. You will be wanting the recipes and your own fryer for Ignihyde though. Plus, I plan to use that electric churn you made to make ice-cream at some point, something tells me that one will be popular too."

It was while you were talking with Idia that Leona began to understand just how much good food he had been missing out on. Ruggie had tried many times to get the lazy Lion to come with him in his morning and evening trips to Ramshackle and Leona had sent him away with a bored response. Now he could see just why the loud Hyena man religiously made daily excursions to your dorm and he couldn't believe how foolish he had been to not accompany the Gnoll earlier.

Sam seemed to savor every bite of the food and you were happy to return the favor of a meal to the Shadow-man. He had fed you during your cycle and had been your rock during such an emotionally charged week. Now you could share in the labors of good food and that meant so many foods were suddenly back on your menu.

~•§•~

Lunch was starting to roll around and Trey had already arrived at your behest. He brought Riddle, Ace, Deuce, and even Cater along to help out. Cater was quick to start on dishes and avoided directly talking to anyone other than Trey and Riddle. You knew that eventually you would have to confront Cater and get all of this resolved, seeing as the Nymph was quite different from when you first met him as a result of his own actions and realization of the harm those actions have caused.

Trey was not only excited to try out the sweets you were intending to make, but was also excited to make food with you again. The standing mixer did most of the hard work for you and Trey was eager to ask Idia about it. Naturally, the timid Shinigami tried giving short answers at first but quickly became excited to explain the intricacies of the machines he made using your ideas and recollection of their functions.

Even as Ace and Deuce worked on cutting out the ringed pastries, you were interested in making more than just sweets. You had time in-between making icings for the donuts and actually frying the dough to just take a moment for yourself. After breakfast, Divus talked in depth with you about what he and the other staff had agreed upon in terms of making and managing these photo accounts for you.

He told you of the one photo that had circulated most of Twisted Wonderland and the negative impact it had as a whole due to the fact you looked so uncomfortable and unhappy in the photo. Apparently several activist groups had gotten ahold of the photo and decided to use it to fuel the fires of removing you from Night Raven College. Your idea to have your own photos was unorthodox, but it couldn't do more damage than the first had especially considering the fact you already had a target on your back.

To some extent, you wondered about deciding that Cater should be in charge of the account, seeing as Cater had previously been very interested in Magicam and other such social media platforms. According to Trey, Cater hadn't touched the app after you were attacked and had since withdrawn from others, most of whom likely blamed him for your injuries. Looking at the crimes committed against you, Riddle was technically more dangerous to you than Cater had been, but Cater caused a cascading event that left you in constant danger.

"Hey, Trey?"

"Yes, (Y/n)?"

"Why won't Cater talk to me?"

The Kelpie flinched at this and looked away with a sigh before turning to fully face you, seeming somewhat stressed by your question. It was a fair question, but Trey didn't know how to best approach the topic with you. Cater was Trey's close friend and the two had been near inseparable for the years they spent in school together.

"He... Cater blames himself for your injury. Others blame Cater for your injury. Sage Island has become a hot-spot for poachers, species enthusiasts, and- ahem- 'Humanfuckers' due to that photo Cater took."

"... Humanfuckers?"

"Various species that have idolized and sexualized Humans as a whole. It wasn't so prevalent or considered all that harmful when Humans were extinct, but now there is a confirmed Human living here..."

"The Humanfuckers came out in droves."

"Yes. Many have made what they call 'pilgrimage' out here to try and find you. Many have contacted Cater for more... revealing... photos of you. Some even try to threaten Cater to make him do what they want. He's deleted the Magicam app from his phone, but some are desperate enough to dox him for more photos of you."

You felt more than a little repulsed by the idea of these monsters trying to take sexually charged photos of you and hearing the mistreatment Cater recieved made you feel a twinge of guilt. Sure, Cater played a dumb game and won a dumb prize, but that didn't mean he deserved to have every aspect of his life uprooted. It certainly didn't mean you deserved the same, but your life had already been uprooted the moment you fell into this world. Cater wasn't a monster, but he was being treated like one.

"Okay."

Turning on your heel, you abruptly ended the conversation with Trey as you made your way to the Water Nymph that seemed more than a little forlorn. He visibly flinched when you reached out your hand and touched him, seeming to want to be left to his own dark thoughts. You persisted.

"Cater?"

"..."

"Cater, turn to face me."

The Nymph turned to face you, his green eyes refusing to meet your own. His face was very different from what you remembered when you first met him. Where he once seemed to never stop smiling, all that remained of that previously cheerful look was a sullen expression and sunken eyes. Now he faced you, you could see the apparent change that had overcome the Water Nymph.

What could be considered bruises littered his translucent skin and made it more than obvious to you that someone had been beating on him. His once vibrant hair seemed dull in color as he avoided looking you in the eyes and slightly shook as if afraid of what you would say to him. He had thinned compared to how he had been prior, now seeming to be almost a shell of his former self. His eyes were dark and almost looked bruised, a distant look on his face as he refused to meet your gaze.

"Cater, please look at me."

His eyes flicked up once to your face before darting to the side again, unable to hold eye contact with you.

"I'm sorry," Cater's voice was a soft whimper instead of the loud and boystrous tone it once held, his eyes welling up with tears, "I'm so sorry, (Y/n). I didn't know... I didn't think... It's becuase of me that...! I'm sorry. I'm sorry... I'm so sorry-!"

There was a kind of genuine pain in you upon seeing the once outgoing and social Nymph reduced to a poor-excuse caricature of a social outcast. Your hands moved before you really had time to reflect on what Cater was actually saying, pulling the distressed man closer to you. He flinched and almost writhed as if burned by your touch, but you held fast to the struggling man.

It took several moments for him to stop trying to pull away and several more seconds for him to return the gesture. As your arms wrapped around the shaking body of the Nymph, you felt the tears rolling from his eyes against your shoulder. Shuddering sobs were pulled from the raw throat of a wounded man. His skin was an unusual texture compared to your own, almost like a jello or some kind of gel bead beneath your touch.

"I'm sorry..."

"I know. Cater, you need to stop blaming yourself now. What has happened cannot be undone, and what happens in the future is out of your control."

He pulled away at this, shaking his head and trying to wipe away his tears as if he were angry with himself for crying on your shoulder. You could see the rough way he almost scratched at his own skin in an attempt to keep his emotions down and contained.

"But it's all my fault! I thought a few stupid likes from people I don't even know were worth bothering you. Now, because of me, you've been attacked, you're not safe to spend any time alone, all of your injuries are my fault-"

"Cater."

He flinched again, but stopped his rapid-fire speaking, still refusing to lift his gaze. You gently grabbed his hand with your own, lifting it up until his palm rest against your non-dominant arm. The skin was still discolored and marked from the deep wound that had cleaved through it and he visibly shuddered at the feeling of your scar.

"You didn't cause this injury. Riddle did this. Mr. Rule-Enforcer-I-Know-What's-Best-For-You himself. You didn't do this. You didn't hire the Wolves that attacked me, we already sussed that idiot out and I'm told he is now facing trial for his actions and possible execution in the Queendom of Roses. Cater, you made a bad decision and it hurt someone other than you, but driving yourself into the ground and taking on all of the blame is genuinely unfair."

"But the others are right, I'm a wretched-"

"I don't give a singular fuck what the others say. They aren't me. They do not speak for me. I speak for me. And I am saying- no, I am begging you to stop hating yourself for what you didn't realize. If we hate ourselves and punish ourselves forevermore, we do not grow past it. We can never become a better person when bogged down by the mistakes of our past. Mistakes that cannot be changed or undone. You need to decide to get better, to move on knowing you are not the same person who made those mistakes."

"But, I-"

"They were and are a part of you and your past, but you aren't that same Nymph. You aren't who you were yesterday. We grow and learn and come to realize what we did in the past was the mistake of someone who didn't know any better. Now you know better. Healing takes time and effort to be better, I envy those who can move past their mistakes in mere hours, but most can't. I don't hate you. I'm not happy I can no longer be left alone, but I don't hate you. Cater, if you didn't do it, others would have. I assume others already have. I don't doubt that other, less introspective students, have taken photos of me for a bit of extra cash and clout even after the one you took."

"Please..."

"I don't hate you, Cater Diamond. I don't want you to hate yourself so deeply. Forgive yourself for what you didn't know and what you didn't realize before the hate you feel for yourself consumes you. You're not a bad person. A little misguided, and a little lost, but not bad. You have a good heart, sometimes you forget to listen to it."

The second hug was less of a fight than the first, Cater melting into the affectionate gesture quickly. He finally started to take deep breaths and with that deep breath came a relaxation of his tensed limbs. Stress and the heavy burden of his actions rolled from him slowly, but so long as they continued to fall away any progress forward was enough for you.

"Sorry doesn't fix everything. Your actions going forward show if you have changed or not. Now, if you really want to help me, then help me by forgiving yourself. I want you here. Trey wants you here. Even Riddle wants you here. You deserve forgiveness as much as anyone else. So come with me, help me make this meal, and try to forgive yourself the mistakes you made before you knew better."

"Okay... Okay. I can... I can try."

~•§•~

You finished up the fried chicken with Cater as you waited for the dough to finish proofing, letting it rise in the warm peudo-oven also made by Idia. Once the dough proofed enough, you would start frying the donuts but had to wait until then. A polite knock came at that side door and you were happy to see the familiar polite simper of the tall Eel-man Jade. Behind him stood his compatriots Azul and Floyd who happily joined Jade as you invited them in.

"Come in, come in! I hope you three brought empty stomachs, because I have a few new foods for you all to try!"

"Oya, your kindness knows no bounds, (Y/n). Thank you for inviting us over despite my recent failure."

"You didn't fail me, Jade. We didn't know what was waiting for us. Besides, I figured I may as well extend the invite since so many others are already here."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, I mean the dorm leaders of Ignihyde, Pomefiore, Heartslabyul, Diasomnia, and Savanaclaw are already here. I asked Silver to invite the Housewarden of Scarabia, but he hasn't gotten back to me yet about them."

"My, that is quite the arrangement. We were happy to accept the invitation."

"Good to hear."

You easily moved among the several students that were all mingling around the large table, Idia hiding by Ortho and Papa Hades. Many cast nervous glances at the large Shinigami but even the ancient man didn't seem too put off by the hesitant behavior of the others. You set out the large plate of fried chicken, grabbing a leg for Grim and feeding the little cat.

Azul could feel the way his mouth watered at the absolutely delectable scent from the chicken in front of him. Truthfully, had had chicken in the past and was somewhat fond of it, but it never smelled this good before. He was curious as to the taste of the food but nearly wept upon his first bite.

Warm breading paired with the crisp skin of the meat as it danced on his tongue an played a symphony with his senses almost made him audibly moan out. Food could actually taste like this? The things he could do with something that tasted this good, even beyond the Octolounge and just for his own stomach, had Azul's mind racing with the best contract he could ever write.

"You're looking kinda love struck or even turned-on, Azul. Like Jade whenever he talks about little Shrimpy! Got something in mind?"

"We need to ensure Octavinelle is next to guard her. Whatever it takes."

"So you are horny-"