Marnette Federis is a former education editor with The World.
Marnette Federis is a former education editor with Global Nation, the previous immigration desk of The World. Based in San Jose, Calif, she writes, edits and produces stories about immigrant communities with a focus on higher education.
Marnette was born in a rural town in the Philippines and moved to Los Angeles at 10 years old. After joining her high school and college student newspapers, she discovered a passion for journalism and never looked back.
She has reported for news publications in Washington, D.C., Northern and Southern California. She also has reporting experience in China and the Philippines.
Marnette holds a master's degree from the UC Berkeley School of Journalism. She loves living in California — where she can go snowboarding in the Sierra Nevadas one weekend and then ride the waves in Santa Cruz the next.
Trump administration rules issued this week have left many international students with lingering questions about whether they would be able to complete their degrees or return to their lives in the US. Universities are scrambling to find ways to keep their students in the country.
The US can learn from free tuition policies implemented in other countries, particularly in Europe. Still, free tuition alone won’t close the inequality gap in higher education.
America faces a shortage of early childhood teachers. One program in Portland, Oregon, is trying to address it while helping immigrants overcome challenges in moving up the workforce.
Immigrants, who comprise the majority of agriculture industry workers in the US, are turning to training and education to make sure they’re not left behind by automation.
Iranian students studying in the US are feeling the effects of escalating tensions between the two countries — from difficulties paying tuition or rent to the inability to focus on their studies
Under the Trump administration, international students are facing new administrative hurdles. There are signs those changes are driving international students away from higher education in the US — students who are a boon for many US college campuses because they usually pay higher tuition rates.
Undocumented immigrant teens are increasingly graduating from high school without legal protections such as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. Despite the uncertainty, these students are turning to their networks and one another to push ahead and pursue higher education.
In Washington State, students' efforts to get their university to provide religious accommodations becomes a civics lesson.
Law students from California and around the US have been making their way to the US-Mexico border offering legal services to migrants seeking asylum.
Higher education institutions in the US are stepping into some of the nation's most pressing immigration policy debates.
In an increasingly uncertain time for DACA recipients, Jin Kyu Park hopes his scholarship win shows other undocumented students that change is possible.