By Tom Spoth, The Sun, Lowell, Mass. May 19--LOWELL -- College students in the Mill City have increasingly been leaving the ivory tower to get their hands dirty in the real world.

By Tom Spoth, The Sun, Lowell, Mass. Dec. 12--LOWELL -- Middlesex Community College has received a $1.9 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor to develop a new associate's-degree program for electrical line workers.

By Robert A. Frahm, The Hartford Courant, Conn. Nov. 21--Thanks to students such as 18-year-old Gabriela Chacon, enrollment this fall continued a nearly decade-long climb at Connecticut's two-year colleges, officials reported Monday.

By Matt Murphy, The Sun, Lowell, Mass. Nov. 1--LOWELL -- A new student-exchange project that hopes to brings two gifted students from Cambodia to study in Lowell promises to strengthen ties between the city and country whose connection is unmistakable, organizers said.

By Hillary Chabot, The Sun, Lowell, Mass. Aug. 6--LOWELL -- Kienan McCusker, 11, carefully measured the width of a drop of blood on a paper bag. He hoped to figure out the distance and location of a previous attack by inspecting the size and patterns of the blood spatter. The drop measured 1 inch.