Tagged: kalamazoo

Pregnant women in Michigan can now use a simple blood test to identify the father of their unborn child.

Three labs across the state now offer the noninvasive prenatal paternity test. The Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo and Lansing sites are part of the ArcPoint Franchise Group.

With only a blood sample from the mother and a cheek swab from the potential father, paternity can be determined as early as five weeks after conception.

At that time, the pregnant woman's blood starts carrying fragments of the fetus' DNA.

The labs send the mother's blood samples and potential father's cheek swab to a different lab in Columbia, Md., where technicians compare genetic markers to determine paternity.

Graduate from public high school in Kalamazoo and go to college for free.

It’s a rare offer- one that strives to show students that college is something crucial and attainable.  

In a recent New York Times feature, Ted C. Fishman examined the Kalamazoo Promise and its effect on both the city and the state of Michigan.

Seven years ago, anonymous donors started The Promise, hoping to encourage more Kalamazoo students to attend college.

During his time writing the piece, Fishman was personally impacted by the stories of the students with whom he spoke.