For many college students, today marked a deadline of a different sort.

It was the last day that young people brought here illegally as children could renew the two-year permits that allow them to work in the United States, after President Trump announced last month that he was winding down the program. The Department of Homeland Security says more than 100,000 of the roughly 700,000 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients applied ahead of today’s deadline.

Mr. Trump says he wants Congress to bring him legislation codifying protections for DACA recipients. Members of both parties have expressed willingness to work on the issue, but enough hurdles remain that it is an open question of whether that will be ready before DACA protections begin expiring in March.

We had a team of multimedia reporters in Connecticut this week for an upcoming project, interviewing DACA students about the limbo they find themselves in and what they plan to do next.

Many of them, such as Michel Valencia, who was brought to the US from Mexico when she was 1, do not remember any country other than the US.

Ms. Valencia, a first-year psychology major at Eastern Connecticut State University, worries she won’t be able to get a job, if she is even able to graduate in 2021: “What if I worked so hard to get this degree and then I can’t work legally, can’t do what I love?” 

Now to our five stories for today, highlighting freedom, progress, and artistry at work.