When you’re undocumented, fear colors every interaction. Fear that people will find out. Fear that people will use your status against you. Fear of law enforcement. Fear that you’ll do something to get your parents deported. Fear that you’ll be deported and separated from your family.

Paola Santana knows these fears firsthand. As a strategy officer for Lumina Foundation, Santana works to close persistent, unfair education gaps for students of color and all who want to learn and lead better lives. Santana and other Lumina staff members are sharing their personal journeys around race in America as part of Lumina's commitment to equity and justice. 

Going to college can change the course of someone’s life. And yet the American higher-education system waylays a lot of students. It is deeply stratified. And for many people, it remains out of reach entirely.

Educators, policy makers, and funders have all started talking more about social mobility, but are they pulling the right levers? In this interview, a campus leader, a public official, a researcher, and a college counselor discuss structural inequalities, expectations of students and their motivation to enroll in college, and the kind of support they actually need.