Illustration: Nien-Ken Alec Lu

A growing share of high school students say they feel unprepared for college, academically and emotionally, and are choosing not to enroll right away.

The findings come from a new report by EAB, which surveys more than 20,000 high school students each year on their college-going plans. This year's results show a significant shift, suggesting that the long-term effects of the pandemic are stunting college enrollment.

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program has helped undocumented young people build careers and families in the United States. But as DACA enters its 11th anniversary, the policy is under immediate threat in the courts.

Over the past 11 years, Reyna Montoya, part of the initial group of DACA recipients, has graduated college and now supports her community as a teacher. Montoya shares how DACA has created opportunities for her—and explains why Congress can and must do more.

As a sophomore at Bowdoin College in Maine, Solomon Aborbie had only a faint understanding of what he wanted to do with his life—or even what his options were. His mother and father, immigrants from Ghana, had worked in grocery stores and factories, so those were the jobs he knew the most about.

The turning point for Aborbie came during Bowdoin’s Sophomore Bootcamp, a mandatory job-training program that gives students skills, career options, and peace of mind.