Illustration: Chanelle Nibbelink 

Financial barriers often dictate where Native Americans apply for college and whether they graduate once enrolled.

A national study on college affordability reveals key findings about Indigenous student populations and their economic needs. Among them: 67 percent of these students are expected to contribute to family bills while in college. Moreover, many Native American students come from households with annual incomes of under $20,000.

More than five million children in the United States have experienced the incarceration of a parent. The separation can result in costly educational, emotional, and economic consequences.

In this essay, Ryan Moser—who is serving eight years in prison—explains how it feels to parent his college-age son from behind bars. 

It’s hard to focus on college classes when you don’t have access to food or a place to sleep at night, says Nadine Greene-Hicks, whose job as the community connections coordinator at Central Virginia Community College is to try to dismantle those barriers. 

Virginia’s community colleges are stepping up the help they provide students and simplifying the process for getting aid. It’s a response they hope will combat some of the financial and emotional pressures of the pandemic and keep people in school.