America needs clear paths to learning and success after high school that make the nation stronger and meet the needs of today’s student.

No matter where you come from, what you look like, or how much money your family has, you should have what you need to learn, grow, and thrive. Read more about Lumina’s Commitment to Racial Equity.

Lumina Foundation works in partnership with education and business leaders, civil rights organizations, policymakers, and individuals who want to reimagine how and where learning occurs.

AREAS OF FOCUS

Featured Video
Student Parent Success Stories from Winston-Salem State University
Lisa Matthews is more than a Winston-Salem State alum. She’s also employed by the university as a student success coach.
watch video
Read Story
Featured Video
Being a Student While Being a Parent
Hear the inspiring story of Ariel Ventura-Lazo—a student parent raising two children. His dedication to his children gave him the inspiration to succeed despite the odds against him.
watch video
Read Story
Featured Video
The US is falling behind in higher education. Can we turn the tide?
Who are today's higher education students? They might not be exactly who you think. About 40% of today’s students work full time, while another 40% are at least 25 years old, with many coming from low-income families.
watch video
Featured Video
Are robots really taking our jobs?
Are the robots coming for our jobs? Not for those with the training and skills needed in today’s economy. And in nearly all cases, that means the people with education beyond high school.
watch video
Featured Video
Justice for Today's Students
Policies, practices, and beliefs—rooted in history and still affecting people today—keep many Black, Native American, and Hispanic people from the education and skills they need.
watch video
Our commitment to racial equity
Featured Video
Lumina wants to ensure quality education for all Americans.
Find out how Lumina's efforts support the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal of Quality Education.
watch video
Learn More About Lumina

The Nation’s Progress

The United States faces an urgent and growing need for talent. Many more people of all races, ethnicities, ages, and income levels will need college degrees, certificates, industry certifications, and other credentials of value to join or remain in the middle class.

Success Stories

Lisa Matthews with her sons on campus.
Focus Magazine
Family feeling at HBCUs a key to student success
When it comes to meeting the needs of student parents, the nation’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities have always been in the forefront—in part because they seek to create a supportive, family-type atmosphere. “Historically, we have had to be our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers,” explains one well-known expert on the history and culture of HBCUs.…
Continue Reading
Father and daughter study together in bed.
Focus Magazine
At this D.C.-area nonprofit, education crosses generations
College students in the Washington, D.C., area—and their children—are getting a boost from an innovative nonprofit organization that takes a two-pronged approach to education success. Generation Hope’s “two-generation model” provides direct services to the students themselves—including tuition assistance, academic advising, child care, peer mentoring, and parental counseling—while helping prepare their preschoolers for success in kindergarten.
Continue Reading
Antavia Paredes-Beaulieu, a student at Metropolitan State University in Minnesota, crosses an elevated campus walkway that affords an expansive view of the St. Paul skyline. Paredes-Beaulieu, a single mother with a 10-year-old son, is Native American—a member of the Anishinaabe— but she grew up in Minneapolis, far from her tribal home, the Mille Lacs Reservation in east-central Minnesota.
Focus Magazine
Minnesota goes statewide to support student parents
College success isn’t just an individual goal, or even one that can be confined to the campus. To maximize progress—and to ensure that success is shared by all segments of the population—it’s an issue that must also be tackled at the state level. Officials in Minnesota have taken that lesson to heart. Through a variety…
Continue Reading
Featured News
Arial shot of crowd walking on downtown crosswalk.
Feb. 1, 2023
Why Counting Degrees Matters
By Courtney Brown
The new data are clear: More Americans are learning and training beyond high school to pave powerful paths to well-paid jobs. But progress amid challenges is slow, leaving too many adults without college degrees or other credentials to struggle in their careers and lives.
READ MORE
Featured News
An American flag doing its thing—that is, waving in the breeze.
Jan. 31, 2023
Lumina set a bold goal for a better-educated country 15 years ago. It worked.
By Jamie Merisotis
In 2008, when Lumina Foundation committed to at least 60 percent of U.S. adults earning college degrees and other credentials by 2025, we did something that set us apart from most national funders.
READ MORE
Featured News
A Stronger Nation icon shows states in citric colors. They're square.
Jan. 31, 2023
More Adults Earning College Degrees, New Federal Data Show
Lumina Foundation releases an updated A Stronger Nation, the foundation’s online tool for tracking the share of working-age adults with degrees or other credentials of value. The national post-high school education rate among adults 25 to 64 years old reached 53.7 percent in 2021, an increase of nearly 2 percentage points since 2019 when the…
READ MORE
Featured News
Graduates holding diplomas celebrate with a hug.
Jan. 26, 2023
Proven strategies help some college students, but not all. We have to fix that.
By Wendy Sedlak
There’s good news and bad in a new report on college student success rates. While many U.S. colleges are improving graduation rates for full-time students, we continue to see achievement gaps for Black, Indigenous, and Hispanic students, students 25 and older, and part-time students.
READ MORE
Featured News
robot handshake
Dec. 8, 2022
Don’t Call These Skills Soft
By Jamie Merisotis
Problem solving and communication are among the ‘durable skills’ in huge demand as the global labor shortage grows.
READ MORE
Featured News
hand opening gate with padlock attached
Nov. 21, 2022
Reaching the ‘transfer gate’ spells college success
By Wendy Sedlak
Nearly two-thirds of Black students who attend college in California begin their postsecondary journey at a community college. But it’s clear they’re not getting the support they need—more than 60 percent leave school without a degree or certificate and without transferring to a university.
READ MORE
Featured News
Kathy Huffman
Nov. 3, 2022
“Invisible” catalysts get lasting results for adult students
By Wendy Sedlak
Catalysts for change often work quietly, but their results speak loud and clear. At education organizations, they’re the people who build strong relationships across stakeholders, support and empower others to design and drive the work, and embrace a “student first” orientation to center students’ needs and aspirations over institutions’.
READ MORE