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
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
Featured News
The house of power imbalance.
Oct. 28, 2022
We all benefit from diversity in college admissions—Let’s not go backward now
By Jamie Merisotis
Oral arguments before the Supreme Court at the end of this month will provide a dramatic setting for the national debate over the fairness of race-conscious admissions in higher education.
READ MORE
Featured News
Dakota, Rita, and Emily on the podcast set.
Oct. 27, 2022
Understanding Public Narratives About Workforce and Higher Education
By Dakota Pawlicki
Mainstream media and industry news shapes, reinforces, and redresses commonly held narratives—those underlying beliefs and attitudes that drive human behavior—about higher education and the workforce.  Dr. Rita Parhad and Emily Keane from Protagonist discuss the major narratives and counter-narratives that exist in America today, what drives them, and the implications these narratives have on individual…
READ MORE
Featured News
Several people in a circle, joining fists side-by-side to form a
Oct. 20, 2022
Combined forces: Creative ways community colleges and communities keep the flame alive
By Georgia Reagan
Innovative partnerships between community colleges and city and business resources can help support students and workers of color through the college and career pipeline.
READ MORE
Featured News
Mother with toddler riding on her back.
Oct. 3, 2022
Supporting student parents is much more than providing child care
By Jasmine Haywood
I wasn’t old enough to remember my mother carting me to campus at the University at Albany as an infant. When I asked her what it was like to be a young wife and mother in her senior year of college, she responded: “I never even told my professors that I had a baby.”
READ MORE
Featured News
Linh Nguyen
Sept. 20, 2022
National philanthropy leader joins lumina as vice president for equity, culture, and talent
Lumina Foundation has named Linh C. Nguyen, a national leader in talent development, organizational effectiveness, and philanthropic strategy, its first vice president of equity, culture, and talent.
READ MORE