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
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.
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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.
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Today’s Indigenous students choose their own paths to college success
Triston Black and Harley Interpreter, both members of the Navajo Nation and both affiliated with Diné College, the tribal college on reservation land in Tsaile, Arizona. They arrived at Diné along separate paths, but each is committed to helping the Navajo people build a better life—Black as a high school teacher, and Interpreter by improving mental health treatment on the reservation by working to “decolonize” the field of psychology.
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Focus magazine: Fall 2021
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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.
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Our commitment to racial equity
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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.
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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

Navajo student Triston Black stands behind a livestock fence facing the camera.
Focus Magazine
Students at Diné College find relevance on the rez
Triston Black had the world at his feet. As a senior at Navajo Preparatory School in Farmington, New Mexico, scholarships and enrollment incentives were pouring in from across the country as colleges and universities were hoping to recruit him.
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Focus Magazine
Menominee equips warriors for the fight to save the Earth
Jasmine Neosh had arrived at an inflection point. In the fall of 2016, the Menominee tribal member was waiting tables and tending bar at an upscale Chicago eatery as the protests over the Dakota Access Pipeline grew into a full-blown crisis in the northern Plains.
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Lisa Dirks
Focus Magazine
Alaska-born Native scholar works to reorient research
In the early 2010s, Lisa Dirks was visiting her relatives in Alaska when she noticed an article in the Aleut Corporation newsletter on their dining room table: an item that looked like a research article. As a scholar, researcher, and tribal member, she was curious about its contents, so she picked it up and began…
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Featured News
Looking down at a pair of shoes with chalk arrows drawn in various directions on the concrete below.
June 8, 2022
All learning counts: Creating new paths to college credit
By Wendy Sedlak
Today’s students learn skills at work, in life, and many other ways outside of colleges and universities. But too often, skills and knowledge learned outside of traditional classrooms aren’t counted towards a credential or degree or recognized in the job market.
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Featured News
Aerial panorama of Waikiki, Diamond head and the University of Hawaii and coastline Oahu, Hawaii on a sunny blue sky day in a travel concept
June 1, 2022
Hawaiʻi fortifies its economy by supporting post-high school learning for Native Hawaiʻians, Pacific Islander, and Filipinos
By Amanda DeLaRosa
With a racial and ethnic grouping that often gets folded into the broader success of the Asian community, Hawai'i has a strong history and command of data important to understanding the real story—the story of indigenous people often overlooked in every social sector. 
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Featured News
June 1, 2022
Hawaiʻi commits to student outcomes and joins Talent, Innovation, Equity states
Lumina Foundation has named Hawaiʻi the sixth Talent, Innovation, Equity (TIE) state, awarding a $575,000 grant to support efforts to create a more inclusive and sustainable economy.
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Featured News
Susan Johnson posing next to an Uhsuaia sign.
May 26, 2022
A Black woman’s journey to the end of the earth
By Susan D. Johnson
That’s the question people ask about my travels to icy Antarctica. A decade ago, before it was popular to put on your bucket list, I decided to visit all seven continents before I turned 50. Of course, COVID put a damper on that, but the chance to go to Antarctica came quickly and out of…
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Featured News
Jamie Merisotis at the lectern, speaking at the 2022 Franklin College Commencement.
May 24, 2022
Remarks by Jamie Merisotis, Franklin College Commencement, May 21, 2022
By Jamie Merisotis
Good morning. Thank you, President Prather for this honor and for your leadership. In just about every way to measure someone in your important role, you have excelled – leading the college at a time of great societal challenge yet still enrolling more students, expanding student diversity, introducing new tech innovation and digital fluency initiatives,…
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Featured News
Two people working in a warehouse.
May 24, 2022
Combined forces: Fulfilling the ‘community’ in community colleges
By Georgia Reagan
The advantage of a community college lives right in the name: It’s affordable, accessible education in a student’s home community.
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Featured News
An opening scene from the podcast episode: Dakota welcomes Zainab who is smiling on the screen behind him. Her smile is radiant.
May 24, 2022
The Mental Health Crisis and Higher Education
By Dakota Pawlicki
A new study conducted by Gallup and Lumina Foundation found that three-fourths of students in bachelor’s programs and two-thirds of adults seeking associate degrees have considered taking a break from college due to emotional stress. Dr. Zainab Okolo of Lumina discusses the growing mental health crisis across the country and explores how it is having…
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