Paola Santana

As a first-generation college student and an immigrant student, my family emphasized the importance of college and of education growing up. They saw education as the pathway to prosperity and to realizing the “American Dream” that lured them to the United States. But a quality education and economic opportunity are not available to many in the U.S., particularly to many people of color. I engage in racial equity and social justice work to dismantle the systems and structures that deny opportunity to so many people that look like me and share a similar background.

Paola Santana is Strategy Officer for State Policy at the Lumina Foundation.