Experts by Experience is a series of discussions with college students from Chicago who are navigating the current rupture in their educational journeys. For our third conversation, we are joined by two CPS alumni, Guillermo and Jameelah, who graduated this spring from Stanford University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The topic of our conversation with Guillermo and Jameelah is different from our past topics: we focus on how they navigated through predominantly white institutions as students of color and the support systems that helped them make it through. This information is increasingly valuable as recent research from the National Student Clearinghouse shows that Black and Latinx students’ college persistence journeys have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 public health crisis. 

Tune in again soon for the second installment of our conversation with Guillermo and Jameelah in which they reflect upon their college journeys, beginning with the 2016 presidential election and ending with nationwide protests against racial violence and injustice, as well as how universities can design and implement actively anti-racist policies.