Our next guest is Stefan Thomas, an Academic Advisor at the University of Toronto Scarborough, whose work centres on equity, diversity, and inclusion. Stefan has supported programs aimed at improving Black student success and brings deep insight into the financial realities students face, offering a nuanced look at what it really takes for students to access and persist in university. We discuss his paper on how Black students fund their post-secondary education, the policy questions raised by cost sharing, and the broader intersections of race, affordability, and access in higher education.