Giving Compass' Take:

• Teresa Williams shares her story of attending an elite university but points out that coming from a low-income background affected her college experience. 

• Can educators do more to create supportive environments that will lead to social mobility for students that are struggling?

•  Read more about how higher education could do more to enhance social mobility. 

Teresa Williams grew up in a low-income neighborhood in East St. Louis, IL. Her mom worked as a nurse’s aide, and Teresa aspired to be a doctor. Her best shot was attending Washington University in St. Louis, a private university with a strong academic reputation that wasn’t too far from home.

Teresa expected there wouldn’t be many people at Washington University who shared her background, but she didn’t expect to feel so alone. “I would be often left out of conversations when we had to do group assignments and not really know what’s going on and so it was just a challenge,” recalled Williams. As a student, she worked 32 to 39 hours a week at a bank to help her mom pay bills at home so she had little time to socialize or study abroad.

Our recent documentary, Changing Class: Are Colleges Helping Americans Move Up? examined new research into colleges and social mobility. We found that many colleges are not doing enough to help students from poor families achieve the American Dream.

Today on the podcast, we go deeper into one story of what it’s like to make the jump from poverty to upper middle class.  Williams now directs the federal scholarship program she was once a part of on campus.  “I really wanted to make sure that I was known for giving back and for making a difference in the lives of students who grew up like me.”

Read the full article about college mobility from APM Reports at The Hechinger Report