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The Power of Privilege Learning Series

These resources aim to unravel the complexities surrounding privilege, exploring its manifestations and impact on individuals and society as a whole.

Access Isn't Inclusion

Getting into college for disadvantaged students is only half the battle. In this video, Anthony Abraham Jack, assistant professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, reveals how and why they struggle and explains what schools can do differently if these students are to thrive. He urges us to grapple with a simple fact: access is not inclusion.

Group of students standing together, holding books and notebooks.

Why College Students Avoid Career Services

Harnessing their resources could help them achieve the graduate's dream: finding a job.

Read Why Aren’t College Students Using Career Services? by Lola Fadulu.

Illustration of unequal treatment, showing a man and woman on different-sized hands symbolizing gender inequality.

Inequality in Society

The US college admissions scandal exposed how wealthy individuals, including celebrities and coaches, used a $25 million bribery scheme to secure their children's admission to elite universities. The case highlights systemic privilege and challenges the "myth of meritocracy," emphasizing deep-rooted inequalities in American society.

Read A mirror on America: How the US college admissions scam reveals pervasive inequality in society by Anthony Jack.

Illustration of six hands of varying skin tones raised against a pink background.

Economic Affirmative Action

Watch The Open Mind: The Case for Economic Affirmative Action by Anthony Jack.

Diverse hands reaching toward the center in a circle on a mauve background.

Class, Cultural Capital, and Engagement

How do undergraduates engage authority figures in college? Existing explanations predict class-based engagement strategies. Using in-depth interviews with 89 undergraduates at an elite university, this article shows how undergraduates with disparate precollege experiences differ in their orientations toward and strategies for engaging authority figures in college. Middle-class undergraduates report being at ease in interacting with authority figures and are proactive in doing so. Lower-income undergraduates, however, are split.

Read (No) Harm in Asking: Class, Acquired Cultural Capital, and Academic Engagement at an Elite University by Anthony Jack.