Dr. Adriane Johnson-Williams

And it was only a few days that I was there on campus that I realized that I was seeing and experiencing something that none of my friends were going to experience.

I was...

getting so much privilege.

The campus was beautiful.

The food was amazing.

The teachers were always smiling.

The classrooms were vibrant.

And I thought, well, I mean, I'm smart and everything.

I know I'm special in some ways, but...

I went to school with other really smart folks, even though we didn't have a lot of money.

We didn't come from the fanciest neighborhoods.

There were some amazing friends that I left behind and they weren't going to get this.

It's like, what is that about?

And I feel like that was the seed that every step I took afterwards, even though I wanted to go into mechanical engineering and study physics.

I didn't.

I ultimately went into education and economics.

Like everything, every step I took ultimately led me to really trying to figure out how do we eliminate that gap?

How do we make it so that whatever you are born to do in this world, you can do and that you're not blocked from it because those resources are for other people.

Oh, such a good question.

Well, one, I expect people to have the disposition to