Ruth Simmons on Education and Perseverance – The Aspen Institute

Featuring Ruth Simmons, former president of Smith College, Brown University, and Prairie View A&M University, and Distinguished Presidential Fellow at Rice University, in conversation with Aspen Institute President and CEO Dan Porterfield. Dr. Simmons discusses her 2023 memoir, “Up Home: One Girl’s Journey,” which is at once a stirring narrative of her trajectory from growing up as the twelfth child of sharecroppers in the segregated South to becoming the first Black president of an Ivy League university, and a circumstance-defying story of a girl who stretched beyond the boundaries imposed upon her—and the extraordinary people who made it all possible. Presented as part of the McCloskey Speaker Series.
Earlier this month, Schechter Investment Advisors, a Birmingham, Mich.-based registered investment advisor with $4 billion in assets under management, announced...
A record 31% of federal student loan borrowers with a payment due were 90+ days delinquent as of April 2025,...
by Aran Shetterly “Cast down your bucket where you are.”—Booker T. Washington Sign up for our free newsletter. As I...