Episode 111: Dr. Rosslyn Knight

What does it mean to belong in higher education—and who gets the message that college is a place for them?

Dr. Rosslyn Knight has spent more than 25 years in education, including leading developmental education initiatives across the Maricopa County Community College District. Her work has centered on student success, educational access, and what happens when institutions either recognize a student's potential—or fail to see it.

In this episode of At the Podium, Rosslyn and I reconnect more than three decades after first meeting as students at Vanderbilt University. We talk about the teachers who shaped us, including her seventh-grade Language Arts teacher, Miss Lake, who saw what Rosslyn was experiencing as the only Black girl in an honors classroom and introduced her to Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye. A book that changed Rosslyn’s life and belief in herself.

But our conversation also asks harder questions about higher education today. What do we really mean by “merit”? What are the consequences when a student is told, “Maybe college isn't for you”? Why are men of color increasingly absent from college campuses? What does the end of race-conscious admissions mean for access and opportunity? And are we asking 17- and 18-year-olds to take on financial burdens they cannot yet fully understand?

This is a conversation about education, race, student debt and access—but underneath all of it is something more fundamental: the lasting power of being seen, being believed in, and knowing that you belong.