As our campus communities becomes more diverse, we must engage more vigorously with the notion of full access to a college education. True access to a college education is more than an acceptance letter, a scholarship, and a seat in a classroom. True access is to receive the necessary inspiration and support to master disciplinary skills, acquire academic savvy, increase social status, and develop a strong sense of belonging to both one’s chosen discipline and the larger campus community. In this talk I use my own journey into physics to reflect on the question, “what stands between the student and
success? What is our role in lowering those barriers?”