About FoA

Faces of Access is a 501(c)(3) organization with a mission to expand educational outreach, knowledge, and opportunities for marginalized demographics by building a national community and common cause dedicated to beaming a light on the Faces of Access, to support, motivate, and inspire marginalized, and often forgotten, students in their collegiate pursuits.

Far too often, minority and marginalized students find themselves questioning their decision to pursue post-secondary degrees and far too many give up, as they find themselves in spaces and places that were not historically designed with them in mind. Thus, Faces of Access is designed to be a place, a hashtag, or whatever you need it to be, for marginalized and underrepresented students and graduates to share their stories of success, stories of triumph, and stories of overcoming adversity, to motivate future generations, but most importantly to be unapologetically themselves.

WHY 1823?

In 1823, Alexander Twilight earned his bachelor’s degree from Middlebury College in Vermont. Mr. Twilight is believed to be the first African-American to earn a baccalaureate degree from an American college or university and thus was the original face of access.

WHO ARE THE FACES OF ACCESS?

Any college students or graduates, in the United States, who are a part of a group historically (and presently) underrepresented and/or barred from equal and equitable educational access, whether based on their racial, geographical, or economical identities. These groups overwhelmingly include, but are not limited to, members of the following identities: African-Americans, Hispanic and Latino-Americans, Native Americans, inner-city/urban school district students, rural American residents, Appalachian natives, and those of low socioeconomic status.