'Privileged Poor' author to deliver Convocation address in Memorial Chapel

Dr. Anthony Jack, an assistant professor of education at Harvard University and author of The Privileged Poor: How Elite Colleges are Failing Disadvantaged Students, will deliver Lawrence University’s Winter Term Convocation address at 12:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 27 in Lawrence Memorial Chapel.

“The Privileged Poor” reframes the conversation surrounding poverty and higher education. In it, Jack explains the paths of two uniquely segregated groups. First, the “privileged poor”: students from low-income, diverse backgrounds who attended elite prep or boarding schools before attending college. The second are what Jack calls the “doubly disadvantaged”: students who arrive from underprivileged backgrounds without prep or boarding school to soften their college transition. Although both groups come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, the privileged poor have more cultural capital to navigate and succeed—in the college environment and beyond. Jack explores how organizations—from administrators and association organizers to educators and student activists—can ask the right questions and bridge the gap.

Students Camara White and Reese Pike will perform Bessie Smith's Backwater Blues as the musical selection. 

The event will not be live streamed. It is open to the public.

Jack also will be meeting with students in the Diversity and Intercultural Center while on campus.