Making Study Abroad More Accessible to Black and Brown People: Unexpected Journeys with Sarah Jones

August 19, 2026

Subscribe on YouTube | Follow on Apple Podcasts | Listen Across Platforms

“Women and women of color: Prioritize yourself, your superpowers aren’t limitless, and you deserve to pour into yourself as much as you pour into everyone else.”

“There is power in self-reflection and knowing that equity work is a practice that we must show up to every day.

–Sarah Jones

Instead of a single, pivotal moment, Sarah Jones compares her journey towards social justice work to a fire that ignited during her first experiences with race and racism in the 1st grade, defining further memories and experiences as the logs that kept the fire burning.

She shares a story about how studying abroad as a first-generation college student revealed how capitalism reinforces inequity by limiting access to travel travel opportunities, especially for Black and Brown students. Her experience clarified her commitment to making travel experiences more accessible and inclusive, which she does in her work today, leading global leadership programs with an intentional focus on equity.

Sarah shares what sustains her, what keeps her up at night when it comes to global equity trends, and why rest, community, and storytelling matters in social justice work.

This Personal Journeys segment includes:

The work of understanding your social identities is crucial for navigating systemic oppression and moving toward social justice.
The importance of including self-care and rest in your pursuit of equity and social justice work.
Storytelling as a means to connect deeply with the experiences of others to inspire change.
Discussions on the financial barriers to studying abroad reveal how capitalism restricts opportunities and access to travel.
The impact of mentorship and allyship in supporting personal growth and challenging dynamics of privilege and oppression.

Meet Sarah

My name is Sarah Jones (she/her). I am a biracial, queer woman of color working at the intersection of leadership development, foreign policy, higher education, and equity. As a professor and director, my work focuses on developing leaders in the workforce and global stage. Everything I do is in alignment with my values of authenticity, transparency, and empathy. I’m in the constant pursuit of liberating our minds from how we’re told we must do things. Through rest as resistance and leading with empathy, I seek to transform institutions and systems that do not serve us.

You can follow Sarah Jones on LinkedIn.

More from Sarah

“Less of one pivotal moment, but more so a journey that sparked inside of me that continued to grow in a multi-layered effect. I can compare this journey to a fire.

My journey’s spark: It started at the individual/internalized level when I had my first pivotal racial interaction in the 1st grade. The first few logs were added to the fire on the interpersonal level as a biracial woman growing up and facing microaggressions in predominantly white sports and having no coaches to turn to for support.

Additional logs were added to the fire at the interpersonal level through navigating dating as a biracial woman – experiencing both hyper sexualization, fetishization, and a personal fav of mine, racially-coded “jokes” and stereotypes.

Through high school and preparation for college, I started to see institutions around me as additional fuel for my social justice fire. All the guidance for my college essays was to focus on the fact I was a woman of color from a middle-class background. I had one essay I wrote about something slightly different, and it was literally ripped up in front of me and my guidance counselor said “nobody wants to read this. They want to hear about your adversity. How you’ve navigated academic success as a Black woman”

Even at home, the message was unfortunately reinforced with my very loving, immigrant mother telling me that an essay focused on my racial upbringing may influence admissions officers over my hopes and dreams for the world. Looking back on this experience with my mother, I see it from a different lens. See I didn’t realize I was a first-generation college student until well after college. Like, I’m talking four years after college I realized that I was a first-generation college student. Neither my mother nor my father attended college. My mother, an immigrant to first England then the US, simply wanted what was best for us without even knowing what that meant. At that young age though, my only thought process was “I am being reduced down to my race as I apply to attend predominantly white institutions”

On a positive note, regarding my social justice fire, one thing that I find incredibly interesting about my story is my trajectory learning Spanish. When my brother was in high school, our high school was about 70% White. However, by the time I was in high school, six years later, the high school was only 43% White. Our area had seen such a large influx of immigrants – specifically from El Salvador among other Central American countries. I was studying Spanish to meet a requirement for my high school degree, and I remember there was a pivotal moment where I was witnessing the demographics around me change. It changed so much to the point that I realized; I should continue studying this language so that I can feel more connected to the Spanish-speaking community within my neighborhood and anywhere else life takes me.

I ended up as the only non-native Spanish speaker in my AP Spanish class and continued to study the Spanish-language, ultimately majoring in it in college. To this day, I’m still reflecting on the reality that much of this ripple effect took place due to the Salvadoran Civil War. In hindsight, I can look back and clearly see how the displacement of many Salvadorians due to a political civil war impacted a shift in my local community that drove an individual educational decision that I made.

When I got to college, a new log was thrown on my social justice fire through my favorite college experience which was study abroad. I was so thrilled to have this opportunity to study abroad, but almost immediately upon returning and continuing to process my experience. I realized the amount of institutional barriers that exist within the study abroad realm – namely cost, transferrable credits, and general support for historically marginalized groups as they travel abroad.

All throughout life, there were many systemic inequities that fueled my desire to inflict more change. Notably, I was quite young when 9/11 occurred, but I think about how the language that was used, the way that it was portrayed in the media fueled Islamophobia rising across the States – which has only continued to grow, shift forms, and impact additional generations of Muslims across the States. All the murders of Black and Brown people at the hands of the police. Again, when I reflect on this, sometimes I think about the news, the crying parents, the screams for change – but I also think about how these murders of Black and Brown people were so quickly adapted into plotlines which were showcased on tv shows, books, and movies (Scandal, The Hate You Give, etc.) Further shining a light on our broken systems, but without emphasis on reform. A final emphasis on the systemic fuel to my social justice fire was Sandy Hook. The lack of urgency in addressing gun control crushes me – it’s impacted personal decisions I’ve made for myself and the wound feels like it’s always reopened time and time again when there’s another school shooting.

So, if you think about all the layers of my fire, I hope you have a picture of how fierce and vibrant my social justice fire is burning. While the majority of the fuel for the fire is made up of anger, frustration, and grief, I am glad that it exists within me. It helps me continue to get out of bed day after day – especially when times are trying like what we’re about to experience with the new president and administration stepping into office.

I continue to fight the good fight because of all of these layers of inequities and how I trust that there is a possibility to shift tides and find equitable solutions to support future generations. My social justice fire fuels my empathy for the world and fosters resilience and motivation on a daily basis.”

Namedrops, Shoutouts & Resources from Sarah

“Of course, there are many thought-leaders that I think about often with this work (e.g., bell hooks, Dr. Ibram X Kendi, Michelle MiJung Kim, etc.) but I want to shine a light on a couple people I work closely with and admire outside of the usual suspects:

Cici Battle: Frolic culture, human design coach, facilitator, authentic
Kwame Onwuachi: Inclusion, representation, and reframing the narrative
Jenna Ortiz: Age is just a number, peer-to-peer learning, and the power of relationships”