Sequoia Carrillo is currently an education reporter for NPR. She covers K-12 policy and regularly reports on issues like school segregation and infrastructure challenges for the network. Recently, she led a series of stories on the impacts of fentanyl in schools. She’s also spent the past few years learning the ins and outs of the student loan system and hearing borrowers’ stories. Her reporting on joint consolidation loans, a type of student loan that chained couples together even in cases of divorce and abuse, helped propel a fix into law.
She regularly reports on Indigenous communities and identity – from her own family’s story to the legacies of federal Indian boarding schools to questions of tribal land ownership. Her reporting has appeared on numerous NPR podcasts including Code Switch, Throughline and Life Kit.
As a Spencer Fellow, Sequoia will look at the conflating factors that cause American Indian students to make up a disproportionately small percentage of higher education institutions.