As high school seniors start to churn out their college applications, elite campuses are trying to catch the attention of high-achieving and gifted low-income students around the country. It may be hard to believe, but schools like Harvard University and Amherst College are opening their doors to more highly qualified high school students who grew up facing economic hardship yet can thrive on their campuses. Given the record sizes of the endowments supporting the most selective schools, these full rides won’t bust their budgets.

For miners, investors, and artisans, few things are more precious than gold. But for human life itself, nothing is more precious than water. Just ask the people of El Salvador. Nearly 30 years ago, the Wisconsin-based Commerce Group Corp. purchased a gold mine near the San Sebastian River in El Salvador and contaminated the water. Now, according to Lita Trejo, a native Salvadoran and school worker in Washington, D.C., the once clear river is orange. The people who drink from the arsenic-polluted river, she says, are suffering from kidney failure and other diseases.

In the two years since President Obama issued an executive order extending protections to undocumented young people, over half a million have been able to normalize their lives and plan for their futures. But the protections are tenuous, and millions more enjoy no protection at all.