Sequoia Carrillo
Sequoia Carrillo is 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. In 2023, she received a grant from the Center for Investigative Journalism to look into questions around tribal land ownership. The reporting ended up on Throughline and won Best Coverage of Indigenous Communities at the 2024 Indigenous Media Awards. Her work has appeared on numerous NPR podcasts including Code Switch, Up First, the NPR Politics Podcast and Life Kit.
From 2020-2022, she managed the Student Podcast Challenge, an initiative to get younger voices on the airwaves. She still travels around the country with the contest to hear students' stories.
Prior to covering education at NPR, she started as an intern on the How I Built This team where she learned how to cut tape, wrangle guests and write out 100 questions before every interview.
Her life before NPR involved working as a historical tour guide in Charlottesville, Virginia and briefly sorting mail at a Hollywood talent agency.
Carrillo holds a bachelor's degree in history and media studies from the University of Virginia and a master's in journalism from Georgetown University. For the academic year 2024-2025 she will be reporting on the barriers to higher education for Indigenous students as a Spencer Fellow at Columbia University.
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English teachers are excited to have a new adaptation of Homer's The Odyssey to use to get students excited about the epic poem. -
Many schools rely on consumer fees funneled through the federal government to cut internet costs. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr called for ending this program before Donald Trump tapped him for the job. -
For more than a century, federal boarding schools worked to forcibly assimilate Native American children into white culture. Here's how one Santa Fe school has worked to change that legacy. -
Unscathed by pandemic-era school closures, the nation's 9-year-olds showed progress in math and reading. It's a different story for 13-year-olds, however. -
Millions of students in universities and K-12 districts had their data compromised this week as a hack took down Canvas, a classroom management tool used all over the country.
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A first-of-its-kind national study looks at the impacts of cell phone bans in schools.
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Four states have recently passed legislation to limit teaching and assessments via screens for students. So has the United States' second-largest school district. -
In her first appearance on Capitol Hill this year, lawmakers questioned Education Secretary Linda McMahon about students' civil rights and cuts to federal education spending. -
Teens and young adults have a growing problem with sports betting and gaming. How can parents talk to their kids about gambling before it becomes a problem?
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Teens and young adults have a growing problem with sports betting and gaming. How can parents talk to their kids about gambling before it becomes a problem?
