My research explores the pathways of minoritized students and how they use their cultural wealth and funds of knowledge to transition to and through the K-20+ pathways. The first aspect of my research explores how these students use their cultural capital to matriculate into college with the assistance of pre-college and college access programs. While I acknowledge that the societal and institutional obstacles associated with poverty, racism, sexism, and classism influence students' transition and persistence, I contend that these obstacles do not extinguish students' talents and gifts but attempt to limit their opportunities to be fully actualized. As the first element of my research discusses the transition into post-secondary education, the second explores how Black students navigate their undergraduate and graduate programs. This secondary project is an artifact/photo-elicitation study examining how Black students cultivate and find joy in spaces considered anti-Black and unsafe.