This article discusses how religious education began at Esperanza College in North Philadelphia, one of the poorest counties of the United States. It also is the largest community of returning citizens in Pennsylvania. Student access and success in higher education continues to be impacted by the effects of structural racism and systemic poverty. Achievement gaps among student groups reflect structural inequities that are often the result of historic and systemic social injustices. These inequities typically manifest themselves as the unintended or indirect consequences of unexamined institutional or social policies. Colleges must routinely scrutinize structural barriers to equity and invest in equity-minded policies, practices, and behaviors that lead to success for all students. Esperanza College was started with the mission of making college accessible and affordable. It is mostly adjunct-driven, but the structure makes the adjuncts part of the team. Faculty are persons invested in a mission and vision of teaching and learning that listens to the life of the student and relates the knowledge and skills of the discipline being taught to the life experience and knowledge that the student already brings. Whether working out of a social efficiency philosophy or Freirian understandings, authentic caring is the predominant pedagogy that each professor creatively and humbly seeks to design in the classroom. A religious educator in this setting understands the reasons for the culture of poverty and the effects of globalization on education.