Laurene Powell Jobs Stepping Into Spotlight for Philanthropy

After two years since Steve Job's death, Laurene Powell Jobs is stepping into the spotlight as a philanthropist and educator.

"She's been mourning for a year and was grieving for five years before that," said Larry Brilliant, president of the Skoll Global Threats Fund who is an old friend of Mr. Jobs in an interview for The New York Times. "Her life was about her family and Steve, but she is now emerging as a potent force on the world stage, and this is only the beginning."

Laurene Powell Jobs big step into the spotlight has to do with her desire to change immigration reform.

However, Powell Jobs has always been a philanthropist, just more behind the scenes.

Back in 1997, Laurene Powell Jobs co-founded College Track, in East Palo Alto, California, a non-profit organization that helps low-income students to graduate high school, get accepted to college and graduate from college. The program includes tutoring and leadership classes. College Track is now operating in East Palo Alto, San Francisco, Oakland, and New Orleans.
It was here at College Track that Powell Jobs saw the need for immigration reform.

"This continues to be a purgatory that they find themselves in," Powell Jobs told The New York Times recently. "It is one of these issues that seems discordant with what our country stands for."

According to Yahoo News, when the DREAM Act-which would have offered a path to citizenship for children living in the US illegally -failed to get approved in Congress, Powell Job's commissioned a film by Davis Guggenheim to show the need for the act. She's shown the 30-minute film to key members of Congress and launched a website where it can be viewed.

And while Steve Jobs himself was not much of a philanthropist, Ms. Powell Jobs estimated net worth is $11.5 billion, according to Bloomberg, and she seems more than willing to share the wealth.