Students balancing classes and parenting find support

Photo by Stephanie Mason.

Cristina E. Garcia/Staff Writer

For some students, college life consists of beer pong, gym time and lectures, but what about the students with live-in extracurricular activities, i.e., children?

Twenty-three percent of undergraduates enrolled in college in 2008 had at least one child. Of those students, less than 10 percent completed their bachelor’s degree within six years of starting college, according to USA Today. Some parents find it necessary to take time off to tend to their families.

Megan Villamar, a senior English major, currently carries the mother load.

In 1994, during Villamar’s sophomore year in Florida State University, she became pregnant with her first daughter and attended college during her pregnancy. After the birth of her daughter, she tried to return the following semester, but found it too difficult.

“I was away from her and I didn’t have any support, so I stopped going to college and went to work,” Villamar said.

Villamar has two young boys and has to take classes while they are in daycare.

When asked if she considered looking into University-offered services, Villamar said she wasn’t aware of any services the University offered student parents besides the Children’s Creative Learning Center.

“At first when I started, Christian was not even two and a half [years old]. I was looking into the preschool program, but he wasn’t old enough,” she said. “And I wasn’t sure when I would graduate, if I’d have to take him out of FIU.”

According to the Center’s site, Villamar should not have worried because the Center is available for students, staff, faculty, alumni and anyone in the general community that wants to enroll their kids. Associate Director of the Children’s Creative Learning Center, Libby Kirsch, said the facility has parents that go so far as to place their children on a waiting list as soon as they’re born.

Roxie Picos graduated in 2013, but has had her 5 year old daughter enrolled since she was 2.5 years old.

“When I came here, I fell in love,” said Picos, noting how impressed she was with the security measures employed by the Center.

The only thing Villamar would have to worry about after graduation would be the increase in tuition and fees, since students pay less than non-students.

The Center was established in 1975 after various faculty members and student parents wanted some form of child care, according to the associate director.

In the beginning, there was a donated trailer on University-donated land and the program was funded by United Way; during that time, the Center cared for anywhere between 15-30 children.

After 1987, it became a “self supported University Auxiliary,” according to Kirsch; numbers increased to 40-50 children per year. Currently, the Center cares for approximately 60 children.

Kirsch noted that the Center was very different from a daycare. Rather than merely babysitting the children, the Center fosters an educational environment, providing age-specific learning experiences throughout the building and surrounding areas.

Having a form of child care is only one element that increases a parent’s ability to succeed in school, said a report by Women Employed.

Parents that seek higher education face obstacles other students may not. For many single parents, completing a degree could take between six to fifteen years. The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy notes that 61 percent of women who have children after enrolling in college fail to finish their degree.

Women Employed said a few other factors make up the “ideal community college experience” for student parents to excel. Some factors include affordable housing, having faculty alert counselors when student parents are in need of assistance, advising and financial aid.

According to Women Employed, “a college degree opens the door to the middle class.” A college education equips parents with skills and credentials necessary to earn a family-supporting wage. U.S. Census Bureau statistics show that as a woman’s education level increases, so does her income.

However, “every semester there’s this temptation to go back to work because I am a financial drain on my family right now. I’m going to school and I’m not working and I still have to pay for daycare,” said Villamar.

Find support: http://children.fiu.edu/

– cristina.garcia@fiusm.com