A 2022 Call to Action: Standing Up for Parenting Students
Student parent: these are two words that are rarely associated with each other, and two words that I never thought would become a part of my identity or how I would define myself. But when I started my postsecondary journey at a community college, I was a teen mother. I felt alone. I felt like I was an anomaly because I had never seen a teen parent graduate from college, even though I would come to learn that some had.
Like so many young women, my teen pregnancy seemed like the end of the world. It was as if bringing a child into this world was the worst thing that could result from a relationship — not sexually transmitted infections or sexually transmitted diseases, but a child. College had long been out of the grasp for me as a low-income, first generation student and as an immigrant who had no access to financial aid. Now, the obstacles to getting a college education were just intensified by my pregnancy and then my child.
An Uphill Battle
Maybe college wasn’t for me. Not because I couldn’t do it, but because the systems in place are not designed to support someone like me. Fewer than 2% of teenage mothers earn a college degree before the age of 30, and only 2% of college students are Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival recipients/undocumented. Many student parents, like myself, intersect with other marginalized groups that make obtaining a college diploma nearly impossible. We are more likely to be first generation college students and students of color. We are also more likely to feel isolated on campus – not because student parents are small in number (in fact, 1 in 5 college students are parenting), but because the lack of support makes us invisible on most college campuses. We also are ten times less likely to earn a bachelor’s degree within five years than the “traditional” student. Some of our biggest hurdles? Affording the rising cost of tuition, finding stable and affordable childcare, and having the resources to support ourselves through graduation.
Without tuition assistance and other wraparound supports provided by Generation Hope, I probably would have dropped out of college. In fact, the day I found out that I had been accepted into the Scholar Program, I was almost at my breaking point. Generation Hope made higher education more affordable by providing me with an annual scholarship of $1,200 during my time at a community college, and $2,400 during my time at a four-year institution. They not only provided me with tuition assistance, but they also provided me with a mentor, a Hope Coach on their staff, and an abundance of resources that I could tap into. While this support helped significantly, it did not mean that my college journey did not come with trials and tribulations. I still had to cover the remainder of my tuition for my other classes without access to financial aid, figure out childcare, and balance internships, work, and other responsibilities.
Childcare seemed like a luxury — a luxury I couldn’t afford. My two sons had multiple babysitters during the week so that my husband and I could work and go to school, and it was often unstable. Having an affordable childcare center on campus for parenting students would have made things much easier, but the number of colleges and universities with on-campus childcare facilities has declined significantly over the years, dropping from 53% in 2003 to 44% in 2015. Those institutions that do have childcare facilities often have long waiting lists or high fees. Half of student parents spend an average of nearly $490 per month on childcare — a cost that can be too much to handle.
Being a DACA student just created more obstacles. During my first two years in college we couldn’t afford childcare, which meant I couldn’t work, and without a job, I couldn’t access public benefits. When I was finally able to work, the “Public Charge” rule that was put in place in 2019 meant that I still couldn’t access any of the benefits that could help our family. Under the “Public Charge” Rule, a person who had received public benefits in the past or was deemed likely to rely on public benefits in the future would not be eligible to adjust their immigration status to Permanent Resident, closing the door to U.S Citizenship.
With my husband being the sole provider, I often worried that we wouldn’t be able to buy enough groceries, and there were times when our bank account had a zero balance with days before a paycheck would arrive. We were living the same reality as too many other student parents — 53% of which reported being food insecure within the last thirty days in 2020. It was hard to envision the finish line when I felt like I was drowning and trying to survive day by day.
Light Ahead
The support that Generation Hope provided helped me first earn my associate’s degree and then my bachelor’s degree. My education allowed me to secure the self sufficiency I always yearned for. Generation Hope also gave me opportunities to speak publicly about my experience as a teen mother in college, which opened me up to another world – a world of leaders who were fighting for and with student parents across the country. It awakened the advocate in me. I was now able to see the power in my story and to use my voice. I became an agent of change because, like me, there are millions of other student parents who are trying to overcome the same obstacles. Stories like mine are why Generation Hope is committed to removing systemic barriers and ensuring that college is not a luxury — but a right.
Generation Hope believes that efforts to remove the systemic barriers that hold student parents back must include putting power in the hands of students and uplifting their voices to help shape and frame public policy. My story, and the stories of so many student parents, reflect the systems that have historically marginalized us. With our input, Generation Hope created their overarching Policy Priorities, which include higher education, quality childcare, and economic mobility, and we have just released our 2022 advocacy focus areas to drive this work forward.
I say “we” when I talk about Generation Hope not only because I am an alumna of the program but also because in 2021, I joined their staff as their first-ever Student Advocacy Coordinator. Each day, I get to work with parenting students locally and all across the country to create the change that we want to see. Their commitment to me, to teen parents, and to all student parents has allowed me to thrive in a way I never imagined possible.
Yoslin Amaya Hernandez is a Student Advocacy Coordinator at Generation Hope and an alumna of Montgomery College and the University of Maryland, College Park. To learn more about Generation Hope’s policy work, click here or email policy@generationhope.org.