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The experiences of student parents pursuing a college education amid the COVID-19 pandemic was the focus of Thursday’s Achieving the Dream Student Parent Success Summit.
A number of leaders, speakers and attendees across all disciplines at educational institutions and community-based organizations participated in the five-hour Summit, providing equitable recommendations to develop campus programs/policies that support student parents.
Data at Ascend via the Aspen Institute — a national hub that supports children and the adults in their lives achieve educational success, economic security, health and well-being — and in partnership with the Institute for Women’s Policy Research reveals that the majority of student parents have children under the age of 6.
That’s very much the case for student parent Yoslin Amaya Hernandez, who is a DACA-recipient and senior at The University of Maryland College Park (UMD). Her young boys are ages three and five.
Due to COVID-19, she has had to think about how to forge connections as a student.
“Do I want to do another [Zoom networking] event or spend time with the kids?” she asked herself. “But if I don’t take these opportunities, I am walking into an economy right now like it was in 2010.”