Nearly a quarter (22%) of today’s undergraduates or 3.8 million students are parents, with student mothers making up 70% of that number. At Bay Path, approximately 20 percent of our undergraduate students are single mothers; a conservative estimate based on self-reported data. As we closed out May, a month when we celebrate mothers and the millions of degrees earned by students throughout the country, I was grateful for the opportunity to connect with Lindsey Reichlin Cruse, the managing director of the Student Parent Success Initiative at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research.
Through research and policy analysis, technical expertise and assistance, the Student Parent Success Initiative “communicates its research and builds partnerships to lift up the voices of students with children and increase equity in higher education for student parents and other underserved student populations.” Reichlin Cruse’s work examining the impact a degree can have not only on student parents, but also an entire family, as well as what student parents need in order to complete college overlaps with Bay Path’s ongoing commitment to delivering a transformational education to the students we serve. It was a privilege to speak to her about our common goal of building a system and providing support that enables more students to graduate from college.
