How My Parenting Journey Shaped My Commitment to Student-Centeredness

But my incredible graduate student colleagues stepped in and taught my classes for the first two weeks of the semester, while my department chair scheduled me to teach on days that allowed me to share child care with my partner, Travis, who was also a graduate student. When I returned to teaching, I used the electronics storage closet across from our shared Graduate Student offices as my lactation station. My colleagues graciously gathered any electronic equipment they needed for their own teaching schedules around my use of the space.

There was a graduate seminar I needed to attend but I didn't have child care. My faculty advisors, Patricia Parker and Steve May, offered to change the class day and time so I could be there. And, my graduate student colleagues adjusted their own lives and schedules to the class’s new day and time. They also encouraged me to bring Jackson to our seminar that first night — he was very tiny, so he was asleep — but because they willingly changed the meeting day and time of our class, I could fully participate. After that, Jackson was an honorary Tar Heel.

As a first-generation student, I simply didn’t know that I could ask for support. And, while the system itself was not well designed to meet the needs of pregnant and parenting students, my educational community was completely responsive.

When I think about our pregnant or parenting students at UC San Diego, I think about how student-centered my graduate advisors, colleagues and department chair were. If they had not done so much to embrace my family, I wouldn't have been able to achieve my goals. To this day, I am forever grateful and humbled by their kindness and support.

Most of student-centeredness is the small, simple things.

Building Belonging in the Day-to-Day

The big things — affordability, housing, opportunity, health care — are important to student-centeredness, of course, but it’s often what happens in day-to-day interactions, and how people respond to our questions, ideas, hopes, concerns and needs, that creates a sense of belonging and helps us feel as if we matter. It was transformative for me to know that I was part of a community that proactively adjusted for me, was cheering me on and welcomed my child into my graduate studies.

Being a parent informs my professional life. I often think about how parents and families feel when their students are with us at UC San Diego – hundreds or thousands of miles away from home – how our parenting and pregnant students experience our campus, and how important it is to simply feel cared for and to be seen.

As a parent, we have to make difficult decisions. You work to create the best environment for your child’s growth and development with the resources you have. You strive to support their safety and well-being. Their ideas, interests and values. Their need for independence and their desire for purpose, fun and love. Having been a student with a dependent deeply influences the way in which I think about our shared student-centered work.

Expanding Support for Students with Dependents

About five years ago, Interim Assistant Vice Chancellor for Campus Life Andrew Hua, our colleagues in Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs, Eighth College Dean of Student Affairs Sarah Gallenberg, the Residential, Retail and Supply Chain Services team, Vice Chancellor for Organizational Transformation Becky Petitt and a group of our students with children shared the need for more support for our students with dependents.

Needless to say, I understood.

One student in particular, Bernadette Muniz, reached out early on to extend her leadership to support the effort. Even now, as an alumna, Bernadette remains an active partner in supporting our Triton students with dependents.

Our campus invested in [UC San Diego Case Manager] Laurie Magulac's position and then Laurie started connecting with campus partners to create the needed infrastructure to support our students with dependents. Now, UC San Diego has the capacity for students to self-identify as a student with a dependent, allowing us to collect important data and connect with and support these students earlier in their time at UC San Diego. We offer graduate and family housing, a family study space in the Price Center and other areas on campus and lactation facilities throughout the university. The Hub Basic Needs Center provides diapers and formula as well as child-friendly school supplies and gently-used kids clothing, and we recently opened a Family Food Pantry and Children's Closet at the Triton Transfer Hub. Students have access to world-class health care through UC San Diego Health. We continue to expand our on-site early childhood education center, increasing care for infants from 50 to 88 spots. And to complete their Triton student experience, we host an annual graduation celebration specifically for students with dependents and their families with snacks, games and a bounce house.

Having somebody like Laurie, who is focused on supporting these students and bringing issues, needs and opportunities forward every day, allows us to adapt, be more proactive and more student-centered. We continue to strive for all our students with dependents to have the resources needed to thrive and achieve their goals.

Data-Driven Progress and Social Mobility

My experience is 26 years old, so it shouldn’t be used to drive our work to support students with dependents. Understanding the lived experiences of who we're serving is critical, and having good data about them and their experiences ensures the support is effective.

Our colleagues in Enrollment Management have launched a new data collection initiative to complement the direct student feedback we receive. Having a clearer picture of how many students with dependents we have, their majors or schools, where they live and what their needs are helps us identify gaps and better prioritize effective support.

Higher education should be for everyone. We should be proud that we serve many students who have children or are caregiving for others. We'd be remiss if we didn’t honor that and strive to meet all our learners where they are and celebrate them along their way to degree completion.

By considering the complexity of the learner experience, we can be better prepared for students with dependents. Whether they’re our military-connected families, our transfer students, or our graduate and professional students, like Travis and I were, the more responsive we are as a university to the overall student experience, the more successful they will be.