WTCS Voices: A conversation with parenting students

2021 Student Ambassadors Keva Estrada (WCTC) and Amy Powell (BTC)

Below is an abbreviated transcript of the recorded interview with Keva Estrada from Waukesha County Technical College and Amy Powell from Blackhawk Technical College. This article is a 10-minute read.

COLLEN LARSEN, HOST: This is WTCS Voices. I am Colleen Larsen.

This is the first in a series of conversations about supporting students and building inclusive spaces. Today’s conversation focuses on parenting and caregiving students. Parenting students have been significantly impacted by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Preliminary analysis from our office have shown that the enrollment of single parents, in particular, in Fall 2020 was roughly 37% lower than prior years.   

Today, I am joined by two parenting students who are also WTCS Ambassadors, Keva Estrada from Waukesha County Technical College and Amy Powell from Blackhawk Technical College. Keva and Amy, welcome to WTCS Voices.

KEVA ESTRADA: Thank you for having me here today as well.

Introductions

LARSEN: The first question is, could you just introduce yourself and tell us what college you’re from? What program you’re in and maybe just how being a parent has impacted your experience in college so far?

ESTRADA: My name is Keva Estrada and I’m in the Human Services program at Waukesha County Technical College. And as far as being a parent and having that impact the college experience, I feel like it’s vice versa. I feel like my college experience has impacted my family. Having two teenagers, one who has autism; it’s been a good mix. They support me. They even participate in some of my homework assignments, so it’s a good balance between college impacting home life and home life impacting college.

LARSEN: Thanks and I especially appreciate the example of your kids doing your homework with you. That sounds like it could be kind of fun even to do homework.

ESTRADA: It is, and they’re teenagers, so, you know, sometimes they enjoy it and sometimes it’s like, alright, let’s do this so I can get back to my homework. So it’s kind of fun to see them in the moment.

AMY POWELL: My name is Amy Powell. I go to Blackhawk Technical College. I am in the human resource program and also business management program. Being a single parent was quite, how should I say, interesting? I waited to go to school due to the fact of being a single parent, and then when I started my daughter was also in college or I was trying to get her in college. So besides just figuring out how to do schooling for myself, I was also helping her.

Overcoming obstacles for parenting students

LARSEN: What obstacles have you encountered as a parenting student, and how did you overcome them?

ESTRADA: The short answer is balance, and that’s balance between school and home. For example, during my summer classes, I was so overwhelmed, stressed, tired of homework. I didn’t even want to log on to see what was next. And I was just kind of running back and forth between doing stuff at home for a few hours and then going back and doing homework, so I really didn’t have a set schedule or plan. And my children noticed. Then they actually said, you know, do you need a few minutes, Mom? So it really encouraged me to communicate what I needed, and still check in and see what did they need. So, it created some balance that I was lacking. And really, it’s communication. It’s how you overcome the obstacles.

POWELL: Obstacles that I overcame was people around me were telling me that I should put my child first, not myself. That I should just be out there working two jobs to support her while she goes to school. That if I wanted a college education, I should have done it when I first got out of school. A lot of negative feedback. I did have one who was solely supporting me and that’s because she also did a late start in her education. She raised two kids herself. It was my ex mother-in-law, so she told me if this was something I wanted, I could find a way to do it. Go ahead and do it. So I did.

LARSEN: What about supports? What kind of supporting activities or programs does your college offer for parenting students that have been particularly helpful for you?

ESTRADA: There are a lot of activities, and activities that I didn’t anticipate participating. The greatest support system that I have found is the multicultural mentorship program. So that’s when you have a mentee and mentor and a staff mentor. Then you get together. If there’s something going on at home, you can contact your mentor or your staff mentor and say, you know this is really making me struggle. I need help in this area. It’s just kind of like a group that you can lean on. And so right now I’m going through the process of trying to figure out which college to transfer to next. Luckily, I have a staff mentor who is really helping me figure out  scholarships, colleges, there are these programs you can sign up for. So that mentorship program really is the world.

POWELL: I actually didn’t know, and I said that the first time around, too when we first had this meeting. I didn’t know of any actually. So, I have been talking with a few of the teachers and put out some emails trying to figure out how to help single parents at our school, at Blackhawk Technical College. I know that one time we did have a daycare, but it didn’t get used enough. I was informed, so therefore we no longer have it and we haven’t had it in quite some time. We have a lot of resources that are available to anybody. It doesn’t just specify to single parents, though. We have a CARES Program that they just put in place. So there is help with clothing. There’s the emergency funds for people who need them. Again, it’s not just specified for single parents, so it’s for anybody. I have been trying to work on a program of some kind. If it was a club or group to get more single parents or even the young college students who are helping their grandparents. It’s a long process. There is a lot of red tape, I guess, they say, to go through to make sure that we’re not stepping on anything or doing it the wrong way. It’s not something that I’m seeing that’s going to take place this school year by any means, but I am hoping to be a little bit further by next year into it.

How can college employees better support parenting students?

LARSEN: I’m wondering what you think colleges and maybe particularly faculty can do to be able to better support parenting students.

ESTRADA: I feel like that begins at admissions, so that moment where somebody makes the decision to actually sign up for college. You know, even applying, that’s a scary thing to do. And when you’re a parent, all I could think of any ways for myself was how am I going to do this? You know that worry comes up. So at admissions, that’s when the counselor should be saying, OK, I see that you have children. Does this schedule work better for you? Are there any concerns you have being a parenting student? That’s where I feel like there can be a lot of difference that could be made.

POWELL: Wow, that’s a hard one to answer. Definitely asking questions. But again, if people don’t want to give information on their personal life, which a lot of people don’t, even asking questions won’t always get the answers you’re looking for. But just asking questions in general can give you an idea if there is something there that you need to help with or just send them in the right direction. Another thing is I know it’s hard because we’ve done surveys at our school, but a lot of kids don’t answer them or by the time they see him, they really don’t think that they’re important, so they just put whatever they feel like at the time. Or sometimes the surveys don’t go through on the computer system to everybody. So we’re lacking in that aspect as well, which helps us figure out who’s in need of help, what they’re in need help of, and how we can accomplish it for them.

Advice for future parenting students

LARSEN: So what advice, kind of flipping that on its head, what advice would you give to future parenting students that are going to attend your college?

ESTRADA: I’m going to say that it was scary. It’s, for myself personally, you know, just kind of going outside of my comfort zone and saying I’m going to go to college at age 34. You know it was like OK what am I doing? So my advice to future parenting students is go for it. There is absolutely nothing holding you back. I know it feels like it, and each experience is different. But there are so many opportunities and there is support. We’re just working on making that support more apparent and attainable. But, go for it. Sign up for the program that you want to go into, and it will work out.

POWELL:  Speak up, and you are never alone. There are hundreds, even thousands out there that are in need of help as well or in the same situation dealing with the same items, not necessarily at the same time. And they could have went through it. They might be going through it. They might not even have had the experience yet, but it could be getting ready to happen. I mean, terrible twos, that would be hard to have a 2-year-old and going to school and having finals or having a child at home that’s sick or hurt. I mean there’s hundreds out there that go through the same situation. Or in my case, I’m an older student that has a college age daughter that was trying to go to college during the pandemic situation and that was stressful. I’m trying to figure out how to do my schooling, how to help her stay focused on hers because we live in the same house. It was very stressful and if there was somebody it could have spoke to about it, even if they didn’t go through the same situation. But they kind of knew what it was like. That would have helped, but I’ve never had anybody to actually speak to on certain things. I’ve heard one or two people say the same thing. They wish they just had somebody they could just talk to. So, just speaking up. Asking for help. Even if it’s just someone to sit down and listen to.

LARSEN: I think the last thing I’ll ask is just, is there anything else that comes to your mind that you’d like to share about being a parenting student?

ESTRADA: Sure, I think there’s a lot of expectation too, you know, be this June Cleaver stay-at-home Mom or the “work mom”. There’s so many different expectations as a parent that are placed on us and it’s difficult to break away from that. So as far as going to college and making that decision and focusing on yourself, I know sometimes I, for example, felt guilty. You know, choosing to go and get an education instead of staying home, or going and being a breadwinner with my husband. It’s hard to balance all of that, but it’s OK to do things for yourself, and I want parents to know that. This is for you and it’s trickling down to your children as well and people that you’re caring for it. They’re seeing you and they’re seeing all the hard work that you’re putting in. So I think on all sides it’s a win-win.

LARSEN: Thank you so much Keva and Amy. It’s been really wonderful talking with you both and we are really lucky to have you as students, and as parenting students in particular, in our System. So thank you both for all you do.

POWELL: Thank you.

ESTRADA: Thank you so much for having me.