The pandemic pushed the student-parent balancing act to a new level, compounded by the chaos, stress and forced isolation brought upon by the unfolding health crisis and shelter-in-place restrictions.
As a new school year is set to begin amid the pandemic, parents in college continue to struggle with how to juggle their classwork and their children’s schooling as the Covid-19 delta variant raises new questions about health and safety, as well as remote learning.
In March, researchers from UC Davis’ Wheelhouse Center for Community College Leadership and Research released a comprehensive study that offered rare insights into the lives of students who are also parents. By examining financial aid applications in 2018, the authors of the research found that out of 1.5 million applicants in California, about 202,000 of them were parents. The study also found that 3 out of 4 student-parents are women, with an average age of 34. EdSource interviewed seven student-parents about how they
Courtesy of Melanie Gerner
Melanie Gerner returned to community college 16 years after dropping out because she wanted to provide a better life for her daughter and today is pursuing a Master s Degree.
Courtesy of Melanie Gerner
Melanie Gerner returned to community college 16 years after dropping out because she wanted to provide a better life for her daughter and today is pursuing a Master s Degree.
Melanie Gerner
March 5, 2021
After dropping out of high school and community college and a 16-year hiatus from any kind of schooling, I returned to Long Beach City College in the spring of 2018. I was 41. And couldn’t have been less prepared for what I was about to take on.