University Honors

The University of California, Riverside is one of the top two UCs with the biggestundergraduate student-parent population (parenting students’ experience, 2019). Student-parentsare an invisible population amongst undergraduate students that not only have to maintain highereducation coursework, jobs, and survival, but also the well-being and survival of their child/ren.This research aims to highlight the effects of parenthood on student-parents' mental, emotional,physical, and economic struggles while trying to be successful in academia at UCR. This will beachieved through interviews with UCR staff, undergraduate student-parents, and student-parentUCR alumni. Staff interviews within the ethnic and gender programs and supportive services oncampus such as the Women’s Resource Center, Chicano Services Programs, UndergroundScholars program, and UCR Center for Early Child Education will explore resources andprogramming that support student-parent activities and what services they offer in order toadhere to UCR guidelines. The lived experiences of student-parents call attention to trends inadaptation in order to survive and needs that are not being met by the university. These recordedinterviews at UCR in comparison with student-parent services offered by two other local UCcampuses which have a high percentage of undergraduate student-parents, University ofCalifornia, Berkeley, and University of California, Los Angeles, will be used to outlinerecommendations for UCR campus leadership which can be implemented as practical solutionsfor the success and well-being of student-parents.