Office offers student-parents assistance in raising children

Most University of Wisconsin–Madison students’ days are filled with studying and classes, with the occasional snack or nap in between.

But starting at 6:30 every morning, Rebekah Pryor’s days are filled with snack time, nap time and play time, with studying, classes and the occasional piano lesson for extra income crammed into her free moments.

Pryor’s life is arranged around the schedule of her 20-month-old daughter, Maddie. Pryor isn’t just a Ph.D. student in musicology and German; she’s also a mom.

Pryor says that after the birth of her daughter, her life changed from that of a student to that of a busy student-parent. However, she says the programs of UW–Madison’s Office of Child Care and Family Resources (OCCFR) helped her financially adjust to motherhood and offered educational programming and support to make her life easier.

“My friends’ mom once said that ‘It takes a community to raise a child,’ and while I’d like to think I could do it all on my own, she was right,” Pryor says. “The OCCFR provides the kind of community that student-parents need to survive.”

Although UW–Madison doesn’t formally track the numbers of student-parents on campus, more than 400 undergraduate and graduate students use the resources offered by the office.

With child care frequently consuming a large percentage of student-parents’ incomes. OCCFR offers the Child Care Tuition Assistance Program (CCTAP), a grant that partially pays for student-parents’ child-care costs.

Mother and law student Kashoua Thao understands the financial constraints of a student-parent.

“As a parent, I am in a financial bind, but try to make the most of what I have. My only source of money comes from student loans,” Thao says. “Since school started, I’ve only shopped once at the mall, and it was for new school clothes for my daughter.”

Jason Hurwitz, a psychology graduate student and new dad, says the OCCFR financial programs have helped him study and relax knowing his son was getting quality care.

“The cost of full-time infant daycare is like a second mortgage � which I think we failed to appreciate before we became new parents,” Hurwitz says. “CCTAP helps with those costs. This daycare arrangement allows me to work hard on graduating and him to receive the highest quality of care and attention that babies his age need.”

In addition to CCTAP, OCCFR has also created AIM, a smaller program designed to help 15-17 undergraduate students pay the child-care costs CCTAP doesn’t cover. The program also provides support to parents in the form of diapers, wipes and sometimes just a listening ear.

OCCFR also focuses on networking and educational programs that link student-parents to campus resources and to each other.

April Kigeya, the parent resource specialist for the OCCFR, says all of these programs are designed with both parent and child in mind.

“The kids benefit because the parents are in a less stressful situation, and it is easier for parents to actually parent kids when they know that they have a support network of some sort,” Kigeya says.

OCCFR offers a parent/infant group that meets twice a month. This month, the group learned to make edible play dough and talked about infant sleep patterns. Also, once a month a group of parents meet for a luncheon to talk about their experiences and learn from each other.

Field trips are also occasionally offered for student families. In October, student families went to a farm and handpicked pumpkins for Halloween. In November, there was a family party in Ogg Hall.

Kigeya, a mother of two who was also a UW–Madison student-parent while working toward her degree, says that raising children in a campus environment instills the importance of higher education in children.

“When I was in school my son would always see me studying, so then he wanted to read,” Kigeya says. “Ever since my children were born, my husband and I have been in school. They know school is important, and they know they are going to college. There is no question about that.”

Student-parents can learn more about OCCFR’s programs by contacting Kigeya at (608) 265-9123.