UTEP Professors research barriers to community engagement for student parents
This summer, The Liberal Arts Community Engagement (LACE) initiative supported research identifying student parents' barriers to completing community-engaged learning.
Research touts that community-engaged learning leads to professional opportunities, advancement, and graduate education. It also enhances personal learning, growth, and meaningful community connections, which enriches students' undergraduate education.
Professors Sarah Upton from the Department of Communication and Naomi Fertman from Women's and Gender Studies conducted a pilot research study on students’ experiences participating in community-engaged learning. The preliminary data found that student parents and caretakers struggled with completing community engagement at higher rates than non-caretaking students. The findings led to the following research phase, which consists of interviews to explore barriers in caregiver populations.
“We believe that the analysis phase of our project will give us insights into what we can do as faculty members and leaders in a student organization to make the campus a more family-friendly place, whether it's through changing policies in our classrooms, offering peer support, or working towards systemic change on campus more broadly,” said Dr. Upton.
Professors Upton and Fertman worked with three undergraduate assistants who are parents: Esmeralda Gandara, president and vice president of Moms N’ Majors, Yaretsy Hernandez and Beatrice Alexis Holbert. These assistants developed an interview guide and recruited participants with caregiving roles for this study. They have also drawn from their identity and experiences as student parents to offer ways faculty and community partners can facilitate community-engaged learning.
As of today, the team has interviewed 17 UTEP students who identify as parents. They expect to hold three more focus groups and five more individual interviews during August.
"Parenting and being a student can be challenging, but this opportunity allowed me to see that I am not alone in this process and that there is a community at UTEP that is willing to help parents reach their goals," said Beatrice Holbert.
Project description and photo courtesy of Dr. Sarah Upton.
