Harris helps Jennifer pack her backpack before taking Jennifer and her other three children, ages 16, 5, and 1, to their grandmother’s house.
Three weeks before her 21st birthday, Lauren Ramsey found out she was pregnant — and she said she almost ran screaming from Olin Health Center.
Ramsey said she thought her life was over, and she could never raise a child alone, but two years changed that outlook.
Ramsey’s daughter, Rhyann, turned two earlier this month, and Ramsey is gearing up to graduate with a bachelor’s degree in physiology in December.
For student parents at MSU, the juggling act of classes, work and family time requires constant attention. The wide range of student parents at MSU includes single mothers, single fathers and married parents, among others, who must each learn how to care for their children while continuing their education.
With her unpaid internship at Michigan Public Health Institute, a job in the multimedia department of MSU Libraries and a course load that includes an organic chemistry lab, calculus and physiology — Ramsey said her final semester at MSU has been the most difficult.
“I feel like I should be studying 24 hours a day, but I can’t do that,” she said.
As a single mother, Ramsey said she receives help from friends and her mother, who moved to the area when Ramsey was pregnant. But the ultimate responsibility falls on her, she said.
Many student parents turn to MSU’s Family Resource Center, 1407 S. Harrison Road, and the student organization Student Parents on a Mission, or SPOM, to help them with concerns ranging from paying for child care to finding family-oriented activities.
“The key thing we want them to know is they’re not alone,” said Lori Strom, coordinator of the center. “Sometimes, because of the size of this institution, it can feel real lonely.”
Ramsey said she has been able to pay off Rhyann’s child care costs with the money she received from grants like Spartan Kids, the MSU Child Care Grant Program and assistance from the Department of Human Services.
To qualify for Spartan Kids, students must be domestic undergraduates eligible for Federal Pell Grants. The grant gives students a one-time $2,500 for each child at a contracted Spartan Kids location, like the Spartan Child Development Center or Mrs. B’s Childcare in Mason.
Students eligible for the MSU Child Care Grant may receive up to $1,000 per semester for each child.
An estimated 2 percent of MSU’s student population is made up of student parents, Strom said.
About 100 students are using Spartan Kids grants, and about 40 are using the MSU Child Care Grant, she said.
The center has found it easy to work with student parents because they’re serious students, she said.
“They’re not going to the bar on Friday night, they’re going home to their kids and they’re studying and they’re trying to make the best of their time,” she said.
Finding more father-oriented programs has been a struggle for Steve Lagana, a divorced father with custody of his 3-year-old daughter, Isabella.
And he still gets strange looks when he takes his daughter out on the weekends, he said.
“They think I’m a weekend dad — it’s still not socially acceptable or the norm for fathers to have custody of children, especially a daughter,” said Lagana, a physics senior. “There are a lot of things that need to get worked out socially.”
Managing the responsibilities of school, home and work are also demanding for Lagana, who is taking 17 credits and working about 15 hours a week for Residence Life.
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“There’s not enough time in the day,” he said. “Especially in my senior year, doing senior classes, the workload is more. Sleep is what I sacrifice to get all my course work done.”
Leann Harris, a family studies graduate student and divorced single mother, said her days are filled with dropping her four children — ages 16, 5, 4 and 1 — off at daycare and school, running to ballet and band practice and working around her Lansing home.
After her children are asleep at about 10 p.m., Harris said she starts studying.
Harris, who is also an executive board member for SPOM, said balancing school and family has made it difficult for her to pursue her doctoral degree to become a marriage and family therapist.
“I just don’t know what’s best for my family,” she said. “I’m trying to figure out what will benefit them most, whether it’s getting out of school quicker or pursuing my education.”
