Experiencing college life begins at an early age for the children of ASU students.
More and more student parents are struggling to balance school, family life and childcare.
“It’s really hard to study with a baby; every 10 minutes he needs to be attended to,” electrical engineer senior Ngoc (Nancy) Bui said.
Bui is a full-time student, part-time server and full-time mother. Between studying for her classes, the hour-long commute from Avondale to Tempe and tending to her family, she is finding it hard to “catch up.”
She sleeps an average of two to four hours a night and wakes up early to get her children ready in the morning.
“It’s very overwhelming,” Bui said. “There is no time to slack.”
However, Bui stays optimistic and motivated for school.
“I have a wonderful life with my family,” Bui said. “The only thing missing is my career.”
Bui can’t afford to put her bachelor’s degree on hold or put her four-month-old baby at any of the four ASU daycares and preschools. Fortunately her husband and 13-year-old daughter help out with the baby and around the house while she is gone.
For students who do not have a similar support group, there are options for cheaper daycare and preschool payments.
Five percent of undergraduate students and 19 percent of graduate students have children under the age of 12, according to University Office of Evaluation and Educational Effectiveness study conducted in spring 2009.
Charlotte Woodward, director of the Mary Lou Fulton Teacher’s College Preschool, said there is a financial aid package offered to students that complete their FAFSA.
“The economy being the way it is, no one really is alone,” Woodward said.
ASU has offered the Child Care Access Means Parents in School grant since 2001. The program allows Pell grant eligible student parents to lower the cost of on campus childcare, according to the University Office of Evaluation and Educational Effectiveness.
The grant is available at any of the four on-campus daycares and preschools, Campus Children’s Center, Child Development Lab, Mary Lou Fulton Preschool and Next Horizons Child Development Center.
In addition to the Tempe childcare centers, USG Downtown is planning to establish a daycare for Downtown students in need of childcare.
“The original idea was for children to not to stop students from going to class,” said David Bakardjiev, USG Downtown Vice President. “It’s to make it easier for them.”
Bakardjiev said opening the daycare downtown will not be an easy task.
“It took (Tempe) 20 years to finally start up the first daycare,” Bakardjiev said in an email.
Bakardjiev said the two biggest obstacles are that downtown has limited space, which will make it difficult to have a playground.
Bakardjiev said USG Downtown plans to partner with YMCA, ASU Preparatory and Graduate Professional Student Association to help create the Downtown daycare.
Bui is looking forward to graduating next May, but she has advice for other struggling parent students.
“If you are motivated and focused there will always be a way.”
Reach the reporter at thania.betancourt@asu.edu.
Click here to subscribe to the daily State Press newsletter.
