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Program Profile: Students with Children Conference
James Stewart is the Assistant Director of Adult Student Affairs at DePaul University. He can be contacted at jstewa34 @ depaul. edu
By James G. Stewart
DePaul University has a long history of serving a wide diversity of students, including adult learners. Currently over 25 % of the undergraduate population is over 24 years old.
Realizing the unique needs of students who have children, who can be adult learners or traditional aged, DePaul’ s office of Adult, Veteran, and Commuter Student Affairs sought out to host a Conference for Students with Children.
This one-day conference first held in May 2013 had sessions on a variety of topics and keynote addresses. The sessions provided valuable opportunities for collaboration across the campus. Presenting partners included University Ministry, University Center for Writing Based Learning,, School of Public Health, the office of the Dean of Students, and more. Example sessions included“ Spirituality and your family,“ Workout to Chill-out,”“ Tutoring and Your Child,” and“ Selecting a Pre-School or Kindergarten”
An important aspect of busy studentparents being able to devote a Saturday to attend a program such as this was the availability of child-care. The office worked with the Ray Mayer Fitness Center at DePaul( which regularly offers drop-off babysitting to users) to offer childcare during the conference.
The conference was a wonderful success. Students and their guests all raved in evaluations at not only the knowledge gained, but the ability to network with other similar students.
In order to keep the momentum going, several of students are currently working to start a registered student organization to continue ongoing learning and networking for students with children.
The office also complied a comprehensive resource guide distributed to each student attendee. It contained not only DePaul resources, but also community resources of interest. The guidebook was considered such a success the office printed copies for distribution at orientations and other events all throughout the year.
DePaul plans to host the conference annually, and staff responsible will work with the soon to be student club to continue the success.
Haydee Nunez, Director of Adult, Veteran and Commuter Student Affairs addresses attendees at the inaugural Conference for Students with Children at DePaul University.