[New Episode] Advancing Student Parent Success with Dr. Tina Cheuk

“The more diversity we have in classrooms, we all benefit from that in terms of innovation, creativity, and generating prosperity for all of California.” —  Dr. Tina Cheuk

Making that vision real requires colleges to shift the structures that shape students’ experiences, from classroom policies and financial aid to institutional culture. This transformation would help ensure caregiving is recognized as part of student life and student parents, who make up about one in eight college students in California, can thrive.

In the latest episode of Degrees of Change, California Competes CEO Dr. Su Jin Jez speaks with Dr. Tina Cheuk, associate professor of elementary science education at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and director of #StudentParentJoy, a media and policy research initiative working to redefine what it means to be a pregnant or parenting student in the California State University system. Drawing on her own experience as a student parent and her work as an educator, researcher, and advocate, Tina reflects on the evolution of California’s student parent movement and what it will take to sustain its momentum.

Conversation highlights include:

• What Tina’s own experience as a student parent revealed about how higher education sees and too often fails to see students raising children
• Why student parents’ perspectives make classrooms stronger and enrich California’s innovation, creativity, and prosperity
• How #StudentParentJoy challenges stereotypes by centering student parents’ strengths, aspirations, and perspectives
• The evolution of the statewide student parent movement and The California Alliance for Student Parent Success’s role in moving policy from passage to implementation

This episode is part of our anniversary season, Crystal Clear: A Vision for the Future of California Higher Ed.