SPARK Collaborative

We close out the year as we started it, in community! This month's newsletter features lots of opportunities to engage more deeply with the student parent community by joining SPARK's newest LinkedIn Group, applying for a STAR fellowship, registering for upcoming conferences, and much more. 📅 Don't Miss: *Conference and scholarship deadlines *The latest research from the field *Playing catch-up with us? Get all the details in SPARK's latest newsletter: https://lnkd.in/gAteVWB5 #StudentParents #HigherEd #ParentingStudents #StudentSuccess #StudentsWithChildren 💡 Know a student parent? Share this post to keep them in the loop!

About 32% of American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, or Other Pacific Islander undergraduates are student parents. As we’ve learned from the recently released SPARK briefs, pulled from the latest NSPAS data, more than half of these Indigenous populations attend community colleges and more than half attend college full-time. Like so many student parents, they pursue education to create a better future for their children. Read more from SPARK’s summary profile here: https://lnkd.in/gjvddkQx As we honor the experiences of Indigenous student parents, we also invite you to learn more about and engage in recent efforts to address the harm caused by the theft of land. Check out AcknowledgRENT—one way to support while also elevating the culture, heritage, and legacy of the First Peoples of Los Angeles County. https://lnkd.in/g6WPh9Ux As we head into the new year, what are other ways we can honor the Indigenous experience?

We're proud to hightlight our STAR Fellow Alyssa Callender, M.S., one of the outstanding members of the Student Parent Action and Advisory Group (SPAAG)—the advisory group that supported the Data-to-Action Campaign for Parenting Students! Alyssa brings a unique perspective to our team as a nontraditional student and single parent. With an MS in Prevention Science from the University of Oregon and an upcoming PhD in Special Education, she's dedicated to breaking cycles of transgenerational trauma and supporting vulnerable families. Her research focuses on nontraditional family structures, including: - Single-parent households - Families affected by domestic violence - Special needs families - Military families Alyssa's lived experience and academic expertise make her an invaluable asset in our mission to deconstruct systemic barriers for marginalized populations. Her commitment to improving how we treat one another aligns perfectly with our values. We're proud of Alyssa's contributions as a co-author, alongside other SPAAG members, to the Rubric for the Authentic Engagement of Student Parents: A Self-Assessment Opportunity for Partners Working with Student Parents (https://lnkd.in/dZNHv54v) and excited to see her continued positive impact in prevention science and special education!🌟 (https://lnkd.in/gdgA8RSq) #STARFellow #PreventionScience #SpecialEducation #NontraditionalFamilies #StudentParentSuccess

Quote: "I wish you rest today. I wish you a deep knowing that exhaustion is not a normal way of living. You are enough. You can rest. You must resist anything that doesn’t center your divinity as a human being. You are worthy of care."~Tricia Hersey, Author of Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto We wish everyone rest this holiday season. It's OK to close the academic books. Don't worry about "catching up" on work. Anything that doesn't revive your soul can wait. As Tricia Hersey says in her latest book, We Will Rest: The Art of Escape, "It is your divine right to rest." Learn and engage more about her powerful work with The Nap Ministry here: https://lnkd.in/d9KtWMBf The SPARK Collaborative team will be taking time away to breathe, and we will see you in the new year!

🏆 Double celebration for our #STARFellow Rebecca Schreiber, M.Ed.!   Congratulations to Rebecca who is an inaugural recipient of the 2024 Financial Aid Change-Maker Award from the Association of American Law Schools section on Pre-Law Education and Admissions to Law School! This prestigious recognition celebrates Rebecca's outstanding work in financial aid and innovative contributions to higher education accessibility. As a STAR Fellow, Rebecca has demonstrated exceptional leadership in advancing equitable access to legal education. Her dedication to transforming financial aid practices continues to make a lasting impact on aspiring law students nationwide. Join us in celebrating this well-deserved honor!    Rebecca was also honored to present at the Antiracist Development Institute’s Annual Convening in October 2024. The Antiracist Development Institute at Penn State Dickinson Law (ADI) uses a systems design approach to create scaffolding that helps higher education institutions achieve systemic equity. Readers of the SPARK Collaborative NPSAS brief on financial well-being will see that, among students with dependent children, Black Female student parents are disproportionately burdened with student loan debt as compared to their peers. ADI’s work is helping institutions take action to address these types of inequities, which may be revealed through national surveys like NPSAS.   Summary of the ADI Event Linked here: https://lnkd.in/eAT_yEPr Catch up on SPARK's NPSAS brief here: https://lnkd.in/eHSRpHRg   🎓 #HigherEd #LawSchool #FinancialAid #Education #EquityInEducation #StudentParents

🎉 Early Bird Alert! Register by December 20th for discounted rates for #HOPE2025, Generation Hope's national conference focused on student parents. 🎓 The conference is sure to be full of exciting presentations, and we want to highlight one featuring SPARK leaders Theresa Anderson and Jessica Lee, along with Eddy Conroy and lori barr, moderated by Brittani (Shaw) Williams, Ph.D. Together, we will explore critical strategies for student parent success in a session titled "Housing Stability as a Catalyst for Student-Parent Success." Join changemakers and thought leaders dedicated to advancing economic mobility for families at National Harbor, MD in April! Register here: https://lnkd.in/ewSBCkfy #StudentParents #HigherEducation #Housing #Education #EconomicMobility #SPARK

✨ Friday Fact from Rebecca Schreiber, M.Ed.: #Didyouknow a higher proportion of student parents borrow student loans, as compared to their nonparenting peers? The SPARK Collaborative's new brief on financial well-being highlights different rates of borrowing, which are consistently higher for student parents pursuing associate’s, bachelor’s, and master’s degrees. Providing individualized, holistic financial aid counseling is crucial to helping student parents navigate the financial challenges that come along with pursuing postsecondary education. Learn more here: https://lnkd.in/eHSRpHRg

📢 EXCITING OPPORTUNITY FOR STUDENT PARENTS! 📚👨👩👧👦 The SPARK Collaborative is hiring a paid STAR Fellow (Skills and Training in Action Research)! 🌟 🎯 Perfect for: Current or recent student parents 📊 Project focus: Researching how colleges use student data to connect students with safety net benefits 💪 Make an impact while gaining valuable research experience! Key details: ✨ Paid position 📅 Application deadline: January 15, 2024 🎓 No prior research experience required (The position is virtual and open to folks across the country) Are you passionate about improving support systems for student parents? Join our team and help make a difference! #StudentParents #HigherEd #JobOpportunity #Research #WorkingParents (https://lnkd.in/gH6DYpzm) Urban Institute, Child Trends, Center for WorkLife Law | UC Law San Francisco, Theresa Anderson, Renee Ryberg, Jessica Lee, Krystle P., Nina Owolabi, Kate Westaby, PhD, Sarah Galison, Kimberly Salazar

This week’s -What We’re Reading Wednesday- feature comes from SPARK Fellow Rebecca Schreiber, M.Ed. Schreiber! She bends the rules a bit by featuring a podcast series! Here's what's on her podcast playlist-- "Malcolm Gladwell’s 'I Hate the Ivy League: Riffs and Rants on Elite Education' explores issues of systemic inequity in the U.S. higher ed system. Episodes tackle barriers to access (“Carlos Doesn’t Remember,” “Tortoise and the Hare”), unequal resources (“My Little Hundred Million,” “Food Fight”), the problem of rankings-driven decision-making (“Lord of the Rankings,” “Project Dillard”), and more. This engaging listen features Gladwell’s narration alongside recorded interviews. You can access the podcast series through audiobook and podcast streaming services—and it may even be available from your local library’s audiobook app! As you listen to the series, consider the ways that the systemic barriers and inequities Gladwell identifies might impact student parents as they work to be admitted to a program, finance their education, and persist through graduation."

Check out the latest from SPARK in our November 2024 newsletter! SPARK Update: Giving Thanks for You https://lnkd.in/gQm_32ad