A Comprehensive Approach to Serving Student Parents

New America: What brought you to this work?

Nicole Lynn Lewis: I came into this work, living and breathing this mission. I was once a student parent, and I am a Black woman. And many of the issues that exist today are the same issues I experienced as a student parent many years ago.

I became pregnant during my senior year of high school. I was an honor roll student who was college bound. In fact, I had just received several acceptance letters when I discovered my pregnancy. Still, I was told that my life was over and I would never go to college as a teen mother. Essentially, I was a failure, and this is often the message that many young parents hear in this situation. At the same time, I knew that going to college was now more important than ever—a degree would allow me to have the resources that I needed to provide for this baby.

When my daughter was a little under three months old, I started at William & Mary as a full-time freshman. I was a new mother and a new college student all at once, and I was struggling financially. I didn’t know how I was going to pay for tuition or books or gas in my car. I was also one of few Black students at William & Mary, and there were no supports in place for me to succeed. It was extremely intimidating, but I ended up graduating in four years with high honors, and with my daughter walking across the graduation stage with me.

That experience sparked a fire in me to make it easier for more young parents—and parents of any age—to earn a postsecondary credential. When I saw the statistic that fewer than two percent of teen mothers earn a degree before age 30, I knew that an organization like Generation Hope needed to exist in the world. I started Generation Hope in 2010, and thirteen years later, it’s amazing to see how we have grown and the impact we have been able to have.

New America: What about Generation Hope’s approach to serving student parents is unique?

Nicole Lynn Lewis: At the core of Generation Hope’s work—whether it’s working directly with families or with education and policy leaders—is the belief that parents are the experts in their lives, and we center their voices in everything that we do. They help to shape our direct-service programming, including which services we provide and where we grow strategically. They also inform our systemic-change work by elevating the most pressing issues that policymakers and advocates need to know about, determining which research projects and reports we release, and how we help colleges and universities create more family-friendly campuses. The fact that Generation Hope is both a direct service organization and an organization working on larger systemic issues is part of what makes us unique. We are not theorizing about which public or institutional policies will move the needle for families—we see the impact of those policies every day in the families we work with. We bring that proximate experience into every room we enter.

New America: What is on the horizon for Generation Hope in elevating the student parent space?

Nicole Lynn Lewis: When I started Generation Hope in 2010, I knew that our Scholar Program was needed in communities across the country. We have been serving teen parents in the DC region for more than a decade, and in January 2023, we announced the expansion of our Scholar Program to New Orleans, Louisiana. This is our second Scholar Program location, and our first New Orleans Scholar class will begin in July.

On the systems-change side, we released our 2023 Regional and National Policy Agenda in February, highlighting the legislative opportunities we are pursuing this year in the areas of higher education affordability and accessibility, child care affordability and accessibility, and true pathways to economic mobility. This summer, we will also welcome five colleges and universities to our 2023 FamilyU Cohort, which is a two-year capacity building experience to assist select institutions in transforming their campuses to better serve student parents. They will join the 11 institutions already participating in our cohorts, allowing us to impact 100,000 student parents nationwide through this work. We have some other exciting things that we will be sharing soon. We have somuch to look forward to!

New America: Are there any student parent issues that need more attention in the policy space?

Nicole Lynn Lewis: Because there is so much intersectionality in the student parent population, there are so many latent and overlooked issues that need more attention from policymakers and advocates. One of those would be the lack of support and recognition for student fathers, particularly fathers of color. Generation Hope has always served teen fathers in our direct service work, and we prioritize them in our systems-change work because there is such a dearth of programming and resources when it comes to ensuring they earn a postsecondary credential. We know 71 percent of single fathers stop out of college as well as 72 percent of Black fathers and 66 percent of Latino fathers. These numbers are jarring, and they reinforce the need for us to focus on this population. Additionally, Generation Hope includes pregnant and expecting parents in our definition of student parents. These students also need specific supports to ensure they are able to enroll in college and complete their education. Those are just two examples, but there are many more issues within the student parent discussion that we need more people talking about and doing something about.

New America: What resources do you feel this space needs to advance policy and practice for student parents?

Nicole Lynn Lewis: DATA. We know it’s easier to drive policy when we have the evidence to support it. Without the data on this population, people can dismiss student parents as a small, niche group. Through FamilyU, we help institutions establish data collection systems to track the parenting status of their students, and some institutions find that these students make up 30 percent of their student body. It is much more difficult to deny supports and resources to 30 percent of your students. The data also give institutions and policy makers a fuller picture of their students and families. It’s important to know how many of your students are food insecure, and it’s critically important to know how many of them have multiple mouths to feed.

Data alone is not the answer, though. We need to couple data with elevating the voices of student parents. Their journeys are incredibly powerful, and they give life to the numbers. Every time I hear our Scholars and other student parents talk about their experiences, I learn something new, and I walk away with a deeper appreciation for what they have been able to accomplish.

Spaces that bring people—funders, policymakers, practitioners, and advocates—together are important, but they have to center the voices of those who are most impacted. Traditionally, these spaces haven’t included the voices of families or the voices of leaders of community-based organizations that are proximate to the work and to the people. As a woman of color, a Black woman, and a leader who has lived this work, I have felt these exclusions deeply. To truly advance policies and practice for student parents, we have to not only invite families and leaders of color to the table but we also have to give them the resources to establish their own tables.

New America: Where do you see Generation Hope’s work going in the next three years? Five years? What support do you need to get there?

Nicole Lynn Lewis: We are looking to expand our impact over the next three years. We’re excited about growing our Scholar Program to new communities—creating proof points in different geographies for what it looks like to help young families experience economic mobility. We also want to continue to grow our research, technical assistance, and advocacy work. All of these efforts fuel each other and help in achieving our long-term vision where all teen parents, student parents, and their children have every opportunity to succeed and are empowered to create a better future for themselves, our community, and our world.

Enjoy what you read? Subscribe to our newsletter to receive updates on what’s new in Education Policy!