Family Support

Posted by Sarah Roche on February 6, 2012

Before the winter break I met with Amanda Ruiz, a mathematics graduate student at Binghamton University and head of the Graduate Student Parents Group on Facebook. Amanda took over this group, which has been in place for a few years, when the creators graduated. Grad school parents are very busy; balancing classes, teaching or working, and families, often far away from their hometowns and support systems. The Graduate Student Parents Group communicates mostly via Facebook and focuses on providing mutual support for grad students with children by arranging play dates, passing on relevant information, delivering food to each other when needed, and the all-important knowledge that others are there, dealing with the same conflicts and circumstances.

Some of Amanda’s goals for the organization are to advocate for a space for breast feeding on campus and to create a database of information on housing and landlords that grad students could turn to prior to their move to Binghamton.

If you are a grad student and also a parent, make sure you check out this Binghamton University group. You can find them on Facebook or contact Amanda Ruiz at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) for more information.

Now, what about nontrad undergraduates who are parents? Do you think undergrads could use a group like this? Are there enough to facilitate starting one? Feel free to make connections in the comments of this post. We can all use all the support we can get, and parents helping each other sounds like a great idea to me!