The Graduate Students’ Association (GSA) has launched a $4,000 grant designed to assist student-parents pursuing graduate studies at Carleton.
The grant, created in January, aims to supplement graduate students’ costs for childcare so that they can attend academic events outside of regular school or childcare hours, such as during weekends and evenings.
Eligible students can apply for several grants, to a maximum of $250 per student, per fiscal year, according to the GSA website.
The grant is the brainchild of Victoria Simmons, a sociology and anthropology PhD student.
Simmons, who has been a parent for the entirety of her graduate studies, said the responsibility of finding childcare presents an “economic barrier that we [fellow student-parents] face that perhaps other students don’t.”
Simmons said despite under-represented, the landscape of the student-parent demographic is changing, with more and more graduate students from a diverse range of ages enrolling each year.
GSA council, spearheaded by vice-president (academic) and student parent William Felepchuk, passed the policy motion unanimously in the fall.
Felepchuk said that the policy was created to “address additional barriers that grad students face in order to partake in activities,” and that it is “part of a wider range of initiatives that the GSA is trying to do, to address the specific need of our members.”
He said the motion was a collaborative effort, and attributes it to the hard work and dedication of a collection of student parents and GSA members.
According to Felepchuk, many students have already applied for the grant, even prior to its being made public, so evidently its demand was significant enough to merit its enactment.
Bridgette Brown, a mother of three and PhD English student at Carleton, said she plans to apply for the grant.
Brown said she believes the grant is needed, as rising costs of childcare pose difficulties to university students.
“A lot of us are paying for daycare, or before-and after-school care, so the majority of our money or our budget will go towards the needs of daytime childcare, so a lot of time, you won’t have enough cash to shell out for evening babysitting,” Brown said.
According to Brown, in academia the ability to attend enrichment events such as seminars and networking opportunities is often crucial to success, especially at the graduate level, wherein the individualized nature of the learning structure can be very isolating.
“My children are my first priority, that’s my first main job, and that keeps my PhD work in perspective,” Brown said.
In spite of the challenges balancing full-time studies with raising a family, Brown said she finds the experience extremely rewarding and looks forward to the opportunities this grant will afford her.
– File photo
