A Pre-Orientation Designed for Student Parents

Student parents often arrive on college campuses balancing responsibilities that extend well beyond the classroom, from caring for their children to navigating work along with academics. At Wichita State University, a new pre-orientation program aims to support those students before classes even begin.

The public university in Kansas introduced the new Parents and Caregivers Community Program this fall as part of its annual Shocker Pre-Season programming, which offers pre-orientation experiences designed for specific student groups or about certain topics in the weeks before the fall semester begins.

The online, asynchronous program, which began this week, is designed to help students who are parents or caregivers connect with peers in similar stages of life, explore family-friendly spaces on campus and learn about resources that can support their academic, social and mental well-being.

Brett Petersen-Bruner, associate vice provost for student success and persistence at Wichita State, said the pre-orientation program grew out of a virtual workshop for student parents hosted by the university’s Office of Online and Adult Learning in spring 2024.

He said two themes emerged: Student parents wanted intentional spaces to build community and belonging with others in similar situations, and many expressed feelings of parental guilt as they tried to balance academics with their other responsibilities.

“We really thought intentionally about ‘How do we onboard student parents in family-friendly ways?’” Petersen-Bruner said. “That has served over the last couple years as our motivation to really think about reimagining our support for students who are parents or caregivers.”

In response, the university began developing supports for student parents and caregivers, including an ongoing virtual community where they could connect with one another and share their experiences. Those conversations eventually helped inform the creation of the new pre-orientation program.

“That’s why we were excited to launch a new set of online modules for our students who are parents or caregivers this fall, really devoted just for them,” Petersen-Bruner said.

Supporting student parents: The program includes four asynchronous modules students can complete on their own schedules:

1. The first introduces students to the university’s Office of Online and Adult Learning and the resources relevant to parents and caregivers, including the Child Development Center, the community garden, baby-changing stations and lactation and wellness rooms. It also provides information about campus opportunities available to their children.

2. The second module focuses on academic wellness and how the university’s Ablah Library can support student parents and caregivers.
3. The third highlights the campus’s Ulrich Museum of Art and how it can support students’ social wellness.
4. And the last focuses on mental wellness, including resources that can help student parents and caregivers navigate feelings including parental guilt. Students are introduced to the university’s Office of Counseling and Psychological Services and strategies to support their well-being.

This week, 15 new students have opted in to the inaugural program, Petersen-Bruner said. The university had initially planned to include an in-person component, but feedback from student parents and caregivers prompted officials to shift fully online, in part because the program coincides with the start of the K–12 school year.

“Many of our students who are parents and caregivers, they’re navigating the life of classes beginning in the K–12 setting—most of them beginning this week—so shifting those to a virtual space really made sense,” Petersen-Bruner said. “It blows our mind that students are taking the opportunity the week before classes even begin to really dive into those [modules].”

Students who want to visit campus still have opportunities to receive support in person. For those who bring young children with them, Petersen-Bruner said, the Office of Online and Adult Learning provides “busy bins” with age-appropriate educational and recreational activities to keep children occupied while their parents meet with staff.

“There are educational pieces, reading books, coloring pages and various activities within each of those busy bins in our physical office for those students who are coming in physically to meet in person,” Petersen-Bruner said.

A sense of belonging: Petersen-Bruner said fostering a sense of belonging among student parents and caregivers is central to the program, particularly as they balance responsibilities that can make the college experience feel isolating.

“We focus on this notion of community and a sense of belonging because we want our students to know that they’re not the only one who’s trying to balance work and school while being a parent or a caregiver,” Petersen-Bruner said. “We know that when individuals can find their people—whether they’re students who are parents or caregivers or first-gen students or any students, for that matter—then they’ve got this. They’ve got some connections. They’ve got people they can turn to.”

As the program continues, Petersen-Bruner said, the university will pay attention to participants’ reflections at the end of each module to understand what is resonating with them and how the program can better support student parents.

“Facilitating those peer-to-peer connections are so vitally important when we think about students realizing, ‘I can do this, I can persist, I can go back and harness my why,’” he said. “Which for so many of our students and parents and caregivers is really focused on helping be the light for their children or others within their family.”

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