Brittany Kenner
Contributing Writer
[email protected]
All students have had to readjust to the new normal after COVID-19, but one group has had to work harder than others.
Student parents have had more difficult struggles trying to balance their academic lives with being caretakers. When COVID-19 hit, it changed how these students view classes and childcare. For many students, switching to online classes made it easier to balance schoolwork and their children, but for others it posed challenges.
Senior creativing writing major Makenna Crowley found out she was pregnant with her daughter Charleigh in 2019 and had her in January 2020.
Crowley said when the pandemic hit, going completely online and transitioning to Zoom classes benefited her and her boyfriend with balancing academics, Charleigh and their jobs.
“I like Zoom classes because I am able to stay home with my daughter during them,” Crowley said. “They are harder to pay attention to sometimes if my daughter needs my attention at the same time, but they have definitely made it easier on me to be able to stay home and do things while also being ‘in class.’”
There are still challenges that come with staying home, Crowley said.
“One of the biggest challenges for me has been making sure I get all of my work done while making time for my daughter, too,” Crowley said. “It makes me feel guilty having to do school work over playing with her sometimes.”
Another one of the challenges has been not showing Charleigh as much of the world as she’d like, Crowley said.
Chenise Nolan, a senior criminal justice major, had mixed feelings about Zoom classes. Nolan also said Zoom is a convenient option for parents when a child is sick or when childcare is hard to find.
Nolan said more Zoom options should be available to students, especially parents because it would allow non-traditional students like themselves to be more involved and receive a more traditional educational experience.
Senior nursing major Natalie Cunha said Zoom is harder for her since there is always something else she can be doing at home.
Cunha said her childcare situation actually got easier when the COVID-19 pandemic began because her husband, who works in the U.S. Navy, was able to work from home rather than being gone five days out of the week. This allowed him to take their four kids to and from school, freeing up some extra study time for Cunha.
Nolan, Cunha and junior elementary education major Andrea Watson all agreed that Murray State has been very supportive of them as non-traditional students with children.
Cunha said there are some classes that can’t be replicated on Zoom or online, such as math and science. After taking a statistics class online last semester, Cunha said the format did not work for her, especially with children at home.
Watson said that one of her classes was posted as a Zoom class during registration but was actually a hybrid class. Since she works full-time, has a young son and is currently pregnant, traveling to Murray three times a week wasn’t something she could do. Her instructor allowed her to complete the entire course via Zoom rather than coming into the main campus on scheduled days. By being allowed to take the course fully on Zoom, she could continue working and attend class.
“I feel like I’m getting more out of school by being able to be in a Zoom class,” Watson said.
Since she lives in Hopkinsville, KY, and attends college at the Hopkinsville regional campus, Watson said Zoom has allowed her to feel more involved in her classes.
College students with children have had to take on childcare, adjusted classes and other effects of the pandemic, but the University and faculty have been helpful.
