Undergraduate Parents Build Community, Savor Success at UToledo

Undergraduate Parents Build Community, Savor Success at UToledo

A few pre-semester nerves were nothing new to Christie Hoeflinger.

She'd already logged several college credits toward her long-term goal of veterinary school by the time she was preparing for her first day of classes at The University of Toledo in fall 2023. But she also knew that semester would look a little different for her.

It would be her first as a mother to a 9-month-old baby.

"We have a lot of family support, but I still didn't know how I was going to do it with such a young child. And I don't know how my fiancé and I were both going to do it," said Hoeflinger, currently a health sciences junior at UToledo. "What happens when the baby gets sick and we've both got exams?"

Hoeflinger and Hayden Grady, a biology sophomore, count themselves lucky that they haven't yet had to tackle that particular question since they enrolled in the same semester at UToledo. But they have navigated plenty of other joys and challenges as student parents, a slice of the campus community that the Catharine S. Eberly Center is recognizing in September for National Student Parent Month.

A diaper drive and professional development series for faculty and staff will extend throughout September, while Carlson Library hosts an open house for its Family Resource Room from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 12, and a student parent focus group meets over lunch in the Eberly Center from noon to 1 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 18.

For more information on National Student Parent Month programming at UToledo, go to the Eberly Center website.

Hoeflinger and Grady have become regulars at the Eberly Center, where student-parent initiatives fall under a broader mission to promote and advance gender equity at UToledo. Eberly Center Associate Director Danielle Lutman is the advisor to the student organization the couple launched in the spring, Rocket Parents and Caregivers, which aims to build community and peer support among students who know firsthand what it's like to juggle simultaneous commitments to classes and children.

Members meet monthly for conversation and children's crafts in the center lounge.

"Christie and Hayden are amazing student leaders and student parents," Lutman said. "Recognizing that student parents need a continuous community, they reached out to the Office of Student Engagement and within a month had a student organization up and running for student parents and caregivers. Their dedication to making UToledo more family friendly is encouraging and they're already on the way to accomplishing that goal."

Hoeflinger had put in semesters at Ohio State University and University of Cincinnati, ultimately withdrawing during the coronavirus pandemic, by the time she met Grady in 2021. That was at an animal hospital in Bloomington, Indiana.

She was working behind the counter when he walked in with a cat.

"The rest is history," Hoeflinger joked. "We still have that cat."

The couple left Bloomington for Hoeflinger's hometown in Ottawa Hills before they welcomed their son, Archer, on Thanksgiving 2022.

By the following summer, the new mother was thinking about going back to school and continuing to work toward her goal of becoming a veterinarian.

Grady, who said he hadn't thought much about college after dropping out of high school and working trade jobs while pursuing his GED, decided he would join her. A first-generation college student, he's now eyeing medical school.

Both described a positive on-campus experience at UToledo, with faculty and staff who support their family situation and career aspirations.

For Hoeflinger, who is among the first undergraduate students to pursue a degree under the new health sciences program, that's particularly true of the Pre-Health Advising Center.

Meanwhile, Grady connected in his first semester with Dr. Song-Tao Liu, a professor and chair of the Department of Biological Sciences, with whom he's been studying a protein that regulates the cell cycle as an undergraduate researcher.

Grady also just completed a First Year Summer Research Experience with Liu. One of several programs in UToledo's Office of Undergraduate Research, the First Year Summer Research Experience funds students to pursue research and creative projects under the mentorship of UToledo faculty member during the summer following their first year on campus.

"I think it's really cool that this is a research university," Grady said. "The opportunities are so diverse. Whatever you're interested in, you can find someone doing it."

As Hoeflinger and Grady begin their second academic year on campus, they're looking forward to growing membership for Rocket Parents and Caregivers. The half-dozen or so parents and caregivers who regularly attended last semester became a supportive on-campus network for them, and a complement to the friendships they've developed with classmates whose home lives look very different from theirs.

They hope the student organization can be a similar resource for other student parents.

"It's rewarding when you can connect with someone in the same situation," Hoeflinger said. "If there are other student parents experiencing the same struggles as us and potentially feeling alone in those struggles, we want to provide a space for them to feel supported and welcomed on campus."