In California, 20% of all undergraduates are parents and over 180,000 college students are single mothers. A national survey conducted by Generation Hope found that 40% of parenting students feel isolated on their campus and disconnected from their college community while 20% of parenting students feel unwelcome on their campuses. National data further demonstrates that student-parents are 10 times less likely to complete a bachelor’s degree within five years than nonparents.

Although national surveys are helpful in understanding the general student parent population, more information is needed to improve support for the more than 20% of students in California who are student parents. A good first step is understanding, developing, and making transparent the formal and informal data collections on pregnant and parenting students currently taking place at the California State University (CSU) system. To do so, together with The Education Trust—West, we are pleased to share a preview of the report from the California Student Parent Data Collection Landscape Analysis Project, an effort that aims to inform the field about how data on this student population is collected, where it lives, how it can be improved and how it can inform policy changes in support of pregnant and parenting students.

Join us on December 13th as we highlight key findings from the analysis and identify ways that campuses can go from family friendly to family serving. 

Featuring

Isaac Alferos
Research and Data Analyst, The Education Trust—West
As a Research and Data Analyst, Isaac Alferos (he/they) joins The Education Trust—West team with his experience as an educational researcher, equity advocate, and social justice organizer. Born and raised in Buena Park, California, Alferos’ passion for community development and educational opportunity is a product of his community’s experiences.

Alferos has previously worked as an independent researcher in partnership with multiple higher education organizations and served on the California Student Aid Commission, working to keep higher education affordable for all students, making him one of the youngest queer men of color to be appointed to state office. In previous roles, he expanded public/private partnerships in education and developed fellowship programs to support holistic student development. As an organizer, Alferos has worked with leaders across the state to ensure the creation and development of educational equity initiatives that create community-led educational design. As a strong believer in the power of transformative education, Alferos has been a keynote speaker and guest lecturer at many institutions across California, sharing the application of liberative and abolitionist practices in education. Alferos is a queer Black and Ilocano community worker and a proud descendant of sharecroppers and immigrants. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration, concentrating in Finance, from California State University Fullerton.

Denise Luna
Associate Director of Higher Education Policy, The Education Trust—West
Denise Luna (she/her/hers) is the Associate Director of Higher Education Policy at The Education Trust—West. As a daughter of immigrant parents from Mexico and the first in her family to graduate college, Denise is passionate about educational equity and racial justice. Luna brings a decade of experience in higher education policy advocacy, teaching, research, data analysis, and community organizing. Before joining The Education Trust–West, she was the Program Coordinator/Interim Director for Students Making A Change (SMAC). She supervised SMAC’s fellowship program, developed the leadership of students of color, managed policy and advocacy efforts, and monitored campaign goals to institutionalize equity in California Community Colleges. Before that, Luna worked for the University of California, Merced, where she taught undergraduate Sociology courses. She also carried out quantitative research and co-conducted research on racial health disparities, racism, and social movements as a graduate research assistant at the University of California, Merced. From an early age, Luna knew her calling was to mentor youth of color and first-generation college students while working for Mission Graduates and Mission Girls. She holds a B.A. in Psychology and an M.A. in Sociology from the University of California, Merced.

Christopher J. Nellum
Executive Director, The Education Trust—West
Dr. Christopher J. Nellum is the Executive Director of The Education Trust–West, an evidence-driven advocacy organization committed to advancing policies and practices to dismantle the racial and economic barriers embedded in the California education system. He has led successful advocacy efforts to ensure equity in the K-12 accountability system, create a statewide cradle-to-career data system, address food insecurity for college students, ensure that every high school senior completes a financial aid application before they graduate, and defend fairness in college admissions. Before joining Ed Trust–West, Nellum was at the National Center for Institutional Diversity, Young Invincibles, and the American Council on Education. Nellum serves on several statewide committees, including a recent gubernatorial appointment, the advisory boards of the New Leadership Academy and GENup, and the Board of Directors of the James B. McClatchy Foundation and Swipe Out Hunger. He completed his undergraduate degree at the University of California, Santa Barbara; master’s degree at California State University, Long Beach; and Ph.D. at the University of Michigan. 

As students pursue higher education in what is becoming an increasingly precarious economic environment, the Michelson 20MM Foundation is committed to supporting  organizations and institutions that are working to increase persistence and graduation rates by helping students meet their basic needs. Basic needs are defined as a student’s ability to adequately meet their food, housing, mental health, sleep, child/dependent care, hygiene, and transportation requirements.  

In support of these efforts, our next cycle of the Michelson Spark Grants program will focus on Student Basic Needs and will run from September 5, 2023, to September 19, 2023. The cycle seeks to fund macro-level projects that support systems-level strategies, create impact at scale, and inform public policy. 

Funding Cycle Details

The Spark Grants Program is available to United States-based nonprofits and seeks to provide a just-in-time grantmaking process to fill urgent needs for higher education organizations, which are well aligned with our focus areas. For this round of funding, we are focusing our impact on organizations doing work in California—organizations whose work does not impact California will be ineligible for this opportunity. 

We will be awarding grants up to $25,000 to nonprofits and educational institutions whose efforts include one of the focus areas outlined below. We are particularly interested in innovative efforts that catalyze systemic solutions in support of the basic needs of college students; this could include, but is not limited to, housing, food insecurity, health/mental health, and childcare.

During this funding cycle, we will not pursue projects that would result in direct assistance to students, such as emergency student aid, laptops and hotspots for remote learning, or food and housing vouchers. While we realize there is a tremendous need among students for direct support, at this time we are leveraging our funding to effect broader systemic change.

Proposals where Michelson Spark Grant funds are part of a larger overall project with multiple funding streams are welcomed.

Focus Areas

We are interested in supporting projects that advance:

• Leveraging technology solutions to maximize and measure the effectiveness and efficiency of basic needs supports and capture student academic success. This could include:
  -Systems to help assess student basic needs by providing data that captures the need for additional support and tells the story of who is accessing basic needs services
  -Streamlining deployment and information about basic needs supports, emphasizing local resources—both on and off campus—for students taking classes online or in-person.
  -Providing support for students during “off-hours”
• Incorporating basic needs within the campus culture and climate. This could include efforts that strengthen the continuum of care for students’ basic needs. Topics may include:
  -Support for students transitioning between two-year to four-year institutions
  -Identifying students who have stopped or dropped out due to basic needs issues and assisting them with re-enrollment
  -Using student voices and perspectives to inform student basic needs efforts, policies, programming, etc.
• Innovative approaches and promising practices that promote positive academic outcomes for students receiving direct financial assistance aimed at mitigating student basic needs concerns. This could include research, evaluation, or efforts that scale the impact of public benefits assistance, tax credits for eligible students, universal basic income, and approaches to liquidating institutional HEERF dollars. 

Learn More

To learn more, join Senior Program Manager Dr. Queena Hoang and Director of Programs and Operations Ryan Erickson-Kulas on August 24, 2023, for an informational webinar, which will provide an in-depth overview of the Spark Grants program, highlight past awardees, and share detailed updates on the student basic needs funding cycle.

Register

Michelson 20MM is a private, nonprofit foundation working toward equity for underserved and historically underrepresented communities by expanding access to educational and employment opportunities, increasing affordability of educational programs, and ensuring the necessary supports are in place for individuals to thrive. To do so, we work in the following verticals: Digital Equity, Intellectual Property, Smart Justice, Student Basic Needs, and Open Educational Resources (OER). Co-chaired and funded by Alya and Gary Michelson, Michelson 20MM is part of the Michelson Philanthropies network of foundations.