Attending classes at Lackawanna College while raising a young son and working full time hasn’t been easy for Emely Mercado. A grant the college received will continue to support students like her.
The college recently received a $98,602 Parent Pathways Grant from the state Department of Education Office of Postsecondary and Higher Education. It is the second year Lackawanna College has received the grant, with this year’s funds being used to expand existing resources for parenting students — such as tuition assistance, child care costs, technology support services and emergency funds for those who require assistance with an academic or basic need that affects their education.
Mercado, 30, is in her first year at the college working toward an associate degree in baking and pastry arts. She’s also raising her 3-year old son, Eli Mercado, with her partner, Andy Mercado, and said the grant has given her financial assistance to attend classes.
“These extra funds were able to allow me to have some time for me to focus on to my final, which has resulted in me being on the dean’s list,” the Mountain Top resident said. “I do feel that this is a really good resource for students that truly need it. In my situation, the help was there when I needed it the most.”
Rebecca Cerra, the college’s manager of student success, said the grant is a wonderful opportunity to help students who are putting forth their best effort to continue their education, even if it’s a little bit later in life and in a nontraditional way.
“We want to support our students as much as possible, so the more that we can do it with this grant, the better,” she said. “I think that it directly aligns with our mission at the college of allowing students to receive a quality education and … directly reflect that back to their community with the education that they receive from us and the support that they receive from Lackawanna College from all staff and faculty members.”
Lackawanna College student Emely Mercado poses for a photo with her son Eli Mercado. Mercado is studying baking and pastry at the college while raising her son and working full time. (Courtesy of Emely Mercado)
Lackawanna College student Emely Mercado shows off confections she made while enrolled in her first year in the baking and pastry program. Mercado is attending college while working full time and raising her 3-year old son. Lackawanna College received a $98,602 Parent Pathways Grant to assist students like Mercado from the state Department of Education’s Office of Postsecondary and Higher Education. (Courtesy of Emely Mercado)
The American Council on Education estimates there were more than 3.1 million, or nearly one in five, undergraduate student parents enrolled in colleges and universities in 2023. Of that number, 88% are 25 years or older; nearly three quarters, or 74%, are women; and more than half, or 55%, are people of color, they said.
The council said a general lack of awareness of and support for student parents — partly because of poor data collection or documented knowledge on student parents — contributes to their low persistence and degree acquisition rate compared to that of their nonparenting peers. Only 18% of student parents received a bachelor’s or associate degree within six years of study, compared to 27% of independent and 54% of dependent or traditionally aged, nonparenting students
Cerra said that in the eight years she has worked at the college, she has noticed more students raising children enroll, many in programs like those in the health sciences, which include time outside a traditional classroom.
“I just hope that by receiving this grant and receiving it for a second year that our students feel well supported and know that they have the ability to go to any of our offices to ask for support and help to get them to our and their main goal of walking across the stage at graduation and receiving their diplomas and going out into the workforce,” she said.
Lackawanna College officials said in a statement the enhanced support services will benefit approximately 23% of its parenting learners.
Mercado, who immigrated to the United States from the Dominican Republic with her family in 2009, received her associate degree in business from Luzerne County Community College in 2019, the first in her family to do so, and works full time in human resources while attending school full time. She said the grant allows her to focus on studying a field she is passionate about, which she hopes her son will be proud of her for.
“I want my son to have someone as a role model for him and see that anything that he wants to accomplish, he can,” Mercado said. “Because if I did it, he will be able to.”