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By Kara DeMarie MLIS’16, from the

When Jenni Overstreet ’25 first started her social work degree program in ��ɫӰ��’s College for Adults, she found the whole experience intimidating. “I was 10 years out of high school with no experience, working full time as a restaurant manager, with an infant and a toddler,” she says. “Finding balance in my life was a huge challenge; the first year of my college journey was a blur.” 

The challenges facing student parents were much the same in 1988, when Elizabeth Wroblewski, who worked in St. Kate’s institutional research and planning, began focusing on this student population’s needs. 

“I remember telling folks, ‘Our student parents are one car problem away from dropping out,’” Wroblewski recalls. “If their car wouldn’t start and they didn’t have the means to fix it, they’d miss class, and one thing led to another — a precarious existence.”

Wroblewski and grant writer Carol DeBoer-Langworthy secured funds for a single student parent support program, undertaking extensive research and planning with St. Kate’s colleagues and external consultants. The group’s efforts launched St. Kate’s own program, which became Access and Success.

Joan Demeules ’87, MAT’01 joined the program as its first coordinator in 1993. A licensed social worker who had herself been a single mother while attending St. Kate’s, she went on to lead Access and Success for the next 28 years.

“Back then, the idea was that if a student was having difficulty, maybe the best thing for them to do would be to drop out and come back when their situation was easier for them. Well, for many of the students, it wasn’t going to get easier until they completed their degree. And so our program was an anomaly — and still is — in higher education,” says Demeules.

Access and Success’ continued long-term success and expansion has demonstrated it to be a leader in the area of student success. The office was contracted by the Minnesota Department of Health to provide technical expertise to institutions receiving state funding to launch their own student parent programs. From 2014–17, St. Kate’s was one of just nine institutions awarded funds to expand services to student parents.

Community of care

In addition to its individual offerings, the very existence of Access and Success gives visibility to student parents. The program creates a life-altering sense of community for student parents such as Iris Young Turay ’07, who had a baby before her senior year of high school and began studying at St. Kate’s  a year later. She found a strong support network with other residents of student-parent housing on campus.

“It just felt like such a safe and nurturing environment,” Turay says. She and her peers would leave their apartment doors open and let their kids  run in between. The parents would pack up their families to eat together at the cafeteria, later sitting  in the hallways and talking after they put their children to bed. Turay earned her nursing degree in just three years, thanks to her own determination — and timely help from Access and Success. 

For example, Wroblewski’s insight about car trouble proved prescient. When Turay was struggling with an hour-long bus ride to get her daughter to daycare and herself back to class, Hamer helped her secure her first car through a donation program. Later, when the car broke down, Hamer found emergency funding so Turay could get it fixed and keep going to class. 

“I think [earning my degree] was really only doable in the context of community, and having the support of Access and Success,” says Turay. “They handle these little things that could just derail you so quickly.”

Things shifted for Overstreet, too, when she became  a participant in Keys to Success, Access and Success’ intensive support program for single parents. Meeting regularly with an assigned social worker as part of the program has provided her with connections to resources, and encouragement to get through the challenges of life. “I am so grateful that I’ve gotten  to work with her,” Overstreet says of her social worker. “I really feel like her support has helped me build confidence to make some good changes in my life.”

Turay looks back on her Access and Success experience with the same appreciation. “It’s just a catalyst for change,” she says. “I was one of the first people in my family to get a college degree, and now my daughter, who was there with me, is in college.” 

Access and Success celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2023, and received further recognition for its impact when Generation Hope named St. Kate’s an inaugural recipient of its FamilyU Seal. This national certification recognizes the University for the support Access and Success gives to student parents.

If the impact Access and Success has had on  its students and their children is significant, the impact those graduates are having on the world is immeasurable — a ripple effect tied to St. Kate’s Catholic mission. “If we really believe that a college degree is going to make a difference for our society, we have to be ready to meet the needs of the time, and get these students that support,” says Hamer.