For Shaquita Glenn, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s innovative Life Impact Program was the support she needed as she struggled to take care of a toddler and stay in school a few years ago. “I was ready to leave and go home to Green Bay. It was hard to survive, go to school and raise a child with so few resources,” she says.
Glenn, a successful alumna of the program, is now a graduate student in Educational Psychology, doing an internship with the Career Development Center.
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Life Impact Program, which helps support disadvantaged students who are also parents, recently received $119,490 through a College Success continuation grant from the Great Lakes Higher Education Guaranty Corporation. The money will help Life Impact with its work in helping student parents, particularly those who are single parents.
At the time of its implementation at UWM in 2005, Life Impact was the only program of its type at a public university in the United States. It provides each participant with a $5,000 renewable scholarship as well as academic, professional and personal support. Life Impact was one of 16 programs invited by Great Lakes Higher Education Guaranty Corporation to build on its success in strengthening students’ connection with their campus, peers, faculty and staff.
The goals of the Life Impact Program are to help student parents stay in school, finish their education and find family-supporting jobs, according to Natalie Reinbold, Life Impact’s life coach/program manager. In addition to scholarships, Life Impact provides counseling, mentoring and other services.
Glenn found out about the program while she was doing volunteer work for the Center for Community Based Learning, Leadership and Research. Laurie Marks, the center’s director, encouraged her to apply.
She was accepted and, with the help and support of Life Impact, was able to finish her undergraduate education, graduating with a major in community education, a minor in Africology and a Cultures and Communities certificate.
As of October 2014, the program has provided scholarship support to 173 student parents with a combined total of 231 children, says Reinbold. Of these, 85.9 percent have either graduated or been retained in the program. All of the graduates have found jobs within six to eight months after leaving UWM.
“We see Great Lakes as a partner in providing the best support for our scholars, and are grateful to have received their continued support through the College Success grant,” says Reinbold.
Currently, 40 students are part of Life Impact, which is also supported through a “generous grant provided by the Jane Bradley Pettit Foundation,” Reinbold says.
Life Impact scholars have access to a life coach team that serves as a first point of contact for all concerns, Reinbold says. This team follows students’ progress, assesses their needs and provides them with resources, workshops and/or referrals to other on-campus or community programs.
The support from other parents and the Life Impact Staff was as valuable to Glenn as the scholarship.
“To me the program didn’t provide just financial resources, it was so helpful to me on the personal and professional level with workshops on time and budget management, and advice on helping me revise my resume. One of the best things about the program was that they made it completely okay to be a parent and a student. I really felt empowered.”
The only improvement Glenn, who graduated from Life Impact in 2009, could suggest was “it would be nice to have a graduate chapter.”
For information on how to apply to Life Impact or for a program brochure, visit uwm.edu/lifeimpact/HowToApply.cfm.
