Today we’d like to introduce you to Bianca Ramirez.
Hi Bianca, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
It all started many years ago when I was attending Our Lady of the Lake University (OLLU) for my undergrad degree in social work. Throughout my time in college, I realized not only that I love social justice, but that I have a passion for advocacy and helping others. During my senior year at OLLU, I became pregnant and the relationship with my boyfriend did not work out we ended up breaking up shortly after my son was born. This was difficult for me because I had no support system due to a history of trauma within my family and no one to turn to. With no structural support available I ended up becoming a homeless single mother with nowhere to go, but thankfully a local nonprofit organization with a shelter, Strong Foundation, allowed me to stay there while I finished my last year of school.
While I lived at the homeless shelter, I ended up working part-time, attending my classes in the evening and completing my internship hours during the day, all while raising my son and being a parent. It was difficult balancing all of it, but through a program that helped me with childcare while I was living at the shelter and going to school, I was able to succeed in graduating with my degree. During this time, I realized just how significant childcare and supportive services were for student parents to succeed in college. Unfortunately, today there are still so many issues with the childcare system and many parents are still unable to obtain safe, quality, affordable childcare.
Once I graduated my life slowly improved and I was able to get a better job and move out of the shelter, but I realized I wanted to continue my educational goals and obtain my master’s degree to make a better life for my son and me. While attending the University of Texas at San Antonio at the downtown campus for my graduate degree there were times that I struggled with lack of childcare and balancing the challenges of school obligations, work, and family. At times when I didn’t have childcare available, I had no other choice, but to bring my son with me to school because I had no one else to care for him during my classes. I soon started seeing many other of my parenting peers on campus in similar situations and realized that I was not the only one going through this. I would often see student parents at the library holding their children on their laps while multitasking on the computer trying to finish their homework. I also saw many other student parents bringing their children to their classes because of a lack of childcare. I recognized that student parents are often seen as an invisible population that faces challenges with lack of childcare and issues with balancing school, work, and family needs which play a significant role in student-parent graduation success rates.
I wanted to do something to shed light on this issue and to make a difference so that current and future student parents could have support at UTSA. This is when I decided to start a petition at UTSA and called it the UTSA Downtown Campus Childcare Initiative. Through this initiative, I made it my mission to gather as many signatures as I could- both on paper and online, from students, faculty, and staff to advocate for on-campus childcare to help support student-parents at the downtown campus. Before I knew it the word about my petition spread and it became viral and gained so much support from students, families, and the community who wanted to help the cause.
Eventually, other student-parents joined the mission and we organized and advocated for our cause by holding rallies, creating a student-parent organization, and advocating on local and federal legislative levels for childcare.
After graduating with my master’s in social work the organization Students Raising Children, spearheaded by fellow advocate in the initiative Daniela Salinas continued, and UTSA student parents were able to start an evening childcare program across the street through La Trinidad Church called “Lil Roadrunners” to provide childcare during evening classes for students with children. This program helped care for children while student parents attended their evening classes to complete their coursework. Although the evening childcare program was only open for a short period of time, the program succeeded at providing support for student parents and helped many of them graduate and earn their degrees at UTSA.
Years later I reflected on our hard work and organized efforts and realized that there was still not enough support for student parents, not just in our community but in our state as well. Our work was far from over, and we needed to continue to advocate and empower student parents to succeed in post-secondary education. This is when I decided to create the non-profit organization Student Parents Empowered and with the help of many of my fellow advocate student-parents from UTSA, an amazing Board of Directors, and strong community support we have been able to thrive and grow steadily as an organization. Today our organization Student Parents Empowered is a 501(c3) in Texas that is dedicated to empowering student parents to succeed in college. Our organization uses a two-generation approach to ensure that the benefits of our program impact the entire family and can be sustained from generation to generation. We believe that when student parents succeed in obtaining their degree in post-secondary education it can lead to improved health and wellness, greater educational outcomes for their children, poverty reduction, and increased economic security. We provide services such as; case management, individual counseling, support groups, advocacy at the state and federal levels, and scholarships. This is just the beginning of our journey and as our organization continues to grow-we will continue to support as many student parents and families in Texas as we can.
I fully believe that education can change the scope of an entire family, I know that it did for me, and I would not be where I am today without the support of many others who helped me obtain my education and taught me never to give up on my dreams and goals. I want to pay it forward and do the same for others.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
There have been many, many challenges along the way. Some of my biggest struggles have been overcoming homelessness, being a single parent, and balancing work, school, and advocacy, all while parenting and caring for a child with a disability. There were many times I felt like giving up, but I couldn’t do that because I knew that I needed to be strong for my son and continue to advocate for others who were going through a similar hardship that I was facing.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m the Founder and CEO of Student Parents Empowered a 501(c)3 in Texas dedicated to empowering student parents to succeed in post-secondary education. Our mission is to ensure student parents succeed in college and obtain their degrees, by providing supportive services and empowering them in their journey through post-secondary education. We provided services to student parents in Texas to help them succeed in college to earn their degrees. Our services consist of case management, individual counseling, support groups, advocacy, and scholarships.
Aside from my work in my non-profit organization, I’m also a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and I’m currently working for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs as a mental health therapist working with veterans.
In my spare time, one of my other passions consists of doing advocacy and macro social work in public policy. I enjoy advocating for different issues such as; disability rights, childcare, healthcare, human rights, and social justice issues.
For me, advocacy is something that will always have a special place in my heart. It is a part of who I am.
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
In 5-10 years our organization will be expanding to several parts of Texas and growing our services to reach as many student parents as we can. Our vision is for student parents to have every opportunity to succeed in college and are empowered to create a better future for themselves and their families.
We will be providing many more expansive services in the near future and starting new upcoming programs that provide mentorship, workshops, childcare, and various types of scholarships to maximize support for student-parents in post-secondary education.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://student-parents.org/about-us
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/studentparentsempowered
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/studentparentsempowered/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/studentparents5
