Texan Mosaic

By Taylor Reed

Is there any other woman dealing with this?  Am I the only one?  Those are a couple of questions Student Moms Club organizers at South Plains College want to help answer.

     “We had a flooding of support of moms wanting this community,” says Mollie Moore, SPC assistant professor of English.  “So, we just tried to provide that as much as we could.”

     Moore and English department chair Sharon Race started the club during the fall semester of 2023.

     Both Moore and Race say it’s been a struggle to keep the club’s meetings continuous, seeing as their members are some of the busiest students on campus.

     “We have a lot of interest,” Race says. “Moms all want to have community and support, but then it’s hard for them to commit to meetings. That, I think, has been one of our challenges, and we’re still navigating that.”

     Race and Moore say one student in particular inspired the club’s creation.

     Student Cindy Arana was in Moore’s class when the idea of the club sprang into her mind after she had to do a paper for the class based on Ernest Hemingway’s short story “Hills Like White Elephants”.  According to Spark Notes, the white elephant in the story title symbolizes something no one wants, an unborn child.  

     “It kind of resonated with me because when I found out I was pregnant,” Arana says, “many people around me would tell me ‘you’re so young’, ‘you’re going to ruin your life’, ‘don’t do it.’”

     Arana spoke about how scary and challenging motherhood can be.

     “I was 16 when I found out I was pregnant,” she says.  “Growing up my mom and I’s relationship was really unstable, and I thought she wasn’t going to accept me. It was actually the totally opposite of what I thought.  My mom was really welcoming and accepted me with loving arms.”

     Arana says there are many who don’t have the same support she had.    And she says she would like to provide that for them.

     “Having moms being able to even just complain and coordinate with each other and tell each other about their days and struggles and triumphs,” Mollie Moore says. “I think that’s what a lot of our moms want.”

    The Institute for Women’s Policy Research says that out of the 3.8 million students in college who are parents, 70% of those students are moms.   Out of that 70%, two out of five are single moms.   The same organization reports student moms are 1.6 times more likely to be single while in school rather than married.

     “More than anything, the main theme that comes through every meeting is that you’re not alone,” Sharon Race says. “It can be an isolating, lonely experience if you are especially a single mom and you don’t feel like you have a lot of support, especially on the academic side.”

     Among the meetings the club has had, there have been a number of guest speakers.  One of them was SPC Dual Credit Advisor Lyndsy Donnell.   Donnell, herself, was a student mom.

     “Being a student mom, I often felt a little out of place,” Donnell says.  “I didn’t fit in with the other students but didn’t fit in with those my age at the time who were not parents either.”     

     Donnell says she was a mom all through college.

     “I didn’t think I could go back to school, but here I am one year away from getting my master’s degree,” Donnell says. “For parents who want to go back to school and are nervous about the academic load or time commitment, that is okay! But don’t let it stop you from bettering yourself.”

     Organizers say overall about 20 women  have been involved at least once in a meeting.

     Last spring, they say, they were able to host a study night for moms at the Lubbock Downtown Center.    Moms were invited to come and bring their children if they needed to.  There were snacks and organizers played with kids while moms got two hours of study time.

     Race and Moore say the Student Moms Club plans to have more meetings in the upcoming 2024 fall semester.

     “I think I would love to see more fun events to help moms relax and have fun together,” Moore says, “and whether that’s with their kids too or just meeting with moms.  I think presence, just gaining more a presence on campus, gaining more members and involvement would be a goal.”

     You can find the club on Instagram, @spcstudentmomsclub, or join their organization on Blackboard, to keep up with them and their future meetings and activities.