In the featured image above, a student mother walks her daughter to school as she begins her own 3-bus commute to the College of Staten Island campus.
“As student mothers we are not perfect! Getting ready for the next day starts with the night before always. At times rushing home from school or work there are unplanned challenges in a busy schedule. Try to add a premature hormonal life student that depends on your every move, thought and motivation. Education is all around us and teaching that to my young one is my priority, even if we throw something on that may have stains or not ironed. Our journey to our goals may be messy but we keep fighting the challenges that come along our way!”
–Spring 2022 Queer Studies Student Mother
As students of Queer Studies we had expectations to gain more knowledge on LGBTQ+ topics, but never expected to also share so much in common with one another. We had no idea that this class would bring us closer together and share our lives, struggles we faced to be here on campus, as well as everyday personal challenges outside of campus. We hope to share our ideas and new gained knowledge to enlighten others and spark difficult conversations while respecting everyone’s opinions, which is not always easy.
We (Melanie, Ashley, and Ana) are the single mothers we all share many things in common besides taking this Queer Studies course. We all come from diverse backgrounds and even some of us are the main providers of our families. It is not easy being a single mother and having to figure out work schedules, school schedules, and accommodating our children’s needs. Somehow we make the best of our situations and have to face many adversities to be here, whether it be food, shelter, health care, transportation, childcare, and income. We have a responsibility to be more than a student but as well a teacher to our own children, we are their role models. Our children will mirror what they see and carry on the values, traditions, and morals we instill in them.
We find one another collaborating, sharing ideas, and sharing our lives at CSI and here in our queer studies class, with no judgment and finding a safe place to be unique and unapologetically you.
- Many students come from diverse backgrounds, finding many common struggles; transportation, financial, medical struggles, despite our struggle we still show up.
- Sharing so much of our personal lives with one another has brought us closer together, creating a safe place.
- We engaged respectfully on difficult topics and lent listening ears to those who opened up about many personal experiences.
- Moving forward we take little pieces of learned information from one another, having a new outlook on those we will encounter in the future, and treating everyone equally and with kindness.
- It is our due diligence to teach the valuable information we absorb from our Queer Studies course and reach as many people as we can, in hopes to raise our children and teach our neighbors and community.
“Using my experience as a single parent with financial hardships, I want to help others dealing with systematic oppression get a shortcut to financial freedom with the beautiful blockage of children.”
–Spring 2022 Queer Studies Student Mother
