Supporting Doctoral Study on College Student-Moms

Cover artwork: Stacey Angelillo

Dear Community Friends,

I am RJ Portella, a doctoral student preparing for my dissertation study. Given overwhelming community support, please consider donating to this research, tentatively titled: Matriculating Invisibilized Student-Mothers Within the Neoliberal University: A Participatory Action Research Study. This study, expanded from an IRB-approved pilot study from Spring 2023, seeks to amplify the lived experiences of unmarried student-mothers who recently earned Bachelor’s degrees from various New Jersey universities. Their assets and positive contributions frequently went unnoticed while they navigated significant institutional and social obstacles. Our commitment is to generate recommendations and present them in late 2024. A prominent NJ university has already graciously committed to hearing our findings. Participatory Action Research studies require a significant amount of time from the participants, and the student-mothers should be compensated accordingly. After applying to over 60 grants and scholarships, I have come up empty. Therefore, I am asking for your help. Your generosity will go directly to compensating the student-mothers for their time and generating our capstone presentation. My intent is to show the importance our work, given how student-mothers' enrollment numbers continue to rise in the US despite how only 28% of student-mothers graduate within 6 years. This study will not begin until late January 2024 after necessary board approvals are in place.

Please also see the attached Google Form link for you to leave a message of hope and love to show your support. These will be shared with the moms. A link to the dissertation’s working Statement of Purpose can be found in the form. Thank you for your consideration.

Google Form link for your message: https://forms.gle/mnnLVc8duNDXxQzy8