Student parents cope in different ways

Aerika Hutton graduated from Urbana High School in 1994, when most Parkland students were still learning how to read. She enrolled at Parkland College, but, like many students, she wasn't sure what she wanted to do with her life. She left after one year, married, and had her first son, Nathan. She has worked for State Farm, Solo Cup Company, and now has three children: Nathan (12), Zach (8), and Hanna (3). Two years ago, she decided that she wanted to return to school, and she is now one of the many parents who attend Parkland College.Parkland students are a diverse group. The vast majority of them come straight out of high school, planning on either earning a two-year degree before entering the workforce, or transferring to another school to earn a Bachelor's degree. Some are students from the University of Illinois taking general education courses, and some are taking a second (or third) crack at college. Some are young, and some are old. And many students of all ages are, like Aerika, parents.

Parkland is, in many ways, an ideal place for busy mothers and fathers to invest in their education. To take a fifteen-hour course load costs only $1,230, as opposed to almost $4000 at Eastern Illinois University, or over $5600 at the University of Illinois, according to CollegeZone.com, but Parkland offers several other benefits for parents beside its low cost.

This semester, there are roughly five thousand students enrolled in at least one online course at Parkland College, a number that is still growing. More and more busy parents are taking advantage of the flexibility granted by online classes, which allow them to fit school around their jobs and families. Parkland's own President Ramage earned a master's degree in Education and Human Development from The George Washington University through online classes while working full time and caring for his family.

Leslie Brevard of Monticello is a full-time student at Parkland, but instead of spending an hour commuting and putting her daughter Amanda into child care five days a week, she's able to take time during the day and in the evenings to do her coursework, something that she said is very convenient. She is not alone.

It's not just full-time students who choose to take online courses. Aerika Hutton, who lives in Rantoul, is taking only two classes this semester. She takes HUM 122 (Native American Cultures of North America) online, and three days a week she drives to Champaign to take MAT 107 (General Education Mathematics). This is the third semester since Aerika returned to Parkland, and she has taken online classes in all of them.

On days when she has to come into Champaign for class, Aerika wakes up her three children at 7am, and after a flurry of activity sends her two boys off to school. That gives her three hours in the morning to play with Hanna, take care of the house, and get some study time in. Then, at noon, she takes Hanna over to a friend's place, and drives to Parkland. She arrives back in Rantoul after class just in time to pick up all the kids and get ready for the evening. She says that her husband, Dan, makes it all possible: "He works really hard so that I can stay home and be there for our children."

Aerika says that, "you have to be very self-motivated" to take online courses, but she hasn't had trouble with her own motivation. She hopes to finish her general education coursework at Parkland and then transfer, perhaps to Eastern Illinois University, and become a teacher.

"It fits into my schedule really well," she says of her online courses.

Ben Chesher, 30, actually chose to live separately from his family when he came back to Parkland in January. Ben is a former Marine, and currently serves in the Army. He's done one tour in Iraq, and expects to be deployed again to either Iraq or Afghanistan next year. He works in psychological operations, and his goal is to get a bachelor's degree from the University of Illinois, and be commissioned as an officer. He's used to being away from his wife, Nicole, and their son, Logan (2), but that doesn't make it easier.

"Any time that I'm away from my wife or my child for longer than four days, I really start to miss them," he says. "The first three or four weeks here were extremely difficult for me." Ben's family lives in Maryland, where his wife moved while he was in Iraq. They're planning to move back to Peoria soon.

Ben made the hard decision to leave Maryland to attend Parkland, because he had several credits here already that wouldn't transfer completely to a school in another state. He decided it would be best to go through what he had left quickly at Parkland, instead of drawing it out somewhere else. He looked into taking his classes online, but one course required him to be physically at the building.

Because of the distance involved, Ben talks to his family "an average of two hours a day on the phone." He says that Logan hasn't quite gotten to the point where he can hold conversations, but it's important that he hear his father's voice. Nicole and Logan visited Ben back in February for Logan's second birthday, and Ben plans to start driving out to Maryland as soon as his genetics lab is over on Friday, to spend his spring break with them.

Even with the plethora of online courses, some parents choose to take traditional classes anyway. Many of these parents rely on the Child Development Center on the south end of the Parkland campus to take good care of their pre-Kindergarten children while they attend class.

The Child Development Center, which operates during the school week from 7:30 in the morning until 4:30 in the afternoon, has children as young as a year and a half. It offers parents a large degree of flexibility by giving them the option to sign their children up for both half and full days, and only on the days of the week where they have class. Students have priority in admissions.