Global Ambassador Stories
Experiences as an International Graduate Student Parent at Purdue
Story by Ola Wasel
April 22, 2019
Pursuing graduate studies is a big decision for anyone. Unlike their peers, graduate students spend years in graduate school before they start their professional career. Besides the typical challenges that any graduate student may face, graduate student parents face different challenges, especially if they are international students. Many international students have families and, most likely, young kids.
If you and your spouse are students or you are living with your kid/s alone, a big challenge is choosing a good place to leave your kid/s while you are in school. This place should provide a safe environment, to foster the healthy growth of your child and improve their academic skills.
There are four daycare centers on the Purdue University-West Lafayette campus. Being on campus, these centers are convenient options for an easy drop off and pick up. I have experience with three of them, Ben and Maxine Miller Child Development Laboratory School (MCDLS), Purdue Village Preschool (PV Preschool), Purdue University Early Care and Education Center (PUECEC). I am satisfied with my experience with all of them. The teachers and staff are very professional. They provide a safe environment for my kids and the fun activities that each child needs. Those child care centers provide different options for graduate student parents. If both parents are students, the full-time option in MCDLS and PUECEC are perfect. Before I started my graduate studies, my son used to attend PV Preschool, as it is a part-time preschool. Besides the fact that it was very affordable, my son had his best moments there, and learned lots of things from his lead teachers and the Purdue student teachers.
It is important to note that once you get your admission letter from the graduate school, you need to look for a daycare for your kids. Don’t wait until you arrive at the campus to look for the right place for your kids. You can register for Purdue daycare through this link. Using your Purdue ID, you can add your kids to the waitlist of the daycare. Purdue University opened the Purdue Early Care and Education Center in August 2016, which helped accept more kids, but it is still necessary to plan ahead of time for your kids.
Also, my son enjoys the after-school programs offered by Purdue daycares. These programs offer extended care for school-age kids. PV Preschool has a wonderful after-school program that is affordable as well for most graduate students (this program will stop by May 2020). PUECEC also has an after-school program where your kids will have lots of fun.
Purdue offers a great summer camp, Boiler Kids Camp (BKC), which offers fun and educational activities for kids 5-12 years old. In BKC, your kids will play different sports, cook, climb, do crafts, play games, learn about science, and do experiments. BKC is on campus which is very convenient. BKC is popular and spots fill quickly, so keep an eye on their website and register your kids as soon as they open the registration. Also, the Gifted Education Resource Institute (GERI) at Purdue offers a fantastic summer experience for kids in Kindergarten through fourth grade. Super summer camp provided my son with hands-on STEM activities.
As an international student, I understand that it is always a concern as to how to raise your kids in a different country. Finding a balance between being engaged in the community you are living in and preserving your cultural traditions is very important. Since Purdue University has one of the largest international student bodies among the US public universities, Purdue child care centers provide a great experience for international students. Before your kids join those centers, they will ask you to fill a form that has questions about your child, including the special holidays you celebrate. This question shows that these centers greatly respect the diverse cultural backgrounds of their students. Jake Guy, Director of PUECEC said "We believe exposing children to a variety of different cultures, backgrounds and ethnicities will give children a well-rounded representation of others in the Purdue community. Our families are very diverse here at the center from each corner of the United States to other corners of the world! We love to celebrate what makes children and families feel at home and what is important to them!"
Pictures of different celebrations in PUECEC. On the left, Persian New Year; on the top right, Day of the Dead (Mexican Holiday); on the bottom right, Chinese New Year.
My family was always welcomed to share information about our home country, Egypt. When my son was at MCDLS, we visited the school and shared information about the ancient Egyptians; we wrote the names of my son’s friends and teachers in hieroglyph, the language of ancient Egyptians, and the kids built pyramids with magnetic blocks! A few years ago, when I visited PV Preschool, I showed the kids the lantern “Fanous”, which a representation of celebrating the month of fasting “Ramadan”. These small and simple things make my kids and I feel welcomed by the community here. It has helped my kids accept that they have a different culture, but they still can celebrate our holidays with their beloved friends. In the PUECEC, kids count numbers in different languages: English, Chinese, Swedish, Arabic and Spanish. This activity encouraged my son to know the numbers in Arabic, our native language, so he can say it correctly when speaking to his friends. I think this is a great experience for all kids because it helps them appreciate diversity early in their life.
Although, the full-time child care centers are sometimes expensive for graduate students, there are resources that may support you. The Purdue Graduate Student Government (PGSG) offers child care grants for eligible graduate students. Another option is the Patty Jischke “Kids are the Future” Endowment scholarship. Those resources help make the child care expenses more affordable.A
As a graduate student parent, you will need support from other graduate student parents. The Graduate Parent Support Network (GPSN) will help you with that. This network will allow you to see others’ experiences and also share your experiences. It will provide you with helpful resources and also, it is a chance to make new friends for you and your kids too. Also, they organize trips to nice places, such as the trip to Indianapolis children’s museum.
The views of the author are not necessarily those of the Grad School or Purdue University.