Psychology Professor Wins National Idea Competition to Promote STEM Education

Dr. Erica Hernandez Proposes to Cultivate the Research Skills of Student-parents

MEDIA CONTACT: Damita Chambers, dchambers@bowiestate.edu, 301-832-2628 mobile 

(BOWIE, Md.) – A Bowie State University psychology professor and advocate for college students who are raising children was recognized as a top 25 winner of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s idea competition focused on the future of undergraduate STEM education.

Dr. Erica Hernandez, assistant professor of psychology, proposed developing an innovative undergraduate research program for student-parents to provide them opportunities to extend their learning outside of the classroom, while studying an underresearched and underserved student population. The 25 winners will be highlighted at the academies’ symposium in November 2020 and are featured on the organization’s website. They will also be part of a conversation, led by the academies and the National Science Foundation, about the priorities for the future of STEM education through 2040.

“The idea is to expose student-parents to the high-impact practice of undergraduate research, and also helps them to have a voice on their campuses,” said Dr. Hernandez. “It’s a two-generation approach focused on developing the skills of these students not only as thinkers and scientists, but also as parents of the next generation of college students.”

As a group, student-parents have not been the focus of research studies on the best ways to help keep them in school and graduate on time. In fact, most colleges do not collect data on which of their students are student-parents. Research shows that about 22 percent of the nation’s undergraduate students are raising their own children. Of all student-parents, 70 percent are female, as well as more likely to be women of color and non-traditional students. They are also more likely to get better grades than their peers without children.

“Among the student-parents who I have encountered over my years at Bowie State, some of them have been quite high achievers,” said Dr. Hernandez. “Just hearing about the things that they are going through, like having to bring their kids to class sometimes versus miss class, it’s just amazing to me. They have bills and responsibilities, but they also have classwork, tests and papers, as well as their kids and their activities.”

Dr. Hernandez credits her participation in the BSU Entrepreneurship Academy’s inaugural cohort of Innovation Corps (I-Corps)[BROKEN LINK] for helping her to “learn what sticks about an idea” through research and interviews to determine customer or client needs. She plans to use her I-Corps experience to work with BSU undergraduate students on research to better understand the needs of the university’s student-parents.

“We have hundreds of student-parents at Bowie State. I know that I am not the only one trying to balance everything else in life with homeschooling responsibilities since the K-12 schools are closed due to the pandemic, so these student-parents are probably feeling the pinch as well,” she said. “Hopefully, this opportunity will allow me to promote student-parents as a population that is important to focus on over the next 20 years in STEM education.”

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