Jazmin Mangrum knew she was pregnant before she took the test.
The 21-year-old senior acting major and theater management minor from Frederick, Maryland, admitted her suspicions one night after having dinner with a close friend.
“We were actually just coming back from eating ramen in Chinatown and I felt like I understood,” Mangrum said. “So we bought a pregnancy test on the way home and took it that night. Obviously, it came back ‘positive’ for this little guy.” ”
Mangrum’s next step was to call her boyfriend. They had talked about having children together, so it wasn’t a big shock for them.
“The other day, we were joking around a lot about babies and pregnancies. You know how…things can come into existence? Thankfully, we had those conversations beforehand. “We’re both still in college,” she said.
Now, Mangram’s day is blending into night. Since the birth of her baby boy in early August, she has begun delicately balancing her academic responsibilities with the complexities of motherhood, teaching virtually for the first four weeks of her fall semester. is attending.
Mangrams belong to a layer that is often overlooked. That is, students who are grappling with the nuances of parenthood while completing their courses.
“He only sleeps two to three hours at a time. After a long night of feeding him all night, I try to wake up on time and feed him before going to class.” said Mangrum.
Mangrum’s boyfriend, Corinthian Payne, is currently a master’s student in finance at Howard University.
“She’s been amazing. I mean what we’ve been able to accomplish so far in school and her extracurricular activities. She really knows how to multitask in different areas on and off campus. So for me, she was really powerful and showed me honestly what motherhood is,” he said.
They work together as a team to maintain both their academic responsibilities and their new responsibilities as parents.
“I also pump before I go to class, so my boyfriend can watch while I’m gone. Then I go to class. I actually pump between classes. I use something like a wearable breast pump. “I have one. I even wear it to class sometimes,” she said.
When Mangrum found out she was pregnant, she took the recommended bison parenting route. The federal Civil Rights Act, Title VIII of the Education Amendments of 1972, specifically prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, including parental status and pregnancy. However, after notifying the university, Mangrum felt the Title IX office was not as helpful as he had hoped.
“I let Howard know. We went all the way to Title IX. Title IX wasn’t very… cooperative,” Mangrum said.
The Hilltop We reached out to the Title IX Office for comment, but were referred back to Howard University’s policy. Despite the emphasis from U.S. Department of Education officials, it does not include specific statements regarding pregnant and parenting students.
Golden Junior/The Hilltop)
According to the Women’s Policy Research Institute, one in five college students are parents, and about 70% of them are mothers. Howard sits at the intersection of data showing that two out of every five black women attending college are mothers.
“Specific stressors faced by students with children include time poverty, not having enough time to juggle all responsibilities, lack of access to affordable child care, student debt, These include limited financial resources, which can make it difficult to obtain a degree,” said Jennifer Turner, a social scientist at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research.
Despite the “lack of support” from the university, Mangrum says she finds comfort in her family nearby. She also praises the family-like atmosphere and support at the College of Art.
“Professors aren’t just professors. They’re your mentors. They’re people you can talk to and rely on. So I’ve never had a problem with any of them,” she said.
Turner said specific ways to support students with children include increasing access to affordable, high-quality childcare services, offering course time and flexibility in learning methods, including virtual and hybrid options. He explained that these include gender, financial aid, and student debt relief.
“Even if they just take the baby for a good amount of time while I’m doing something by myself, that’s really important. Keeping myself in place by finding myself as a mother is something that I It’s my way of staying sane,” Mangrum said.
Outside of the classroom, Mangrum runs an online community of more than 97,000 followers on TikTok and more than 5,000 followers on Instagram, which she says also supports her.
“It’s just the community aspect. It’s like a warm feeling, and it’s been hard to find those connections at Howard, especially during the pandemic when no one was going out, but posting on social media I find it helps,” Mangrum said.
Katrina Murphy, a master of divinity student at the Howard School of Theology, is also used to the “juggling act” of balancing life and school. She works full time from 8am to 4pm, over 40 hours a week. Once her working day ends, she immediately transitions to her school life.
“My first class is from 4pm to 6:30pm, the second is from 7pm to 9:30pm, and then I go home around 10:45pm. Twice a week. I have to do it twice a week. I can’t,” Murphy said.
According to the Urban Institute, nearly one-third of graduate students are parents of students. Murphy’s son, Zion Murphy, is a Master of Cinema Arts candidate in the School of Communication. It was both coincidental and intentional that the two men attended Howard at the same time.
Junior/The Hilltop)
“I actually visited my mom’s class. It was ethics. It was the first time I had ever been in an all-black or mostly black classroom. And I thought that was great,” Zion said. . “Obviously, I knew about HBCUs and Howard and all that, but I wanted to get out there and really consider going to film school.”
Murphy hopes Zion and her other son will learn from watching her overcome the challenges of wearing two hats: motherhood and student life.
“I want them to never give up on their dreams. At the same time, I recognize that dreams come and go and morph, and that’s okay,” she said.
Murphy plans to use her degree to advocate for racial justice and reconciliation efforts within her faith community. She carries her Bible along with her grandmother’s guide gloves and handkerchief as a physical reminder that she takes her village with her wherever she goes. .
“I want my sons to know about the God of Perlene, Charlene and Doris. Grandmothers. Grandmothers, I want them to know that this is why we came here. Women who pray.” she said.
Murphy’s “village” is a key element in maintaining stability in her life. As she continues her enrollment through juggling Howard and her motherhood, she is grateful to have a variety of people she can lean on.
September 29th Chapel (Keith Golden Jr./The Hilltop)
“I have a lot of, just great support for my husband, I said. First of all, I’m very grateful to him. Great support from my sister, friends, relatives. Everybody just kind of circled around me,” Murphy said.
One of the Howard-sponsored resources available to students raising children on campus includes Mothers of the Mecca, a student-led organizational support group located in the Center for Women, Gender, and Global Leadership.
Founded in 2022, the organization’s mission is to learn about the needs of Howard University’s parenting community and to “rethink the stigma associated with parenting as we wear multiple professional hats, and to “Instilling pride and community in raising children.”
The Faculty of Education has an Early Learning Program (HUELP) that enrolls children between the ages of 2.9 and 6 years. Howard students and employees have tuition options.
“It takes a community,” Murphy said. “So don’t do it alone. We haven’t arrived here at Howard yet. It’s because of the blood, sweat and tears of our ancestors and next of kin who have sacrificed so much.”
Copy edited by Alana Matthew
