A Family Affair

New HCC program boosts support for adult learners, student parents

Seven years ago, Elizabeth Busker ’21 started college classes at HCC. She was 32 years old, a Marine Corps veteran, and a single mom to a three-year-old daughter — the textbook definition of an “adult learner” (those of nontraditional college age).

Despite the inherent challenges of being an older student and a parent, she found great success at HCC, graduating with high honors, an associate degree in psychology, and a Frances Perkins Scholarship to Mount Holyoke College.

Even so, during her time at HCC, she used her position as Student Senate president to advocate for more support services for student parents. 

“That became my personal mission,” she said. 

Busker returned to HCC in December to attend the grand opening celebration of the Marieb Adult Learner Success Center and Parent Learning Center — support services designed for adult learners and student parents. 

Even though she will not personally benefit from these programs, Busker ’21, now a graduate student at the Smith College School of Social Work, thought it was important to show up.

That day, she shared a photo of her daughter, Vivian, now 10, and the memories came flooding back. In particular, Busker recalled the first time Vivian tagged along with her to classes because her pre-school was closed, making for some uncomfortable and awkward moments. 

“On a typical day, most student parents experience this disconnect,” she said. 

After a few speeches and a ribbon-cutting ceremony, Busker stood amid the crowd in the Parent Learning Center — a combination study space and children’s playroom — and cried. 

“It’s just so nice to be in this space,” she said, choking out the words. “It didn’t happen on my watch, but it is happening now. It’s really a space for future selves,” she added, looking at the photo of her daughter. “Today, we’re seeing a new reality.”

That new reality was more than five years in the making. 

Before her death in December 2018, Elaine Marieb ’80, a longtime HCC biology professor and acclaimed textbook author, designated a legacy gift to the HCC Foundation for $1 million, the money earmarked for HCC programs that support nontraditional age students. 

Six years later, the large ceremonial check from the Elaine Nicpon Marieb Foundation remains on the windowsill in the Marieb Center, home base for the Marieb Adult Learner Success Center program and the office of coordinator Amy Woody, herself an HCC alum. 

“It’s our way of honoring Elaine Marieb and her generosity,” said Woody ’09. “She made all of this possible.”

To be clear, the Marieb Center itself, a study area, lounge, and office space located in Frost 264, is not a new facility. It was established in 2008 as the Elaine Nicpon Marieb New Pathways Center through a previous bequest from Elaine Marieb. Its purpose, according to a hallway plaque: to assist “non-traditional women students on their path to educational success.” 

“Elaine Marieb and her generosity… made all of this possible.”

— Amy Woody ’09

For years, the Marieb Center served two HCC programs that supported adult (mostly women) learners: Pathways, a transfer program, and New Directions, (later called New Directions for Adult Learners). In 2023, Pathways, guided since its inception by coordinator and HCC alum Irma Medina ’97, was relocated to the second floor of the Donahue Building, where it is part of HCC’s newly reimagined Integrative Learning Programs (Honors, Community Based Learning, Learning Communities, Academic Internships, and Pathways) — all now overseen by Medina in a new role as director. 

Meanwhile, the functions and services previously administered by New Directions have been assumed by the Marieb Adult Learner Success Center program (Marieb ALSC), which provides academic advising, career planning services, and other supports to students 24 and older and to student parents of any age. 

The Marieb ALSC program debuted with a soft launch in early 2024. 

“New Directions was relatively small, with only one academic advisor running the whole program,” said Woody. “Now we have three full-time staff members, and we’ve been able to scale up significantly.”

In its first year, Woody said, the Marieb ALSC more than doubled the previous program’s enrollment from 80 to 200, with close to 800 scheduled appointments. Those numbers are expected to increase with the hiring of the third staff member late last fall, Danielle Clough, as academic counselor, joining Woody and Momina Sims, the career planning and placement coordinator. 

“With three full-time staff, we’ll be able to serve many more students,” Woody said. 

The timing could not have been better.

After years of enrollment declines, including pandemic-related drops, overall college enrollment has been on an upswing for the past two years due in part to the state’s new free community college programs, MassReconnect (launched in fall 2023 for state residents 25 and older without an associate degree) and MassEducate (new in fall 2024 for all state residents without a bachelor’s degree). 

“We started to see an influx of older students just as MassReconnect was launching,” Woody said. 

This comes on top of a general increase in the adult learner student population at HCC. Over the past five years, the percentage of HCC students in the 24 and older bracket has risen from 35 percent to 42. In fall 2014, the average age of an HCC student was 21. Today it is 25. 

Woody understands the lives of adult learners and student parents better than most because she was both. Her son, Eric, was a toddler when she was a student at HCC. She went on to earn bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Westfield State. Eric, now in high school, recently completed his first class at HCC as a dual enrollment student. 

“I think watching me as an adult learner made a big impact on how he approaches education,” Woody said. “Here, we really believe that education is a family affair, so we’re trying to create spaces and programming that bring the whole family in, not just the student.”

For adult learners, especially those with young children, the biggest issue Woody sees — and remembers — is a sense of being overwhelmed by how much they have to do. In addition to managing schoolwork and children, students — of all ages — are often juggling jobs as well. 

“We want students to feel comfortable coming to us no matter what issue they’re having. We are just trying to do everything we can do make it easier for them.”

 — Amy Woody ’09

“They’re really trying to figure out a class schedule that makes the most sense,” said Woody. “We work with them on that.”

Some haven’t been in a classroom in decades, have never taken a class online and don’t understand new technology or how to access online resources that are critical to their coursework. 

“Classes are taught differently today,” she said, “so students not only need to learn the course content but also rebuild their educational skills.” 

The Marieb ALSC offers what Woody calls “holistic advising,” a term that describes counseling and support services that address issues not limited to academics. 

“It’s not just about, can you turn in your work on time, but how do you manage that with your entire life — your kids, your family, your cooking, your cleaning and all of it,” said Woody. “We try to do programming that really recognizes the adult learner as an entire person, not just a student.” 

For Ralph Mariani, the hardest parts of being an older student are time management and technology. Mariani, 60, returned to college a few years ago to complete his prerequisite classes before applying to nursing school. After years as a railroad conductor, the former U.S. Army medic now works as a nursing assistant at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Northampton. 

“I always wanted to go back to school,” he said. “I never had the chance before. I had family, two kids, and I was working.”

He meets with Woody at least once a week.

“Sometimes when I come to her, I say I want to quit,” said Mariani. “But she says, don’t quit. Just keep going. She gives me motivation to keep going. I get a recharge.”

Beyond individual advising sessions and tech support, the Marieb ALSC offers a wide variety of workshops that address the most common challenges experienced by older students and parents: tips for success, time management, test anxiety, task paralysis, career change — “subjects that help students build study and life skills that will help them be successful,” said Woody.

Last fall, the Marieb ALSC co-sponsored its first family story night during Hispanic Heritage Month, in conjunction with El Centro (HCC’s support program for Latinx students), with President George Timmons reading Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Among other new programming, Woody introduced a monthly student-parent support group. 

“We want students to feel comfortable coming to us no matter what issue they’re having,” said Woody. “We are just trying to do everything we can do make it easier for them.”

This leads back to The Parent Learning Center, a centerpiece of the Marieb ALSC program. 

While the Marieb Center (Frost 264) is meant to be a quiet space, where adult learners can study, relax, grab a free snack, or meet privately with Woody, the Parent Learning Center (PLC), just down the hallway in Frost 269, is not meant to be a quiet area at all. It’s a place where parents can study while their children play close by under their supervision. 

In part, the brightly decorated room looks like a preschool. There is an art table and a play corner filled with blocks, games, puzzles, toys, picture books, a beanbag chair, and collapsible tunnel. In another area, a pack and play and a changing table. And for students, a wall of study carrels, a conference table, a sofa, armchair, and a specially designed desk with an attached playpen. 

“The Parent Learning Center is a workspace where students can bring their laptops, sit and work on group projects, or just kick back and relax for a while,” said Anne Morales Medina ’13, HCC associate director of recruitment and enrollment. “It’s a place where they can have their kids with them and feel safe and welcome, not like they are a distraction.” 

“ It’s good to have a space where I don’t feel like he’s a bother to other people. We’ve gone to the library before, but he’s kind of loud.”

— Student Kayla Dagenais, 22

Before that, the only space on campus specifically designated for children was the Itsy Bitsy Child Watch Center. Itsy Bitsy opened in 2022 and is generally the go-to option for student parents who need short-term daycare while on campus. However, Itsy Bitsy is available on a first-come, first-serve basis for children when their parents are in class or meeting with advisors. Slots are limited depending on demand. The PLC addresses the gaps in student schedules.

Such was the situation Kayla Dagenais found herself in recently. A 22-year-old student in HCC’s BayState LPN Pathways Program, Dagenais took advantage of the PLC during the second week of the spring semester when her 2-year-old son Amari’s daycare center was closed for the day. He’d been to child watch in the morning and was going back later in the day. In the meantime, she had a three-hour window between classes and wanted to get some homework done. 

“This is the first time we’ve been here,” said Dagenais. “It’s lovely. He’s liking it already. He’s been playing with everything. It’s good to have a space where I don’t feel like he’s a bother to other people. We’ve gone to the library before, but he’s kind of loud.”

The PLC opened to students in December so barely gained any traction with students before the winter holidays. 

The first week of the spring 2025 semester, though, the PLC hosted its first event — milk and cookies — and saw its first guests. Among them were three HCC students and their children: Helen Gorovenko, 29; Raisa Kvashchanka, 23; and Olga Klykova, 41. They came for the cookies, but also because they needed somewhere to bring their boys for an hour between their ESL Level 3 classes. In the past, they might have gone to the cafeteria, where there is not much more than food to keep young children occupied. 

“This is a very good place for us,” said Kvashchanka, who had come in earlier pushing a stroller for her 8-month-old son, Joseph.

A couple of days later, they all returned. 

“Yes,” said Gorovenko, as her 4-year-old son Alex busied himself with a toy truck. “Every week, we’ll be back in the future.”

“I love it,” said Woody. “That’s exactly what we’re hoping for. A little home away from home on campus.”