”The more diversity we have in classrooms, we all benefit from that in terms of innovation, creativity, and generating prosperity for all of California.”— Dr. Tina Cheuk 

Student parents make up one in eight students in California’s postsecondary system. They bring rich perspectives, strong motivation, and lived experience that enrich their classrooms and communities, yet many still navigate policies, classrooms, and campuses that were not designed with their realities in mind. Supporting student parents is essential not only to their own or their children’s success, but also to building a more innovative, inclusive California.

In this episode of Degrees of Change, California Competes CEO Su Jin Jez connects with Dr. Tina Cheuk, an associate professor of elementary science education at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and director of #StudentParentJoy, to explore how institutions can recognize student parents' strengths, reduce barriers to success, and ensure their perspectives help shape higher education's future.

Key Topics

• What Tina's own experience as a student parent revealed about how higher education sees and too often fails to see students raising children
• Why student parents' perspectives make classrooms stronger and enrich California's innovation, creativity, and prosperity
• How #StudentParentJoy challenges stereotypes by centering student parents' strengths, aspirations, and perspectives
• The evolution of the statewide student parent movement and The California Alliance for Student Parent Success's role in moving policy from passage to implementation
• How recent state legislation has centered student parent needs through priority registration, stronger data collection, improved financial aid access, and greater institutional accountability

Our Guest

Dr. Tina Cheuk is an associate professor of elementary science education at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and director of #StudentParentJoy, a media and policy research initiative working to redefine what it means to be a pregnant or parenting student in the California State University system. Drawing on her experience as a student parent and her work as an educator, researcher, and advocate, she works to make student parents more visible and better supported. She is a 2025 recipient of the Stanford Graduate School of Education Alumni Excellence in Education Award and has served on The California Alliance for Student Parent Success's advisory committee.

In This Episode

• #StudentParentJoy: https://www.studentparentjoy.org/ 
• The California Alliance for Student Parent Success: https://castudentparentalliance.org/ 
• The Student Parent Almanac: https://castudentparentalliance.org/resources/ca-student-parents-almanac/ 
• Making the Invisible Visible: Taking Stock of How the California State University Collects and Uses Data About Parenting Students: https://castudentparentalliance.org/resources/csu-parenting-students-report/ 
• Advocates Amplified Spotlight: Dr. Tina Cheuk: https://castudentparentalliance.org/resources/advocates-amplified-spotlight-2-cheuk/ 
• AB 2881: https://thepregnantscholar.org/california-ab-2881-new-rights-for-parenting-students-in-ca/ 
• The GAINS for Student Parents Act: https://castudentparentalliance.org/resources/ab-2458-berman-greater-accessibility-information-notice-and-support-gains-for-student-parents-act/ 

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