By Joisanne Rodgers, Contemporary Student Services. Edited by Chelsea Xu, UL Marketing and Communications.
At George Mason University, “All Together Different” is a defining idea that reflects a student body shaped by real-life responsibilities, including the many students raising children or caring for family members.
This year, more than 30 percent of George Mason students who participated in the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) reported spending time in their week caregiving—for children, siblings, parents, or other family members. That’s not a footnote. It’s a significant portion of the student body navigating coursework alongside responsibilities that many campus programs weren’t built to acknowledge. University Life’s Contemporary Student Services (CSS) unit is working to change that.
CSS’s monthly Student Parent and Caregiver Meetups are spaces designed to foster connection and build support networks that research links to student retention and success. This year, it received the NASPA Adult Learner and Students with Children Knowledge Community’s Outstanding Undergraduate Student Parent Program award, which honors innovative approaches to supporting the unique needs of student parents in higher education.
Supporting student success means recognizing those realities and meeting students as learners and caregivers at the same time. Each student and staff member involved gives care, time, support, and so much more to ensure that George Mason student parents and caregivers have a place to gather, be in community, and know they belong and matter. “This space was one of the biggest contributors to my sense of belonging at George Mason,” commented alumna Veronica Vassar (MA Higher Education and Student Development ’25), reflecting on her participation in the program.
Building a support system
The meetups began as virtual gatherings during COVID-19 lockdown in spring 2020, conceived and hosted by CSS Associate Director Shyama Kuver. By fall 2022, the initiative had growninto an in-person program co-led by undergraduate student parent and FamilyU Fellow Valeria Fernandez. After her fellowship, Fernandez continued her work with CSS as a Contemporary Student Ambassador, helping grow the program alongside Caroline Simpson, then CSS coordinator and now NSFP assistant director.
When Fernandez graduated, undergraduate student parent and CSS Ambassador Chathrini Sirisena stepped into the leadership role — and has since joined the alumni community.Today, the meetups continue to flourish thanks to CSS student ambassadors, Mahjabeen Rahman and Kaitlyn La, Ryne Kimlick, an undergraduate student parent and CSS peer mentor,and Maria Garin Jones, CSS coordinator.
That continuity — students carrying the work forward for other students — speaks to what the program has built over the years.
“I am so glad to hear that the program has been recognized,” Sirisena said. “As a student parent, being there with others just like me was so meaningful. That feeling of not being alone in the experience is so important, and I am grateful we have been able to create that for our student parents.”
For Kuver, the recognition reflects something she has believed since the beginning. “The CSS meetups were my first program implementation at George Mason,” she said. “I believe in their importance and in their evolution. I believe in the spirit and necessity of horizontal support networks for our student communities.”
George Mason University is also a proud recipient of the FamilyU Seal, a national certification recognizing the important work done every day to help student parents pursue their education, access economic mobility, and thrive. Together, these distinctions reflect what the meetups have built over time: a place where student parents know they belong and that their success matters.