Childcare support is often discussed for working parents who need assistance while caring for their children, but an area of childcare that is not addressed as regularly is for college students.
However, an Early Childhood Education major at Des Moines Area Community College wants to change that. Leigha Walker, Nevada, Iowa, is a mother of three children and a full-time student at DMACC.
Walker started her college education ten years ago, took a few different paths, and then came back to give her children a better life. When she came back to college, Walker was an online student in the Early Childhood Education Program at DMACC. Due to the design of the program and the in-person portion of it, Walker was no longer able to further her education online.
Determined to continue her education, Walker signed up for in-person classes in Ankeny. Since she was unable to be home with her children, Walker enrolled them into the Ankeny Child Development Center at DMACC. While she has been supported through this center, Walker wanted to give more support to other parents at DMACC.
To accomplish this, Walker surveyed students at DMACC who are parents and learned what services they use and would like to use at DMACC. While conducting these surveys, Walker found that some of the resources available did not have the capacity to cover all of the needs that parents mentioned.
Walker said that the easiest and best way to do that was for her to revive the parent club. Although she did not have all the resources and funds to accomplish this, she knew that there were people who wanted to help. Walker said that her goal was to connect those people with the people who needed help.
Walker officially revived the Parent Club at DMACC in January of 2025. “Our goal and our initiative of our organization is to help support people who went back to school after they had kids, and they really need help accessing resources so that they can finish school,” she said. Shortly after starting the club, Walker began receiving donations that she has since then given away to parents at DMACC.
While Walker took charge of reviving the Parent Club, she had some support, especially from DMACC Urban Professor, Chelsy Doyle. “My experience as an advisor for student clubs at Urban coupled with my connections to the DMACC Child Development Center at Ankeny Campus made it a natural fit to support Leigha with the DMACC Parent Club,” said Doyle.
Doyle said that it is important for students who are parents to have a sense of community and support for success while pursuing their education at DMACC. “Leigha has worked hard to create opportunities for parents to gather for such fellowship at the Ankeny Campus and wanted support for expanding to Urban Campus,” she said.
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