February 8, 2023
  • 12:08 pm Fall Convocation 2022: “The State of this University is Strong”
  • 9:37 pm Ogrin Brings the Thunder in Toros 12-3 rout; team plays for playoff championship tomorrow
  • 7:00 am Outstanding Professor Award Recipient’s Mic Drop Moment at Last Month’s Virtual Ceremony
  • 9:10 am Bookworms of the World Unite!
  • 7:46 pm Breaking News: All Students Living in Campus Housing Required to Receive COVID-19 Vaccine
  • 9:00 am CSUDH Esports Creates International Competition
  • 9:35 am Spring Commencement Ceremonies Get Brighter
  • 3:46 pm Breaking News: Spring Commencement Ceremonies Recieve Stadium Upgrade
  • 8:00 am Testing the Teachers (and All the Educators)
  • 9:30 am CSUDH Educators and School Employees, Vaccinated Next
  • 10:30 am For White People Only: Anti-Racism Workshop Addresses Racial Bias and Unity
  • 2:43 pm Greatness Personified: Remembering Kobe Bryant
  • 10:02 am Straight Down the Chimney and Into Your (Digital) Hands: Special Holiday Edition of The Bulletin!
  • 2:44 pm Did You Wake up Looking this Beautiful?
  • 11:43 am A Long History for University’s Newest Major
  • 5:15 pm Issue 5 of Bulletin Live! Collector’s Item! Worth its Weight in Digital Paper!
  • 4:06 pm Special Election Issue
  • 4:03 pm Three best Latinx Halloween & Horror Short Films available now on HBO Max
  • 9:49 am Issue 3 of CSUDH Bulletin Live if You Want It
  • 3:24 pm Hispanic Heritage Month Update
  • 2:00 pm South Bay Economic Forecast Goes Virtual
  • 3:52 pm BREAKING NEWS: Classes for Spring to be Online, CSU Chancellor Announces
  • 9:39 am “Strikes” and Solidarity
  • 8:30 am March Into History: Just 5 in 1970, CSUDH Growth Shaped by Historic Event
  • 8:30 am Will the Bulletin Make Today Tomorrow?
  • 9:04 am Different Neighborhoods Warrant Rubber Bullets or Traffic Control For Protesters
  • 5:07 pm STAFF EDITORIAL: Even Socially Distant, We All Have to Work Together
  • 5:47 pm Transcript of CSUDH President Parham’s Coronavirus Announcement
  • 10:46 am Cal State Long Beach Suspends Face-to-Face Classes; CSUDH Discussing Contingency Plans
  • 5:26 pm Things Black People Should be Able to Get Away with This Month
  • 10:25 am Latinx Students Need a Place to Call Home
  • 2:35 pm Will Time Run Out Before Funds for PEGS? [UPDATED]
  • 8:41 am Year of the Rat? What’s That?
  • 6:20 am Artist Who Gave Life to Death and Inspired Countless Others Gets His Due at Dominguez Hills
  • 5:16 pm Why I’m Rooting for Dr. Cornel West
  • 5:00 pm Under Fire from the Feds, Vaping’s Future is Cloudy
  • 3:28 pm We’re Going to Need a Bigger Boat; Tsunami 3.0 Hits Campus, Enrollment Swells
  • 1:22 pm THE FIRST ISSUE OF THE BULLETIN IS HERE
  • 4:48 pm University Weathering a Wave of New Students
  • 9:21 pm The Bulletin’s Public Records Request Offers Springboard to Launch Gender Equity Discussion at CSUDH
  • 4:27 pm Black is the New Black: Raising the Capital on the “B” Word
  • 10:53 am Guns Up for Arrest: Student advocacy group pushes for CSU No Gun Zones–Including the Police
  • 4:09 pm Staff Editorial: Words on the First
  • 8:42 pm Carson Mayor Blasts Media, Landmark Libel Case in Keynote Address
  • 9:27 am Free Speech Week Calendar of Events Update
  • 6:02 am Food for Thought: 40% of Students are Food Insecure
  • 3:12 pm Academic Senate Rejects CSU GE Task Force & Report
  • 3:06 pm Work To Be Done
  • 5:56 pm ASI Elections: What You Need to Know
  • 8:02 pm CSUDH President Parham Announces Cancer Diagnosis
  • 9:47 am CSUDH Art Professor’s 20-Year Journey Results in First Local Showing of Film
  • 9:13 pm Free Speech or Free Hate area?
  • 9:08 pm CSUDH’s Best & Brightest Shine at Student Research Day
  • 9:05 pm Academic Senate Approves Gender Equity Task Force
  • 12:37 pm When Dr. Davis speaks, Toros Pay Close Attention
  • 3:38 pm Investing in the Future: Dr. Thomas A. Parham Reflects on the Past Eight Months and Contemplates​ the University’s Future
  • 3:24 pm Green Olive to Open By End of Feb; Starbucks Not Until Fall
  • 3:20 pm Gov. Newsom’s Proposed Budget Hailed for Extensive Funding Increases
  • 3:08 pm Out of the Classroom: Labor and Community Organizing Course Aims to Teach Students How to Organize for Social Justice
  • 2:54 pm The Other Route in Professional Sports
  • 9:02 am Hail to the New Chief, CSUDH President Thomas Parham
  • 3:36 pm Career Center Holds Major/Minor Fair
  • 5:34 pm After Unexpected Delay, Undocumented Becomes More Intimate Theatrical Production
  • 1:30 pm What to Expect When You’re Expecting New Buildings
  • 4:00 pm The Struggles and Highlights of a Small Business Owner
  • 4:00 pm All In and Ballin’
  • 4:00 pm Toros Coming Down To The Wire On 22-23 Season
  • 4:00 pm Wright and The Boys Are Gearing Up For Their Shot At The CCAA Crown
  • 4:00 pm The NFL’s top two teams face off in the Super Bowl
1

Jessyka Villalva wants to motivate her two children with her educational journey. Photo provided by Jessika Villalva.

By Annais Garcia. Staff Reporter.

Every morning, Jessyka Villalva, a California State University Dominguez Hills student of Liberal Studies, wakes up at 5:45 a.m. to shower, cook breakfast, wake up her kids, and get them ready for school. Villalva is the mother of a six-year-old boy and a four-year-old girl. She also works as a nanny of two kids and is enrolled in two online classes that would take her closer to earning her bachelor’s degree. 

“I would say that this is challenging, stressful, but very rewarding,” Villalva said.

After she drops the kids off at school, Villalva stops at the park for a quick workout before going back home to cook for her family and join her online classes. Then, she takes her kids to soccer games and to other activities. Her day ends by doing homework at midnight.  

“To watch them, work with them, take them to their activities, those little things I enjoy to do,” Villalva said.

During the last years in California, 1.5 million students applied for Financial Aid, and from those, 13% were parents of children according to a UC Davis report.

Villalva is also one of many students who have applied to Financial Aid, have children and divide their time between family, career, and work. 

“I’m only one of the millions and everyone has a different story,” Villalva said.

Villalva decided to take online courses to spend time with her children at home. They are the most important part of her life but she is also very committed to her career. Her degree would not only provide her family with economic stability, but it would also motivate her kids to pursue their educational goals in the future, just as she is doing it right now.

“I could finish when I was younger, but I was not as motivated as I am right now,” Villalva said.

It has been demanding for Villalva to take care of her two children and attend college at the same time. But her kids are the motivation she needs to graduate. She wants to make them proud by earning a college degree. 

“I think that if I wait until my kids are older, I would be much more tired and not as motivated as I am right now,” Villalva said.

Ever since Villalva graduated from high school in 2005, she has never stopped taking classes. She believes that right now is the perfect time to finish her studies.

“Honestly I don’t think that there is a right way to do it, you have to do it when it feels appropriate because everybody’s circumstances are different,” Villalva said.

According to a BPS study, students who are parents are 10 times more likely to finish their Bachelor’s degree in a longer time than those students who don’t have any children.

As Villalva gets closer to finishing her academic goal of graduating next spring 2023, she is considering pursuing a master’s degree to work in the education field. A career path she has always wished for.

While Villalva has been a student and mother, she has encouraged other members of her family, like her younger sister, to go to college and finish a career. She tells her that it is never too late to go back to school, and that it is important to work on one’s goals. 

“If you are motivated and want to have some stability, then do it, and do it for yourself,” Villalva said. “Once you have that degree on your hand, it is something you can be proud of.”

In April 2022, the CSUDH Student Parents organization invited those students that have children to participate in a survey (that closed on April 30th), where they would share their experiences and could win a $50 gift card.

“The experiences of pregnant and parenting students are valuable and the purpose of the survey was to gather more information about their needs,” said Melissa Neustein, from the CSUDH office of equity and inclusion.

CSUDH has developed special accommodations for students who are pregnant or have recently given birth. These accommodations include excused absences, the opportunity to make up missed work, alternatives such as retaking a semester in case of missed course, and lactating stations for mothers who attend in-person classes.

Villalva is a first-generation student who will earn a bachelor’s degree at CSUDH and she wants her children to do the same in the future.

“I’m the first one in my family to graduate, this is not just for me and my kids, it is for my family,” Villalva said. “My family is definitely my motivation.”

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