Students with Families

Students Students with Families (SWF) was co-founded by Dr. Marielisbet Perez-Quetives and Dr. Francena Turner. They met at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I), and bonded over their identities as mothers of color raising children while seeking their doctoral degrees at a predominantly white institution in the Midwest. The community of Champaign-Urbana was their temporary home, not their hometown. Perez-Quetives was from San Jose, California, and Turner was from Fayetteville, North Carolina. 

Before SWF, they both were searching for a sense of belonging in their department, and there was a need for an organization dedicated to supporting mothering and fathering students raising children while seeking degrees. The core mission of SWF was to support undergraduate and graduate students and their families in becoming part of the U of I campus and the local Champaign-Urbana community. They strived to organize family-oriented academic, professional, and social events that aim to foster a feeling of inclusion for students, their children, and family members. As organizational leaders, Perez-Quetives and Turner worked collectively to collaborate with a variety of student support programs and organizations across campus (e.g., The Student Assistance Center in the Office of the Dean of Students, The Graduate College, The Women’s Resource Center, and Family and Graduate Housing) to initiate partnerships of support and promote the value of family-friendly spaces for students and their children of all ages and needs.