Pod and Pride
Join the ecosystem

For colleges and universities

Welcome the students who are raising children.

Parenting students are already on your campus, often quietly and often alone in the room. Pod and Pride helps institutions engage, include, and welcome them, so more of them stay, belong, and graduate.

Bring Amaya to campusStart with the guideHow it works
1 in 5

More than one in five undergraduates in the United States is a parent, and most of them are mothers.Institute for Women's Policy Research and Ascend at the Aspen Institute, Parents in College: By the Numbers (2019)

Where this started

Before the ecosystem, a club.

Amaya Johnson returned to college months after becoming a mom, and founded Students for Parenting and Care at the University of Maryland, College Park. The club was a start, but it couldn't solve what kept student parents from showing up. So she took the work to faculty, the Dean of Undergraduate Studies, the Dean of the Graduate School, and leaders across campus.

  • Founded and led Students for Parenting and Care at the University of Maryland
  • Served on the Undergraduate Student Parent Advisory Council of the Community Thrives Lab (2024–2025)
  • Co-presented Beyond the Roster: Cultivating Belonging for Student Parents at the Maryland Student Affairs Conference (2026)
  • Do Good Institute Summer Accelerator Fellow

What the club proved

Amaya smiling behind the Students for Parenting and Care table at Maryland Day, with a prize wheel and bubble blasters for kids
Amaya hosting the SPC table at Maryland Day 2026

Student parents want to be thought of.

Student parents were happy to be considered and included. Being named, and seeing a place made for them and their children, mattered. Faculty and campus leaders did want to support them better, and the work mattered far beyond the club:

  • At Maryland Day, alumni, some of them former student parents, were thrilled the club existed.
  • Professors called it important work, and one connected her with a student parent in his own class.
  • After she served on the Community Thrives Lab's Undergraduate Student Parent Advisory Council, Maryland Today featured her.
  • Student parents still email her about the club today.

What the club revealed

Included isn't the same as supported.

  • Showing up is hard. Parents are drained, tired, and short on energy, so even a group made for them is hard to get to.
  • A club is nice, not a need. Connection eases loneliness and stress, but it doesn't solve the stressors that keep parents from connecting in the first place.
  • Support didn't know where they were. Resources were in place, or meant to be, but they missed where student parents actually were and how to reach them.
  • No one was counting. Without data, the need stayed invisible. In 2026 Maryland passed a law requiring its public colleges and universities to report data on parenting students, and many campuses elsewhere still don't know how many they have.
  • Inclusive, but never named. Programs and organizations that welcomed parents weren't marketed to student parents, so student parents never knew they were for them.
  • No one to connect it all. Some campuses, like the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, have a student-parent coordinator. Many don't.

So the work became a bridge

Connecting everything.

The support was there. What was missing was someone connecting the students, the offices, the resources, and the data, so the care reached the people it was meant for. That's the liaison work Amaya set out to do on campus, and since graduating, Pod and Pride carries it forward for any college ready to do the same.

How Pod and Pride helps

Closing the gaps, one bridge at a time

The guide

Family Inclusion in Higher Education

Engaging, including, and welcoming parenting students: a practical guide for faculty, staff, and student-life teams, from a caregiver statement on the syllabus to family-friendly campus events. Start with the guide, then come back when you're ready to talk.

Request the guide →

Student-parent web essentials

Make support easy to find

A review of how a university's websites serve parenting students, so childcare, lactation spaces, family housing, and financial aid can be found in a search, not buried three menus deep.

Ask about this →

Liaison and programming

A bridge, not another office

Connecting student parents with the people, resources, and family-friendly programming already on campus, so support lasts beyond any one student's graduation.

Ask about this →

Counting who's there

Make student parents visible

Help adding student-parent questions to applications and belonging surveys, so institutions can see the population they serve and plan for it.

Ask about this →

How it works

From first message to bridge.

  1. 01

    Reach out

    Tell us about your campus in a short form below.

  2. 02

    A conversation

    Amaya learns about your parenting students, the offices that serve them, and what you hope to change.

  3. 03

    A plan for your campus

    A web review, liaison work, and data, shaped around what your institution needs.

  4. 04

    The bridge begins

    Amaya works alongside your teams as a student-parent liaison, connecting students, offices, resources, and data.

Start the conversation

The future · our north star

The Campus House

Family spaces in college towns, near campus rather than on it. Room to move and play, with space for outdoor games (lacrosse is our founder's pick). Co-working for parents between classes. Wellness, yes, including a nap. A welcome for every age.

Built with the universities whose students need it most, the Campus House turns everything above into a place: a home base for student parents and the families around them.

Partner on the Campus House

Book a conversation

Bring Amaya to campus.

For deans, student affairs, belonging, and family-support offices, faculty, and anyone working to welcome parenting students. Share a little about your campus, and Amaya will reply personally to set up a conversation.