While students generally struggle with assignments and exams, there are many students on campus who have the added pressures of living in poverty. It's hard to focus on writing a paper when you are wondering if you're going to be able to pay the rent or feed your children. This is the reality for many students attending UCFV right now. The amount of funding these students receive, especially if they have children, does not cover monthly expenses. While some government retraining programs cover general living expenses and all school costs, Income Assistance recipients receive only their usual welfare.
Students living in poverty never know if they're going to make it through another month.
They're hungry most of the time, if you're not eating properly, you can't study properly. If the student also has children, and we have many students who are single parents living in poverty, there is an additional level of anxiety over the quality of childcare, missing classes if a child is sick, or in some cases, the threat of having your children taken away. Under these conditions, it is no surprise to the Access assistants that this stress shows up in the classroom. Circumstances like these can result in frustration and anger, adds College and Career Preparation department head Wendy Watson. These students are often dealing with bureaucratic entanglement and come up against a lot of brick walls.