Make It Personal: College Completion The League for Innovation 2012

What is MIPCC Three-year national demonstration project Improve community college student retention and success by addressing pregnancy planning, prevention, and healthy relationships Funded by The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy Managed by the American Association of Community Colleges

What is MIPCC MIPCC Colleges Chattahoochee Technical College, GA Georgia Perimeter College, GA Mesa Community College, AZ Montgomery College, MD Palo Alto College, TX Curriculum-based strategy Replicable curricular content and materials developed for use by other community colleges Pre/post-course surveys to track knowledge, attitudes, behavioral intent, retention

SMALL REQUEST

safe place “Your Office needs to provide a safe place for us to discuss this and similar difficult issues”

IS UNPLANNED PREGNANCY AN ISSUE ABSOLUTELY

Sixty-one percent (61%) of women who have children while enrolled in community college drop out and do not return to school

Getting STIs is more of an issue in this cohort than getting pregnant. Pregnancy in many instances is reported by many women in this cohort as a rite of passage. The major reported comment is that people do not talk about this issue. Parents are uncomfortable talking with their children (of any age). Peers do not talk about this issue substantively with each other. Older siblings do not generally talk with their younger siblings in a meaningful way.

Communication and ability to talk about the issue is one key to opening up the discussion and maybe developing some “scripts” that student could use in a variety of situations. Students need to develop scripts rather than being provided them. This is a topic that students want to discuss – they need permission and an appropriate setting. Non-value is the key – the focus is on the choices that students make not on the moral/value associations.

Faculty Classroom Campus Campaign Community Outreach

Campus Campaign Tabling – Poster Campaign Speakers - Forums Think about it – Talk about it Guided Discussions

Community Outreach Interagency Coalition on Pregnancy Community Action Team (Fetal & Infant Mortality) Teen and Young Adult Clinic

Faculty Classroom Forty Six Faculty (three semesters) Thousands of Students / Semester

Faculty know the what – Discipline Everyone needs help addressing the how What vs How

Unconditional Positive Regard Carl Rogers

Unconditional Positive Regard What might that look like?

Gave facilitators a tool and a way to deal with potential issues. Gave faculty a way to manage the discussions. Placed the disagreements in a frame to be civilly discussed.

safe place “Your Office needs to provide a safe place for us to discuss this and similar difficult issues”

AAC&U High Impact Educational Practices They are Effortfulinvolves difficult issues and conversations They help students buildbonding, active engagement substantive relationshipsin conversational learning They help students engageValues and assumptions are across differenceschallenged They help students apply andActive experimentation, defend Test their new learning in newexplain your position situations Provide students with richImmediate and public feedback They provide opportunities forHow does this knowing students to reflect on the relate to my life and my choices people they are becoming

Conversational Learning David Kolb What might that look like? Engaged Authentic Meaningful

Kolb Experiential Learning Model

What did we get?

HEADLINE: Faculty can successfully incorporate unplanned pregnancy content in a way that serves academic objectives and learning outcomes in a variety of disciplines. A “classroom integrative learning” approach means that classroom content is instructor designed and discipline appropriate. Instructors in this initiative were asked to integrate the topic of unplanned pregnancy into classroom discussion in their own way, and develop their own assignments.

Student assignments are to both: Serve the instructor’s academic objectives and learning outcomes and Provide students with the opportunity for – – Examination and Reflection upon Relevant information and research on unplanned pregnancy, and the experience, beliefs and assumptions of others. – And Their own attitudes, assumptions, and choices, and how these have been impacted by exposure to this topic in the classroom.

MIPCC Courses College 101Health Communications Kinesiology CounselingMental Health Education Political Science English Sociology English for Speakers of Other Languages EthicsWomen’s Studies Statistics

18 faculty responding in their final semester : Seven commented on the openness of students to discuss this topic, and share their experiences and perspectives. Twelve described that students were actively engaged, interested, and/or involved in these assignments, with some noting that this topic generated more energy than ones typically used. Two said that students were particularly creative in their projects. Miscellaneous comments from others were that students were “reflective”, “nuanced in their views”, “thoughtful”, “engaged in critical thinking” and “needed to talk” about unplanned pregnancy.

Student Themes Students think young adults need to “get real” about what is involved. The media’s presentation of sex is very problematic: it’s risk-free, it’s about self- gratification, and there are no potential negative consequences. When engaged on the topic, students “get” the challenges of unplanned parenting and what the results can be (loss of personal freedom, interruption of one’s education, sidetracking of goals, financial burdens, personal and relationship stress.) These are understood as the very real challenges of parenting when you are young, single and with limited resources. They are struck by the data on impact

Student Themes Many—both men and women—have really not considered the financial issues related to early and single childbearing/rearing and this is of considerable interest. Students acknowledge that living and studying in a highly diverse population requires awareness of and sensitivity to cultural/religious/values differences and an ability to talk even when these differences are present.

Student Themes Students believe that parents and schools bear (and share) responsibility for educating and preparing young people for handling their sexuality. Children need to be talked to (appropriately) from a young age. K-12 schools need to provide earlier, better and more frequent sex education. Students describe barriers to obtaining contraception and the psychological/attitude/ emotional barriers to using it. Men as well as women are implicated in unplanned pregnancy, both in being responsible, and in being impacted.

HEADLINE: Students learn from each other when they have the chance to talk about unplanned pregnancy. They learn: Cultural differences. Gender-based realities. Life experiences. Values, family norms and religious perspectives. The real dilemmas of navigating sex and relationships. Reasons to care. Strategies.

HEADLINE: Some students volunteered in their written work that their behavior was changed by being engaged on this issue in class. “… I used to think that unplanned pregnancy affects the mother only; however now I think that unplanned pregnancy affects the whole family.” “…I became more protective after the discussion. For instance my girl friend and I talk openly about how to prevent this unplanned pregnancy, which we never did before.”

HEADLINE: Some students volunteered in their written work that their behavior was changed by being engaged on this issue in class. “The last and most important thing I learned from the class discussion was that, I never talked about unplanned pregnancy with anyone before because the topic is a social prohibition or a ban to talk about -I now always discuss it Above all I talk to my partner about it. All in all, because of the discussion in our class I have changed some major thoughts about unplanned pregnancy that can help me for the rest of my life.”

Resources National Campaign community college portal: Studentsexlife (educational resource for college students): Stay teen (web site for high school age teens): National Campaign - How To Fact Sheet: unplanned-pregnancy-what-community-colleges-can-do.pdfhttp:// unplanned-pregnancy-what-community-colleges-can-do.pdf