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The Community Foundation of North Central Massachusetts (CFNCM) Career Readiness & Educational Access Grant Committee has awarded the MWCC Foundation $30,000 in continued funding to support the Mount Wachusett Community College (MWCC) Child Watch Program.
The MWCC Child Watch is a supervised place where registered and eligible students can safely leave their child(ren) for up to four hours while they attend class, study, meet with their advisor, or receive tutoring. Student-parents must remain on campus and be reachable by cell phone while their child is in the Child Watch and return to the Child Watch if they are needed.
In addition to the support it provides parenting students, the Child Watch program has had significant success in preparing students for careers in early childhood care and education; the part-time work that is performed by the Team Leader compliments their classroom work with experiential learning. The Child Watch Team Leader role is filled by Sara Leopaldi, who graduated with her associate degree in 2025 and is now continuing her studies at Framingham State University.
“We live in a state with the highest cost of childcare in the US. Many student parents are forced to patch together childcare with partners, relatives, and other possibly less dependable care,” states Ann Reynolds, MWCC Coordinator of Student Parent Supports. “The Child Watch program helps student parents overcome these challenges, and the program would not be sustainable without the staff and resources the grant makes possible.”
One in four community college students are parents. Since its inception in April 2022, MWCC’s Child Watch has served 154 parent-students and 218 children. Of these, 115 students are the first generation of their family to attend college and 66 have graduated. Child Watch participant students have an average GPA of 3.18 and a 75% graduation rate.