Parent Pathways Grant Provides Concierge-Style Support for Parenting Students Wednesday, May 20, 2026
Point Park has received a $150,000 Parent Pathways grant from the commonwealth to establish the ReEntry and Completion Hub (REACH), a centralized, concierge-style support infrastructure to support parenting students.
Parents represent more than one in five undergraduates nationwide and have disproportionately high stop-out and non-completion rates. For many parenting students, navigating multiple university offices with separate timelines and requirements can be difficult while managing work and caregiving responsibilities.
The Point Park REACH concierge will serve parenting students as a single point of contact to coordinate academic advising, financial aid, registrar and transfer processes; provide academic coaching and completion planning; and connect students to basic needs resources, such as SNAP, childcare, housing and emergency funds.
“Point Park prides itself on being student-centered, and this grant speaks to that mission,” said Annie Shean, managing director of online and professional studies. “Having a dedicated point of contact alleviates stress for our adult students who are unsure of what resources are available and where to find them."
The model reframes re-entry challenges as institutional coordination issues rather than individual student shortcomings, enabling earlier intervention and faster progress toward degree completion.
The REACH concierge will be managed by the School of Continuing and Professional Studies and modeled on the success of the current online advisor team. The rest of the Parent Pathways grant will be managed by the Center for Civic and Community Engagement (CCE).
“We are excited to launch REACH because it reflects our commitment to supporting the whole student,” said Heather Starr Fiedler, Ph.D, managing director of the CCE. “By connecting academic advising with basic needs and community resources, we can reduce barriers and create a more coordinated pathway to completion.”
A portion of the grant is also reserved to offer emergency funding for students, including last-dollar tuition assistance (filling the gap after all other aid is applied) and micro-grants to help with unexpected expenses.
Another portion will be given to Pittsburgh Scholar House, which supports parenting students with housing, childcare and benefits navigation.
REACH will also partner with the Pittsburgh Council on Higher Education to conduct a regional study examining barriers and effective support strategies and adult re-entry students.
According to the Fall 2025 Census, Point Park enrolls around 140 undergraduate parenting students. REACH is intentionally designed as a permanent, scalable infrastructure that can be extended to other adult re-entry populations, such as veterans and stop-out adult learners.