When Ashanti Beene graduated from high school over two decades ago, no one told her college was an option.
“They were like, ‘You graduate, go to work,’” she said. “I didn’t know anything about college.”
So when Beene’s daughters started high school, she was determined to make sure her kids had what she didn’t: support and encouragement to go to college.
That’s how her two kids — now 14 and 15 — got involved with the Starfish Initiative. The Indianapolis nonprofit provides one-on-one mentoring for Indiana’s 21st Century Scholars.
For Starfish, success isn’t just about helping students achieve their goals. The organization focuses on educating parents alongside their children. The idea is to empower parents with not just the knowledge students need to succeed, but with information that will help their families long after their kids leave for college.
In 2021, the Pew Research Center found that among 22- to 29-year-olds, those who had a college-educated parent were twice as likely to finish college than their first-generation peers. Some of the reasons behind this gap include academic challenges, financial struggles and the barriers of the “hidden curriculum,” or expectations that college students need to know but are not taught explicitly, such as attending office hours.
By teaching parents about finances, mental health and open communication, Starfish hopes the parents will be empowered to help their kids through struggles in school and beyond.
“Their parents are gonna be their parents forever,” said Latrice Watson, program director at Starfish Initiative. “The way to add to the success of students is making sure that you’re educating the parents along the way as well.”
Starfish’s mission
Helping scholars’ families is part of Starfish’s holistic approach to putting students in positions to succeed, Watson said.
Starfish used to run a program called Generation+, which offered employment, coaching and job referrals to parents and caregivers of students in the mentoring program. While that program’s no longer ongoing, Watson said the commitment to educating parents remains a core part of the nonprofit’s mission.
Today, all of Starfish’s events — from college fairs to information nights — offer programs for parents as well as students and their mentors. These sessions include everything from budgeting and saving to unique scholarship opportunities.
For families who need more assistance, the nonprofit also works to connect parents with wraparound services through local community centers.
But it’s not just about practical skills; emotional wellness is important, too. As youth mental health crises become more common, Watson said she wants to empower parents to have difficult conversations with their children, especially during stressful times in their lives.
“I want to make sure that the parents have some skills as well to support their student,” Watson said, “because they want to. They just don’t know how to.”
Parent impact
Starfish’s mission is in many ways centered around the first-generation college experience, but the education sessions are helpful even to parents who didn’t attend college.
Though Stefan Tichenor and his wife did attend college, it’s changed a lot in the years since.
Since signing his sophomore son up for the Starfish mentoring program, Tichenor learned how to apply for scholarships and grants to ease the cost of college.
Those will be helpful for his son and for his older daughter, who’s studying at Ball State.
“It takes a village to raise a family,” he said. “The bigger the village, the more support; the more support, the more the growth.”
The village is key for Iris Castaneda, too. Two of her children have gone through Starfish’s program — her son who’s already at IU Indianapolis — and her daughter Ame, a senior at North Central.
Castaneda finds the college application process confusing, since she didn’t attend herself. Moreover, she doesn’t speak much English, so she often can’t follow much of what’s said in the parent sessions.
But she comes to every event because she’s determined to provide support for her kids’ college dreams, even if just by showing up.
“We’re the first gen in our whole family line to go to college, so it’s very important for her that we actually go,” said Ame, who was translating for her mom. “She doesn’t want us to go through what she went through — having more difficult jobs, having to work harder, being more exhausted.”
As for Beene, she’s determined to learn everything she can from Starfish’s parent sessions. But in the midst of encouraging her kids to go to college, Beene pursued that dream herself, too.
She graduated with her bachelor’s degree in social work from Indiana Wesleyan University in December.
“I was determined to get my degree before they graduated,” Beene said. “I wanted them to stand at my graduation and see me graduate, so that I could push them to graduate.”
Claire Rafford covers higher education for Mirror Indy in partnership with Open Campus. Contact Claire by email claire.rafford@mirrorindy.org, on most social media @clairerafford or on Signal 317-759-0429.
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