Another year at Southwestern College can mean a lot of things. It’s the first chance students get to manage their own grocery shopping, set their own sleep schedules, and ideally, do their own laundry. But for some Southwestern students, there is one thing that makes the idea of being completely on their own a little more complicated. Their parents work at Southwestern College.
This is not a new phenomenon. For years, students have shared campus with parents who teach, coach, administer, and work behind the scenes. But in 2026, there are many students navigating a unique version of the college experience. One where the person who raised you might also be just down the hall, across campus, or sitting in the cafeteria listening to a conversation you were hoping they would not hear about.
For these students, independence comes with an asterisk. They are college students, building their own lives and making their own decisions. At the same time, their parents are still part of the Southwestern community, watching from a unique perspective than most parents ever get. It got me wondering. Is it comforting? Embarrassing? Convenient? Or does it make that independent college experience less independent?
MY OFFICE IS NOT YOUR DORM
I sat down with most of the Southwestern College parent employees. The answer is some combination of pride, restraint, awkward hallway encounters and learning that “I’m your parent” and “I’m a college employee” are not always the same.
For Stephanie Humphries, having her daughter Lillian at Southwestern has meant watching her build a life that is increasingly her own. With roommates from different states, Lillian has developed a community in Winfield, and, unexpectedly, so has her mother.
“I feel that I’ve built my own relationship with Lillian’s friends,” Humphries said. That relationship comes with boundaries. “There have been times when I’ve had to be a mom first and faculty staff member second,” but she admits she tries not to interfere. Lillian’s first semester was difficult, she said, but watching her daughter become more independent has made the experience worthwhile.
“Now it’s a completely new Lillian,” Humphries said.
Sara and Dave Denly have taken the philosophy of boundaries even further.
“We make sure we stay in our lane,” Dave said. That can mean simply waving when they pass their daughter Abegale on campus rather than stopping to check in. For Sara, the goal has been to let Abegale step fully into college life while being still available when she needs support.
“This is her thing,” Sara said. “I had to be available for guidance, but I’m here to support her as a friend.”
The Denlys have watched Abegale grow in confidence and independence, something Dave describes as the transition “from your child into your adult.”
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Brenda Hicks has faced a different version of the same lesson. As Isaac’s mother and a Southwestern employee in financial aid, Hicks knows that being his parent does not mean getting exclusive access to his college life.
“You just must think about your kid as any other student, except when they come home to eat,” Hicks said.
She does not check his classes, deadlines, or financial aid. She does, however, appreciate the occasional surprise visit.
Sarah Stephenson learned the same lesson through paperwork. When she tried to help her son Noah and discovered he had not completed a FERPA form, she was reminded that neither motherhood nor employment at Southwestern comes with an exemption.
“I still need to follow the rules,” Stephenson said.
It is a recurring theme for these parents. Being close enough to help, but far enough away to let them figure things out.
Sierra Bradbury-Money is learning that sometimes the less she asks, the more her son tells her.
“The less I push and ask, the more information that has been given to me,” she said. “I’ve learned that as he’s maturing and becoming a young adult, it’s not my job to pry.”
Boston even played a role in Bradbury-Money’s decision to work at Southwestern.
“When Boston applied for Southwestern College, that’s when I applied for my job…is that a terrible thing to say?” she joked.
Now they compare notes about professors, talk about campus and bond over sports. But at work, she keeps the boundary clear.
“I will not treat anyone differently. This is my job, and I must be a professional,” she added.
Dr. Michelle Greenwood has the most literal
version of the parent-on-campus experience. Her son, Dillon, sometimes comes into her office between class and practice.
“He’ll come in between class and practice and leave clothes in my office,” Greenwood said. “And I am like, ‘What are you doing? This is my office.’” Still, those interruptions have their benefits.
“I saw him in the hallway once and got to give him a kiss,” she said. “He doesn’t mind that I do that.”
For Greenwood, having Dillon at Southwestern has also changed the way she interacts with students. She feels a greater sense of responsibility, knowing that conversations with students could eventually make their way back to her son.
For Alissa Sheppard, the biggest surprise is not the professional boundary. It has been missing her daughter Ava.
“I’m not a helicopter mom,” Sheppard said. “I wanted her to be independent.”
And she is. Which, naturally, has consequences.
“She lives on campus and I figured I would see her all the time, but I don’t, so I miss her.”
A FAMILY AFFAIR
While I couldn’t get all our students together, I did manage to talk with a few. Abegale Denly, Isaac Hicks, Lillian Humphries, and Boston Norris all have parents who work at Southwestern, giving them a college experience that comes with an unusual overlap between family life and campus life. But when the four students talk about it, none describe their parents’ presence as particularly dramatic. If anything, the consensus is surprisingly simple. It’s normal.
For Isaac, whose mother has worked at Southwestern for roughly 30 years, the college has been part of his life since long before he became a student. As a preschooler, he spent time in his mother’s office. Now 25 and attending Southwestern himself, he says he rarely thinks about the fact that his mother is somewhere on campus.
“She is my mom, we are separate people living,” Hicks said.
Their schedules and locations rarely bring them together during the school day, allowing Hicks to maintain his independence. But having a mother who has spent decades at Southwestern does come with one unexpected advantage. People already know her.
“They’re like, ‘Oh, you’re Brenda’s son,’” Hicks said. “So, it is a connection there that makes it easier to talk to the professors.”
For Hicks, that familiarity is less about getting special treatment and more about having an immediate connection to the community.
“I am my own man,” he said. “She knows I can handle my own stuff.”
Lillian Humphries understands that connection
from a slightly different perspective. As the daughter of a Southwestern graduate, she sometimes feels like she is carrying two identities around campus, her own and the legacy of the person who came before her.
“Sometimes I tend to feel pressured by my mom’s presence,” Humphries said. “Not in a negative way, but I look at myself as ‘daughter of a Southwestern graduate.’ Maybe I need to fulfill the shoes that were stepped in academically.”
That pressure, however, exists alongside a strong sense of support.
“I can still make my own decisions with her by my side,” she said. “When I need help, she has firsthand resources.”
Humphries will sometimes stop by her mother’s office before or after class. Her mother’s familiarity with faculty and the college has also given her another resource as she navigates Southwestern.
“I think it’s the greatest thing a student can have,” Humphries said. “I’m overall thankful to be here with her by my side. I’m very lucky.”
At one point, Lillian considered attending college farther from home to “spread my wings.” Looking back, she said she would not change her decision.
“With the friends I’ve made and my mom by my side, I wouldn’t change it,” she said. “It’s a great experience and I feel lucky.”
If there is one thing all four students seem to understand, it is that having a parent on campus does not mean having a parent involved in everything.
Denly had some concerns when both of her parents began working at Southwestern.
“When they first told me they were going to work here, I had some worries,” she said. “But they’re fine. I’ve always had chill parents.”
The biggest adjustment was establishing boundaries.
“I just told them to not come step in all the time,” Denly said. “I just want to still have my college experience.”
That independence was easier to maintain because Denly had already spent her freshman year learning how to live away from home. Her parents did not begin working at Southwestern until she was already halfway through college.
“If I had started with them here, I wouldn’t have learned how to live on my own as well,” she said. “I had to learn how to be away from home my freshman year.”
Instead, having her parents nearby has become more of a convenience than an intrusion. She still talks to her mother every day, occasionally goes home for food and laundry, and gets to see the family pets.
“I thought it would be weird, but it really hasn’t been so far,” Denly said.
For Norris, the biggest benefit is not academic
access or convenience. It is knowing that someone familiar is always nearby.
“I don’t think it makes me any less independent,” Norris said. “It’s more so that I have somebody I’m close with that I can call whenever, for whatever reason. If she doesn’t have the answer, she usually knows somebody who does.”
His mother can help with some registrar-related questions that another student might have to navigate alone, but classes, financial aid, professors, advisors and meetings are all his.
“Mom’s at work, and Mom’s work happens to be my school,” he said. Perhaps that is the simplest way to describe the experience.
For these students, their parents are not their academic advisers, their social lives or their college identities. They are simply their parents who happen to work in the same place where their children go to school. There is, however, one benefit Boston does not hesitate to claim.
“I get to see my mom more than I normally would, which is a positive thing.” His final assessment is even simpler. “Having her here probably makes things easier overall, but more than anything, I enjoy it because she really is the coolest.”
At Southwestern College, “home” can mean more than the place students return to after class. Sometimes it is an office on campus, a familiar face, or a parent who happens to know exactly where the classroom is. For these students, having a parent at Southwestern does not erase the distance between childhood and adulthood. If anything, it gives that transition a different shape. They still make their own friends, manage their own schedules, navigate their own classes and figure out who they are becoming. Their parents simply happen to be somewhere nearby. They are working, helping, occasionally embarrassing them and, when necessary, reminding them that college may be their new home, but they will always have somewhere to go back to.
At Southwestern, that overlap between family and campus is less complicated than another part of what makes the Builder community feel like a community. Here, home and college do not always have to be separate places. Sometimes, home is just down the hall, and that’s truly special.
