Stephanie Medina has felt adrift for most of her life. When her classmates in San Bernardino, California, were dreaming of college and careers, Medina hesitated to think about the future. Medina is undocumented; it was easier to forgo her dreams and ambitions, accepting life without the hope that anything would change.

But things did change, thanks to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. And when Medina became a college student at the University of California, Santa Cruz, she found a support system that would fight to keep her dreams alive.

Photo: Robert Neubecker

More than 4 million undergraduates in the United States are raising children today. These student-parents are often older, single, and women of color. But more than half of them leave school without getting a degree.

For them, access to affordable, reliable child care can mean the difference between graduating and dropping out.

Two student-parents offer insight on what it's like to balance college, work, and kids.