By Molly Olmstead

Contributing Writer

Students with a knack for taking care of kids can now apply to be a babysit through one of two new programs aiming to connect student parents with suitable keepers for their children.

The Graduate Parent Support and Undergraduate Parent Support, have established the UA GPS/UPS Babysitting Network to assist stundets with children. Through that program, eligible students can post their profile, resume, schedule, and minimum hourly wage on a listserv for parents to look over.

Both Sitters for Service and the GPS/UPS Babysitting network are relatively new to the University. The UA Graduate School founded GPS in the fall of 2009 to help parent students cope with the challenges of managing both studies and parenting.

UA’s Student Services launched UPS a few months later to meet similar needs of undergraduate students and began the Sitters for Service program that same year.

According to Cori Perdue, the Work Life manager for the University, the Sitters for Service program is the first of its kind in the country.

“Two universities have contacted us to try to set up a similar program,” Perdue said.

In the past three years the program has had over 150 volunteer sitters. Savanna Barlow, a sophomore majoring in accounting, applied recently to join that number.

“I have worked as a babysitter for years and have also been involved in many community service projects,” said Barlow. “This program allows me to combine my love for both.”

The GPS/UPS Babysitting Network, however, is a brand new program. According to Perdue, GPS founded the program to meet the needs of a larger university.

“Sitters for Service can only help so many,” Perdue said. The Network, she explains, helps assist a large student body. “Now we have over 900 students with children who have signed up to be on the listserv. There probably are more.”

Perdue, a student parent herself, envisions the program expanding.

“We have a vision for it to be bigger,” Perdue said. “A family helpers database— pet sitting, house sitting, geek squad, lawn care, tutoring— a place where students who are looking for short-term, part-time work can post – kind of like our own Craigslist.”

Applicants must be at least 18 and have previous experience as a babysitter or nanny. Students are then contacted directly by interested parents.

Students also have the option of applying to volunteer their babysitting services in exchange for service hours through the Sitters for Service program. This program is a closed system that selects thirty volunteers and thirty parents. Applicants go through a more extensive application and interview process than those applying for the Babysitting Network. Selected students may volunteer for 20, 30, or 40 hours per semester.

Student parents are chosen randomly from an applicant pool of graduate and undergraduate students. The deadline for students and student parents to apply for the Sitters for Service Program is Friday, Sept. 14. Students can go online at gps.ua.edu or contact Cori Perdue ­­­­at [email protected] to apply.