For the ordinary student, university life is hectic enough with academics and extracurriculars. Yet for full-time students with children, international families and single parents, balancing home life with academics can seem insurmountable.

The International Cooperative Nursery School helps these UCSD students, faculty and staff members by providing a preschool program for children from two to five years old. Located in the campus International Center, ICNS offers parents from all walks of life a safe and friendly care center for their children, while the parents are at work, in class, or elsewhere.

Melissa Gillian, a senior biochemistry student in Earl Warren College, leaves her three-year-old daughter, Ashley, at the nursery while she is in class.

Gillian started college later than most students, got married halfway through and dropped out only a few classes away from her degree. After going through a divorce, she decided to go back to college and finish her degree so that she could provide for Ashley.

“It is very difficult balancing school and taking care of my daughter, but if anything, Ashley makes me work harder,” Gillian said. “She is my motivation.”

When it comes to raising her daughter, however, Gillian is not alone.

“My sister helps me a lot, and the nursery school here is wonderful,” she said.

Connie Justice, who has been director of the nursery for the past four years, said that of 60 parents whose children attend ICNS, only 10 are students.

“This may be because students don’t know about us,” Justice said.

ICNS is a small, colorful, homelike setting cluttered with toys, stuffed animals, paints, dress-up clothes and miniature tables and chairs. Justice said ICNS is more like a home than an institution.

“You can see we let the children take off their shoes,” she said. “We let them play in the mud. They get to do all kinds of messy activities.”

While the nursery school offers a welcoming environment, all the doors in ICNS are locked at all times and have alarms that sound when they are opened from the inside. These alarms are in place to make it more difficult for a child to wander away from the nursery without the employees noticing; however, it is unlikely that a child would ever attempt to do so.

“You can tell that the children are very happy here,” Gillian said. “Some of them cry when it’s time to go home.”

Perhaps the most interesting aspect about ICNS is that it is an international day care.

“About 30 years ago, the nursery was created for foreign families to come together with university families,” Justice said. “It is required that one-third of the families using the nursery are visiting from another country.”

ICNS has cared for children from Korea, China, Japan, Sweden, Germany, France and Africa. Gillian said ICNS is the only truly multicultural nursery school she has ever seen, and because of that, her daughter is already becoming culturally aware at three years old. In addition, the international children interact with American children and are able to learn about and adapt to American culture.

“Some children come in speaking no English at all, but after a couple months in the nursery, they learn,” Justice said.

At the same time, the international children are encouraged to maintain their own culture, and local children are taught about other countries. For example, all the children learn to say a few words and sing “Happy Birthday” in several different languages.

ICNS requires that parents participate two days each month by providing snacks, cleaning dishes or helping the children with activities. They are also required to join a committee and help with laundry, maintenance, animal care or disaster-preparedness, or join the board of directors and help with school administration.

“Parent involvement is essential because ICNS started as a parent co-op, and we believe it is important for parents to be involved in their children’s lives and activities,” Justice said.

Gillian said that if not for the help of ICNS and the support of her sister and her Warren College advisers she would not be in school.

“ICNS gives me peace of mind,” she said. “It’s safe; I know all the workers and most of the other parents.”

ICNS is open five days a week from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and costs range from $120 per month to $936 per month, depending on the status of the parent and the programs he or she chooses for the child. Operated by parents, employees, student employees and volunteers, it is open on Wednesdays and Thursdays for parents to visit with their children and decide if the nursery is a good choice for them.

“ICNS is like a family,” Gillian said. “The best thing about it is that the workers truly care. They’re not just doing a job.”