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Single moms at College of St. Catherine in minnesota pitch education to teen moms. "You don't have to be stuck with a worthless - or worse - man in your life," they say. "We can do more than tell you you've got a shot at a good life, we can show you," one says.

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Newspaper Article2

Single moms at College of St. Catherine in minnesota pitch education to teen moms. "You don't have to be stuck with a worthless - or worse - man in your life," they say. "We can do more than tell you you've got a shot at a good life, we can show you," one says.

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Mother to Mother // No one tells teen moms

that it'll be easy. But some single moms at the


College of St. Catherine are telling them
success is possible if you hang in with
education - we made it and you can too.:
[METRO Edition]
Cummins, H J; Staff Writer. Star Tribune [Minneapolis, Minn] 29 May 1997: 01.E.

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Gina Walker became a mother two months before her 16th birthday, and there was nothing sweet
about it. The baby came with a such a punch of fear and confusion that she still goes weak in the
stomach talking about it 11 years later.
By Walker's own account, motherhood was a command to grow up that she didn't manage well.
She took up with drug dealers. She married young, a guy so abusive she finally left him. In the
meantime, she gave birth to two more daughters. Somehow, though, she finished high school in
St. Paul.
Walker calls that her time for "discovering who I was not." At least it served that purpose. Now,
she says, it has served one more. Because while earning her degree from the College of St.
Catherine in Minneapolis, Walker joined 13 other single mothers there to pitch the power of
education to teen moms in high schools across the metro area.
Their talks go something like this: Take it from us, you won't always be living with your parents.
You don't have to be stuck on welfare. And you don't have to be stuck with a worthless - or
worse - man in your life.

We can do more than tell you you've still got a shot at a good life, they say. We can show you.
We are your proof.
Luring them to college
"I will become a registered nurse," Johnetta Tipton begins her introduction, but is interrupted by
applause. "In 1998," she finishes.
"It's been a big struggle. It's been hard," she says. "But you can't raise a child being a simple,
stupid woman."
Tipton is one of several single mothers who spent one recent May morning addressing a roomful
of teen mothers, and one father, at Minneapolis' North High School. It's the second time this year
that instructor Gwen Onumah-Onikoro had asked the single mothers from St. Kate's to talk to her
class of 30 teen parents, ninth- to 12-graders whose babies played in a child-care center in the
next room.
After the last appearance, Onumah-Onikoro said, she had to write 10 hall passes for the students
who'd lingered with follow-up questions.
Just 21, Tipton has a 4-year-old son, Jonathan. It didn't take her long to figure out she couldn't
support both of them on minimum-wage work, she tells the class. That was when she signed on
for the two-year nursing course at St. Kate's.
"I'm being very honest with you now," she tells them. "I'm not trying to lure you to St.
Catherine's. I'm trying to lure you to {any} college."
The hands go up almost immediately.
"How are you earning money?" one girl asks. "I mean, how are you paying your bills?"
Tipton lists some scholarships and loans. She works part time. She gets some help from the
county. "It's a combination of things," she says. "A lot of women are receiving AFDC, and that's
a good steppingstone for you."
Heather Hable is next. Like Tipton, she's a nursing student. But she will graduate this month.
"It takes a lot out of you when you're trying to go to school, with a child," Hable says. "But you
can never stop learning. And you have a right to your dreams even if you have a child."
Did the college help her find a job, one student asked?.
St. Catherine has a job fair every year, Hable said, and a lot of students get several job offers.

Qiana Hicks, a graduating senior, said she was heartened by the women's talk. Hicks has a 2year-old son, James Carr. For now, her plans don't include college; instead, she's enrolled in an
eight-week computer programming course.
"So I agree that education is the way to a better life," Hicks said. "I had planned to tackle this
anyway, but hearing them gives me more confidence I'll make it."
The power of stories
That's all well and good, a wonderful bonus, said Mary Carol Wagner, assistant coordinator of
the St. Catherine's program that organizes those talks. But Wagner is more concerned about the
moms in the program than the moms still in high school. This program is really set up for them,
she said.
"We found that when students talk about their stories they become stronger," Wagner said. "They
get a better sense that they really are making it.
"And each time they tell their stories, it seems they get more OK with them. It's an absolution,
being able to forgive themselves for their mistakes, because they like themselves."
The program is called Mother to Mother, and it's within the college's Access and Success
program for single parents. Coordinator Joan Demeules said St. Catherine's started the program
four years ago, after finding that most single parents left school not because of academic
problems but because of basic needs like child care, rent support, and money for emergency car
repairs. Access and Success helps these parents - about 200 of the Minneapolis campus' 1,600
students - hook up with whatever aid exists. There are no "before" statistics, Wagner said, but
now the single-parent retention rate is 70 percent, matching the overall campus average.
Access and Success worked for Genelle Magler, a respiratory therapy student. At 31, Magler is
the mother of three, ages 6 to 14. She said she'd once made it through two years at Augsburg
College, then had to drop out because she couldn't pay for day care. She's scheduled to graduate
from St. Catherine's next year.
And the support helped Ann DeGrande feel she could beat those terrible "teen mom" odds
everyone hears about: Fewer than half of teen moms finish high school. Four out of 10 women
receiving public aid had their first child by age 18. Also, 80 percent of the children born to
teenage dropouts live in poverty.
"I thought, `Am I doomed for life? Will I have a future with my little girl?' " DeGrande said. "I
still hear a lot about `broken homes.' Well, there's nothing `broken' about my home."
At 24, DeGrande is finishing the first year of a three-year nursing program. Her daughter,
Ashley, is 7.

Gina Walker's family is packing for Texas, where she has accepted a job that will pay four times
the amount of the AFDC payments that have supported her family - Gina, Ashli Crimi, Melody
and Shanice - while she was in school.
The Mother to Mother program was important to her.
"Sometimes the girls really weren't responsive," Walker remembers. "But I remember when I
was a teenager I probably would have been the same way. I just hope they get something out of
it. And later on they may look back and remember, `There was a lady who said I could go to
college.' "
Illustration
PHOTO
Word count: 1126
Copyright Star Tribune Newspaper of the Twin Cities May 29, 1997

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