Monroe Community College is exploring ways to help single mothers stay in school and get their degrees.
"They are a paradox,” said MCC research specialist Mary Ann DeMario.
She’s leading a six year research project that will examine why single moms enroll in college, but then drop out.
"They come into MCC academically unprepared, meaning that they have to take high school level courses before they can take college level courses,” DeMario explained. “However, they end their first semester here with higher grades than our non-parents, but then three years later we've lost them. They've left MCC and haven't enrolled anywhere else."
Single mothers make up about 10 percent of MCC's student population; 54 percent of full-time MCC students who are parents of either gender leave without a diploma, based on three year graduation rates.
"I am a single parent of three children,” said MCC student Tatyana Davis. “My oldest is 11, my middle daughter just turned 8, and my son is 4. That in itself is a struggle to manage and juggle with school."
Davis expects to graduate in June with an associate degree in health information technology.
"The opportunities are endless,” she said. “I can't even think of all the areas that I can work in, just with an associate degree from this program. I am super excited about going into the field and seeing where it takes me. I already have a two year plan where I'm going to apply for a bachelor's degree and go even further in the field than I have now."
That's where she is now, but it's taken Tatyana 10 years to get there. She first applied to MCC in 2009, but spent fours years on a waiting list for a federally-funded child care subsidy for her youngest child, who was six months old at the time. Then, she found out she was expecting another child and decided to put school on hold. She was finally ready to start her studies after getting the child care subsidy in 2016, but after three semesters, MCC told her the grant had expired.
"And I thought I was going to lose my mind,” Davis recalled, “because here was this opportunity; I got into the program and now I'm gonna have to decide whether I can keep going or stop because I have no way to make sure my children are taken care of so I can better myself."
At that point, she had to pay out of pocket for her son's day care and for a wrap-around program for her two older kids at the YMCA. They gave her some financial help, but she still had to cover $185 a month out-of-pocket.
"Which is crazy,” she said, “because I don't work. I stopped working just so I can focus on school so I can get all the classes done in a two year time frame so I can graduate and get a job."
Davis applied for student loans and used them just to pay for child care. She thought about quitting school, but decided to try to make it through one semester.
Then, someone she met at school told her about the Strengthening Working Families Initiative, a program funded by the U.S. Department of Labor. The Rochester Rehabilitation Center administers the grants locally and Tatyana qualified for one. It covers 100 percent of her child care expenses.
"So that I can continue in my schooling, get a higher education and be able to be a productive person of society so I can take care of my needs without having to rely on others to help me," she said.
Davis is on track to graduate June 1. Her family is traveling from Tennessee to Rochester for the ceremony.
“I can't even describe the feeling of what it means to me,” Davis said. “I know it's just an associate degree, as some people say. But that degree means that I can go out and change the circumstances of my family."
On Monday April 29, the Susan B. Anthony Center kicks off its Civil Discourse - Civic engagement: Co-creating Our Future speaker series. The topic is how subsidized child care can change lives. Tatyana Davis and Mary Ann DeMario will be speaking at the event, which starts at 5:30 p.m. at The Little Theatre, 240 East Avenue in Rochester.
