Less than 2 percent of women who have a baby before the age of 18 go on to earn a college degree before they reach the age of 30. One who did was Nicole Lynn Lewis who had a baby at age 17 but enrolled at the College of William and Mary as the mother of a two-month-old infant. She graduated four years later and went on to earn a master’s degree in social policy and communication from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. She published a memoir of her life story, Glori: A Different Story, in 2007.
Now, Lewis is married and living in Maryland. She has started the nonprofit organization Generation Hope to help young women who are in the same position that she found herself in at the age of 17. The organization provides financial aid and mentoring to young mothers attending college in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. In its first year the program supported 17 young mothers and 11 new students have been added to the program.
Lewis hopes to expand the program to other cities in the future. Below is a video of Lewis discussing the goals of Generation Hope.