Program at Vanderbilt encourages pregnant students to complete college

Mary Cady Ford was a second-semester junior at Vanderbilt University when she learned she was pregnant.

The 21-year-old single honor student had just accepted a summer internship as an associate editor at a publishing company in New York City.

Instead of spending the summer in New York, she dropped out of college and began working several jobs to make ends meet.

But a year later, with baby Caroline in tow, she returned to Vanderbilt and graduated just a year behind schedule.

Today, four years later, Ms. Ford, who will receive a master’s degree in August at the Vanderbilt Divinity School, has founded Finished Up, a nonprofit organization that provides aid and support to single mothers who are students at Vanderbilt.

Ms. Ford, a native Chattanoogan, graduated from Girls Preparatory School.

“I realize the importance of an education, and I didn’t want to give up my goals because I was keeping my baby,” she said. “I also know that being a single parent can mean living your life for someone else, but my mom has always told me how important it is to make time for yourself. It helped me to realize that in order to be a good healthy parent, I have to be a good healthy Mary Cady, and that meant getting an education.”

Ms. Ford’s program, launched last month, is gaining interest from universities across the country. Colleges including Western Kentucky University, Western Michigan University and Southern Methodist University have expressed interest in starting chapters on their campuses.

The inaugural chapter of Finished Up at Vanderbilt provides resources for financial assistance, psychological counseling, medical care, housing, child care and job placement, Ms. Ford said.

“College students talk about sex every hour, every day, but they don’t talk about pregnancy,” she said. “We should talk more about pregnancy.”

Stacy L. Nunnally, director of gender matters at Vanderbilt, said undergraduate students sometimes do not talk about pregnancy.

“Students who become pregnant as an undergraduate tend to make choices about the pregnancy and their education on their own,” he said in a prepared statement. “Finished Up will give our campus a publicized and accessible resource for those students who do choose motherhood.”

At the time of Ms. Ford’s pregnancy, Vanderbilt offered no resources to pregnant students, she said.

Things are different today, she said.

“The support the program is getting at Vanderbilt is phenomenal,” Ms. Ford said. “Vanderbilt cares about their students. They are selective about who they invite to be students, and they don’t want to lose them.”

Ms. Ford’s mother, Anne Exum, of Chattanooga, said she’s proud of her daughter.

“She wants to create a situation where other young mothers won’t have the same struggles she had,” Ms. Exum said. “Mary Cady has always been goal-oriented.”