MOMentum Network participants attend a recent SUMMIT Leadership Session held at Woople.Several days before giving her speech as salutatorian of her high school, Cara Hicks discovered she was pregnant. As a child of a single mother who had always stressed the importance of education, Hicks was determined not to become a statistic. After taking a semester off, she raised her baby in an off-campus apartment, with neighbors and members of the campus ministry helping with child care.
Through her experience she developed a passion to help other single mothers who want to go to college, and people would often reach out to her to see if she would be willing to speak with or offer advice to someone they knew experiencing an unplanned pregnancy during their college years.
“I loved sharing my story if it helped someone,” said Hicks, an East Brainerd resident who is now a mother of four.
In July 2014, she started researching about and meeting with a mentor to discuss the possibility of developing an organization to create a support system for young women dealing with all the pressures of motherhood in addition to college life.
“I felt there was a need that was not being met,” said Hicks, who realized her mission to fill that need would require her to devote herself to the project full time. “For me, it was a leap of faith.”