W&M grad devotes life to helping young parents

Apr. 7—When Nicole Lynn Lewis enrolled at the College of William & Mary in 1999, she had a 3-month-old daughter — and plenty of doubts that she could graduate.

Over the next four years, Lewis scraped together loans and grants for classes and childcare with guidance from a sympathetic financial aid officer. She had to skip meals at times and often stayed up much of the night studying.

In 2003, Lewis became one of the less than 2% of teenage mothers who finish college before age 30, according to statistics from the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. She earned an English degree with a minor in secondary education.

Today, the Maryland resident has devoted her life to helping other young parents beat the odds, too, through her nonprofit Generation Hope. Meanwhile her first child, 22-year-old Nerissa, is close to graduating from Towson University.

"Most people don't connect teen pregnancy with going to college, which creates so many generational problems," Lewis said. "We need to shift the conversation so that young mothers and fathers believe it is possible. Harder, yes, but they absolutely can do it."

Generation Hope's Scholar Program helps 122 young parents navigate college with mentoring, tuition assistance, mental health services, tutoring, academic planning and career counseling. The plan is to grow that number to 175 students over the next two years.

The nonprofit also runs an early childhood program, Next Generation Academy, to provide literacy, academic and social-emotional supports to the children of its scholars. The goal is to help them reach kindergarten ready to succeed.

Along with that two-generational attack on poverty, Generation Hope leaders do advocacy work nationwide to raise awareness of the dismal graduation rates of teen parents and encourage colleges to build more inclusive campuses.

Lewis has shared her own journey in frequent interviews and with her memoir, "Pregnant Girl: A Story of Teen Motherhood, College, and Creating a Better Future for Young Families." The book also discusses barriers such as poverty, classism and systemic racism.

An estimated one in five students at community colleges and four-year institutions are parents, a percentage that surprises most people, Lewis said.

One of those students is Josseline Cruz, a 24-year-old junior in a business administration program run through a partnership between Northern Virginia Community College and George Mason University. Cruz is raising two daughters, ages 5 and 1.

Before a friend told her about Generation Hope, Cruz was working two jobs, one in a medical office and one at a restaurant. She was accepted into the Scholar Program in 2019.

"It was literally a life-changer for me," she says. "I was stuck not knowing what to do, and it gave me that push of, 'You can do this. You can continue your education.' I honestly wouldn't have done college without it."

Cruz checks in weekly with an assigned mentor and receives tuition assistance, free math tutoring and access to an emergency fund if needed. Her mother and her partner, the father of her second child, have also been supportive of her dream to start her own spa business.

"There have been times I've wanted to give up, like when I'm up at 4 a.m. trying to finish homework," she said. "But I know it will pay off in the end, and I want to set a strong example for my girls."

Lewis, now a married mother of five, has done the same for her children. Originally from Connecticut, she moved to Virginia Beach in seventh grade and became pregnant her senior year of high school. She split with her boyfriend before her sophomore year at W&M.

Pushing on as a single parent, Lewis remembers feeling overwhelmed with emotion on her graduation day. "I wasn't sure it would ever happen," she recalled. "I was so excited, but I also had this overpowering sense of wanting to give back."

While working a lucrative public relations job for an insurance company in the Washington, D.C., area, Lewis decided to volunteer for an organization that helped fellow teenage parents finish school. Trouble was, she couldn't find one.

So, in 2010, Lewis founded Generation Hope to serve young student-parents in the D.C. metro area. The nonprofit now has 25 employees and a $3.5 million annual budget, and its leaders are developing a short list of future expansion sites for the Scholar Program.

Lewis, who also has a master's degree in Social Policy and Administration from George Mason, encourages colleges to support parenting students by being flexible with requirements that students live in dorms, extending office hours beyond 5 p.m. and offering lactation rooms and diaper-changing stations across campus.

"We can either embrace or isolate teen parents trying better their situation and their kids' lives," Lewis said. "It's going to be so much better for all of us if we embrace them."

Want to learn more?

Nicole Lynn Lewis recently participated in "After 1954," a podcast series on the impact of Brown v. Board of Education. In her episode, Lewis discussed the crucial support she received from Tammy Curry, her financial aid officer at William & Mary. To listen, visit https://lemonadamedia.com/podcast/student-parent-work-is-racial-justice-work.

___

(c)2022 The Virginia Gazette (Williamsburg, Va.)

Visit The Virginia Gazette (Williamsburg, Va.) at www.vagazette.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.