Help non-traditionals to establish new ties to campus.(IN HER OWN WORDS)(Viewpoint essay)

For me, it's my mother," explained Kelsey, a 34-year-old single parent of five, discussing her biggest barrier to success during her first year in college. Studying to become a legal assistant, she made comments that were typical of non-traditional women who entered college against the odds, but today are persisting in their educational goals. How are they managing to persist?

After years of working to develop and operate a successful special college program to support first-year nontraditional learners to master higher education, I was eager to confirm what I had observed as barriers to these marginalized women. They had come from poverty or suffered some kind of loss, and turned to education and training to improve their economic status.

Their mothers' voices

While they listed transportation, housing and daycare as still being big barriers to their persistence in higher education, I was surprised to find that these women without advocacy relationships reported that relationships with their mothers was on top of their list of difficulties in staying in school.

As part of the requirements for a PhD in education at Michigan State University in 2005, I made a grounded theory study of first-generation college students of non-traditional age, as reported in my dissertation "Nontraditional Women Persisting in Community College to Meet Their Educational Goals."

Through interviews, I probed the lives of 11 women who discussed the hardships of being the first person in their families to attend college. The overarching theme of the women's concerns was "relationships."

Many who were in generational poverty had to learn to view relationships from a different perspective. In her book Bridges Out of Poverty (2000), Dr. Ruby K. Payne explained the hidden rules among classes. With regard to relationships, Dr. Payne wrote that family structures in the middle and upper classes tended to be patriarchal--or whoever has the money--and possessions were "things" or "pedigrees." Family structures in poverty were matriarchal with emphasis on "people" as possessions.