When Times Get Tough for Moms, Tough Moms Go Back to School

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When Times Get Tough for Moms, Tough Moms Go Back to School

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By Helen MacDermott

Motherhood comes with many tangible and intangible rewards, but often, challenges moms face and the rigors and demands of the job are often overlooked.  This year is no different and the job is getting tougher.  With food prices expected to rise more than five percent this year and gas topping more than $4.00 in most cities, many families are barely making ends meet.  The inflationary prices are also making jobs harder to come by.  In May 2008, the unemployment rate rose from 5.0 percent to 5.5 percent, with nearly 4 million of those unemployed being women.  Moms are seeking new ways to stay competitive in the workplace and, in many cases, turning to education to give them that leg up. 

Today, a college degree can be the key to securing a new job or advancing an existing career.  According to the College Board, a woman age 25-34 with a bachelor’s degree will earn 70 percent more than a woman with a high school diploma.  A bachelor’s degree can also add an extra $900,000 in lifetime earnings for working moms, which can better the lives of their families. 

Take, for example, Denise Browning of Cincinnati, Ohio. Since 1986, Browning has been promoted six times at her current job, but she has hit the glass ceiling without a college degree.  Despite working for her employer for 22 years, she was recently overlooked and deemed “not qualified” for a promotion.

“Wow, that was devastating, 22 years with a company, my accumulated years of knowledge, my excellent rapport with the reporting staff, my willingness to do the job, to be told ‘you’re not qualified, ouch,” exclaimed Browning.

Browning applied for a full-ride college scholarship to go back to school through a program called Project Working Mom, an online education advocacy campaign to help working moms afford the college degree they need to succeed for themselves and their children.  In the campaign, eLearners.com and partner schools join forces to award more than $2 million in full-ride scholarships to help working moms overcome the obstacles of time, money and confidence.  Browning was one of 42 women selected as a Project Working Mom scholarship recipient. 

In addition to the college scholarships, Project Working Mom includes a comprehensive website, http://www.projectworkingmom.com, designed to empower women to enhance their career by going back to school.  The site includes self-assessment quizzes to determine readiness for online education, an online community where people can talk with others in similar situations, a database with $15 billion in financial aid opportunities and numerous articles filled with advice and insight. 

Another Project Working Mom scholarship recipient, Vivian Bradley from Fort Wayne, Indiana, recently lost her home to foreclosure.  She has worked two and sometimes three jobs at once to care for her children, without any support from family.

“I work double shifts most days and the rest of my time is spent with my children,” said Bradley.  “I try to instill in my children that without an education they will end up like me working their life away on some low-paying job.  I cry every day because I am not able to provide for my children like I should be doing."

The stories of Browning and Bradley are only two of the more than 50,000 working moms that applied for scholarships through the first Project Working Mom campaign, which ended April 30.   

As a result of the incredible response to the first campaign, eLearners.com and five participating schools launched Project Working Mom 2 on June 23, 2008. In this back-to-school effort, more than $2 million in full-ride college scholarships will be awarded to students to attend one of the participating accredited universities or college: American Sentinel University, Ashford University, Capella University, Everest University or Penn Foster College. 

To apply for a Project Working Mom scholarship, join the online community or obtain advice and financial aid information on going back to school online, visit http://www.projectworkingmom.com.