DIAPERS & DIPLOMAS; PROGRAM HELPS TEEN MOMS FINISH SCHOOL.Byline: Mary Mary, the mother of Jesus Mary, in the Bible, mother of Jesus. Christian tradition reckons her the principal saint, naming her variously the Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Lady, and Mother of God (Gr., theotokos). Her name is the Hebrew Miriam. Lou Aurelio Aurelio is a Spanish given name, may refer to:
Six teen-age mothers will graduate from the Glendale Glendale. 1 City (1990 pop. 148,134), Maricopa co., S central Ariz., adjacent to Phoenix; inc. 1910. It is located in a rich agricultural region irrigated by the Salt River project. Glendale has become one of the fastest-growing U.S. school district's Pregnant Minors Program in June June: see month. and plan to continue on to college and other programs, a goal the students said would have been nearly unattainable otherwise. ``It gives you a chance to finish your education,'' said Angela Powell Powell See Osceola. , 18, who has attended the special school for more than two years. Her 20-month-old baby, Jose, played in the nursery Friday with several other tots, while Powell rocked another student's infant. Kathy Collins is the Glendale Unified School District The Glendale Unified School District is a school district based in Glendale, California, United States. The school district serves the city of Glendale, portions of the city of La Cañada and the unincorporated communities of Montrose and La Crescenta. teacher who has been running the program, now in its sixth year. The district rents space in the Glendale Presbyterian Church center complex, where the nursery and classroom are housed. ``It works for the girls. So many just don't have the family support and I think it's good for the babies too,'' Collins said. ``They don't have to be away from the mom (1) (Messaging-Oriented Middleware) See messaging middleware. (2) (Microsoft Operations Manager) Software that monitors and captures system and application events throughout the network. all day.'' She said the program is for students who have decided to keep their babies. The pregnant teens typically transfer over from their home schools. After giving birth, they're given a month off and then return until they finish high school. They spend time in the nursery and learn parenting skills as well, Collins said. There are 25 moms in the program now, including the six graduates and 17 babies. The students arrive at 8 a.m., drop off the children in the nursery and go up one flight to class. ``If they need to breast-feed breast-feed v. To feed a baby mother's milk from the breast; suckle. , or if there is a problem with the baby during class they can go down to the nursery,'' Collins said. While students are allowed to stay at their high schools while pregnant if they choose, it is much more difficult, Collins said. ``Basically, we're here to support students staying in school,'' she said. ``A lot of girls drop out because they don't have child care and they don't have the support to stay in school.'' Powell plans to attend Glendale Career College and become a medical assistant. Without the program, she said, finishing high school would have been too difficult. ``If it wasn't for this, a lot of us would have dropped out,'' Powell said. ``A lot of us chose to stay here because we don't have the child care, and it makes it a lot easier.'' Peer pressure also plays a role, Powell said. ``Here, we all have something in common,'' she said. ``At regular school, they're still going out and they don't have the responsibilities we do.'' Bianca Duarte, 17, whose son, Joe, is 19 months, said there is still a stigma stigma: see pistil. Stigma mark of Cain God’s mark on Cain, a sign of his shame for fratricide. [O. T.: Genesis 4:15] scarlet letter to being an unwed mom at regular school. ``People you don't even know point at you and say, That's her; she's pregnant,'' Duarte said. ``My friends don't talk to me as much anymore. They say things like, It was stupid of you getting pregnant.'' ``You feel left out,'' Duarte said. ``Here, you feel closer.'' Flor Pena, 19, agrees. She attends the program with her daughter, Kayleen, who is nearly 3. ``You don't feel different here, as you would at Glendale High School Glendale High School can refer to:
Both Pena and Duarte said they probably would not have been able to continue with high school without the Pregnant Minor Program. They share a sense of accomplishment. ``I'm the first person in my whole family who's going to graduate, including all of my aunts and uncles,'' said Pena, who plans to be a teacher. Their graduation Graduation is the action of receiving or conferring an academic degree or the associated ceremony. The date of event is often called degree day. The event itself is also called commencement, convocation or invocation. ceremony will be held June 15. ``I'm very proud of myself and I'm glad I've come this far,'' said Duarte, who plans to become a police officer. ``I like helping people and I know I'm going to make other people proud of me too.'' ``The girls who come here make a real commitment to getting an education and to being a parent,'' Collins said. CAPTION(S): 2 photos PHOTO (1) Angela Powell, 18, looks after 6-month-old Micah Caro, whose mother is a Pregnant Minors Program classmate of Powell's. (2) Bianca Duarte, 17, plays with her son, Joe Mendez, 19 months, left, and other children at the Pregnant Minors Program nursery at Glendale Presbyterian. Charlotte Schmid-Maybach/Daily News |
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