Seven mothers, one twin sized stroller, and four toddlers running around set the atmosphere for the seminar “Why did I get Pregnant?” with speaker Shawndra Pickett, on Nov. 3. Beginning with a list of first year expenses, PALS presented a seminar for female freshmen and gave real life examples of how pregnancy has affected students at PV.
Pickett spoke on her experience as a mother of three who found out she was pregnant during the second semester of her sophomore year in college. Like many pregnant teens, she had no idea what to do next.
“I had a guy in my life,” she said. “But I did not know him. We had only been together for about six months at the time. I had no idea if he would stick around.”
Pickett told the girls about how the book, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People helped her to refocus on herself and what she needed to do to get her future back to where she wanted it to be. She is now married to the father of her three sons, who are 17, 15 and 9, and she did continue her education despite how hard it was with a husband and son.
“I ended up having to take a semester off.” She continued. “But I did graduate, and I now have my master’s degree and am a licensed social worker.”
Although Pickett did not graduate from Prairie View there are many students on campus who have had children while in college and are on their way to getting their degrees. A panel of six women spoke of how their pregnancies occurred and what happened since.
“I got pregnant at the beginning of my freshman year,” said Gabriel Ewing, who is a senior engineering major. “People, like my CAs, looked down on me like ‘Didn’t we tell you about that?’ and ‘we can’t believe you did that.’ But they can’t judge me.”
Each woman had a different story and was proud to tell the girls what they had been through. With each inspirational take on the situation, the girls were shown just how much strength is taken to be a mother. The most stressed point throughout the seminar was to wait and contraception is key.
“After having a child, I really have not given up much,” Dorette Woodson, a master’s degree student said. “When I need to hop up and go somewhere, I have a mother-in-law who is very helpful, but I hope my daughter is smarter than me and a well-rounded person.”
Other pregnancies were harder on the young mothers, but for all of the mothers perseverance was not an option. It was always a requirement.
“I had a threatened miscarriage and ended up being in the hospital for about a month when I was pregnant with my twins,” senior mathematics major Anjelica Cruz told the girls. “But we are still here. My children are my number one priority.”