GENERATION HOPE ASSOCIATION FOCUS
NICOLE LYNN LEWIS IS PASSIONATE ABOUT HELPING TEEN PARENTS GRADUATE FROM COLLEGE because she knows fi rsthand the challenges that come with being a mom and a full-time student. A former teen mother herself, Lewis created Generation
Hope two years ago. T e nonprofi t organization is designed to help teen parents beat the odds and fi nish college by providing scholarships and mentors. Generation Hope links teen parents—mothers or
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fathers—attending colleges and universities in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area with mentors, also called sponsors, who provide emotional and fi nancial support. T e multi-year partnership between teen parent and mentor lasts for the duration of the students’ collegiate career. Generation Hope is assisting seven young parents,
known as scholars, persist through college, and is working to add at least a dozen more to their ranks. Jenny Chacon, a 21-year-old criminal justice major at
Montgomery College, based in Rockville, Md., became a Generation Hope scholar in 2011. Chacon says the program is providing the emotional
support that she has always longed for. “I’ve never been close with my mom, and I didn’t grow
up with my dad. I don’t have a strong support system. T e biggest help that Generation Hope has provided is a mentor. If I call her at 3 a.m. she always there,” Chacon says. T e Montgomery College student never intended to
go to college. “In my culture, you are raised to work,” the Salvadoran-American says. But when Chacon discovered that she was pregnant, her
views concerning higher education changed. “I decided to go to school. My son is my main motivation. I want to get a good job and give him everything that I didn’t have,” says Chacon of her two-year-old son Jeremiah. Chacon receives $1,200 from Generation Hope each
semester. Generation Hope sponsors include pediatricians, lawyers,
and business owners. Some have also been teen parents. “We recruit sponsors through our website and the relation-
ships that we have in the community,” says Lewis. “Many come to us looking for an opportunity to give to an organiza-
DIVERSITY & THE BAR® JULY/AUGUST 2012
BY MICHELLE NEALY
tion where they can see their support making a diff erence.” Sponsors undergo a back-
ground investigation and man- datory training that prepares them for the stress, stigmatiza- tion, and instability that teen parents may experience. Some sponsors make
fi nancial contributions. Others provide the emotional sup- port while organizations or businesses make the fi nancial investment in their place. Payments are made to
Generation Hope, then distrib- uted to the scholars’ schools. To be a Generation Hope
scholar, applicants must live in Washington D.C., Maryland, or Virginia, be actively parent- ing their child, have a mini- mum grade point average of 2.5, and complete mandatory mentee training sessions. According to a 2006 report by the National Campaign to
JENNY CHACON IS A 2011 GENERATION HOPE SCHOLAR.
Prevent Teen Pregnancy, fewer than 2 percent of teens who have a baby before age 18 attain a college degree by age 30. Lewis is working to change the tide. “T e vast majority of teen parents are not getting college
degrees and are very likely to be struggling fi nancially,” says Lewis, CEO of the organization. “T e driving force behind my desire to start an organization was to help other teen parents experience the transformation that I did as a result of a college degree.” When Lewis, a Virginia native, became pregnant with her
daughter Nerissa during her senior year in high school, fam- ily, friends, and teachers told her that college was no longer an option. But Lewis refused to believe that her child would hinder her dreams of attaining a postsecondary education. “People see the failures of teen parents and the dismal statistics,” says Lewis. “But people need to know that you
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