‘1 in 5’ Episode 10: Meet Lorena Barton
April 19, 2021 | Aspen Postsecondary Success for Parents, Press Releases
Lorena is a single mother in the process of rebuilding her life. Though it has been challenging, she wouldn’t change a thing. Being a mother has not only been her greatest joy, but it has allowed her to find her vocation and pursue her lifelong love of health and science.
Lorena Barton is a single mother and a recent graduate of Los Angeles Valley College. Lorena is passionate about helping families and has plans to work in public health nursing.
After studying full-time for over a year at LAVC, she has recently begun her nursing program at Loma Linda University. She currently attends school full-time while working part-time at LAVC’s Family Resource Center. She finds it enriching and rewarding to be able to help other student parents at the same place where she herself received so much support.
Lorena says, “When you’re following your dreams, there is a drive inside of you that allows you to push hard and accomplish whatever’s needed to reach your goals.”
Listen
You can read the episode transcript here.
Resources
LAVC Family Resource Center strives to advance social and economic mobility by reducing barriers to higher education and jobs through integrating support services for underserved populations.
CalWORKs is a public assistance program that provides cash aid and services to eligible families that have a child(ren) in the home. The program serves all 58 counties in the state and is operated locally by county welfare departments.
Postsecondary Success for Parents, the PSP initiative, is a partnership between Ascend at the Aspen Institute and Imaginable Futures.
Student Parent Stories
Related Posts
100 Ascend Fellows will join the Aspen community for two afternoons of conversations aimed at Building Well-Being for Children and Families and Priori...
Ascend at the Aspen Institute is excited to announce the launch of the 2023 Parent-Powered Solutions Fund, which will provide financial resources and...
Reflections on the experiences, challenges, and joys that shape the life of student father and Ascend PSP Parent Advisor Christian Ortiz.
Among the one in five postsecondary students who are parents, there are close to 1.1 million student fathers. This chartbook synthesizes the available...
Today, Ascend at the Aspen Institute (Ascend) released the second season of “1 in 5,” its highly rated podcast that explores the multifaceted live...
On May 9, members of the Ascend team had the opportunity to visit Santa Fe Community College in New Mexico. Here are three takeaways from our site vis...
We’ve selected four projects from the 2021 Class of Fellows that show impressive potential in both their scope and capacity to address timely issues...
In an Inside Higher Ed article, David Croom and Generation Hope provide important perspective into why the student parent population is important for ...
Today, Ascend at the Aspen Institute (Ascend) released the second season of “1 in 5,” its highly rated podcast that explores the multifaceted live...
Growing up, Isis Patterson and her family were constantly operating in survival mode. School offered her the safety and security she lacked at home, s...
As a child of immigrants, Lourdes saw the efforts her hard-working parents made to give her a memorable childhood, and how they always stressed the im...
Nicole Alkire Grady always excelled in athletics and academics at Standing Rock High School in North Dakota. But being a survivor of childhood sexual ...
Today, Nicole Lynn Lewis is an accomplished author, CEO of Generation Hope, and mother of five. But she didn’t always feel a sense of stability and ...
Today, Ascend at the Aspen Institute (Ascend) released the second season of “1 in 5,” its highly rated podcast that explores the multifaceted live...
Dominique Baker married her high school sweetheart and planned to pursue a degree in social work, but her first semester in college proved to be both ...
Featured from the Ascend Community