Tranace Buchanan is looking forward to graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in May with her economics degree. LaDonna Cunningham, a junior at UWM, is filling out applications for pharmacy school at UW-Madison.

Both Buchanan and Cunningham are successfully balancing the complex demands of parenthood, jobs and education with the help of the Life Impact Program.

This innovative program developed out of a $2 million gift to UWM from the Jane Bradley Pettit Foundation two years ago.

The six-year pilot project provides financial aid, career development opportunities childcare assistance, personal coaching and other resources to help low-income students with children complete their education and move into family-supporting careers.

The program started with 12 students during the 2005-2006 academic year and will eventually expand to involve 100 students by the 2010-2011 academic year, for approximately 217 scholarships over six years.

The program will begin taking applications January 2, 2007, for eight new openings for the 2007-2008 academic year, according to Natalie Reinbold, life coach and program coordinator.

Deadline is March 30. (See information below on how to apply).

The Pettit Foundation and UWM designed the program as a way to find out what support services are needed to help students with children complete their education.

Financial aid is one obvious, necessary resource, notes Jane Hojan-Clark, UWM’s executive director of Financial Aid, so the program provides $2,500 per semester for the students’ time at UWM.

Applicants can be accepted into the program in their freshman, sophomore, junior and even senior year.

Another key component of the program, is providing help in dealing with child care, family issues, transportation and other challenges. "As we’ve developed more knowledge about what the participants need, we’re able to expand the program," says Hojan-Clark.

For example, she says, many student parents have told them it would be helpful to have a study area in the student Union that was child-friendly. That possibility is being discussed with the Student Association. The Life Impact participants are also forming their own child-care cooperative.

"We’re trying to connect the pieces in the program so students with children don’t feel alienated on campus," says Reinbold.

Buchanan says she’s found the various services the Life Impact Program offers helpful, especially a business etiquette workshop sponsored by the American Marketing Association.

The challenge in offering such programs, says Hojan-Clark, is balancing the need with the knowledge most of the student-parents are already juggling jobs and family obligations as well as classes.

The program’s life coach and life coach assistants give the students personal help with challenges they may be facing.

"If you’re not a single parent, you don’t understand some of the challenges," says Buchanan. "They really encouraged me when I was worried about filling out the applications for pharmacy school," says Cunningham.

For information on the Life Impact program or an application, contact Reinbold at 414-229-4431 or natrein@uwm.edu.

You may also write to her at the UWM Department of Financial Aid, Room 162, Mellencamp Hall, P.O. Box 469, Milwaukee, WI 53201.