For a full-time student at Vanderbilt, it's hard enough to find the time to be a member of the Honor Council, a sister in Chi Omega sorority and an aerobics instructor at the Rec Center.

Now imagine doing all these things while raising a child as a single parent.

That's the situation in which Mary Cady Ford found herself a few years ago.

Ford became pregnant during her junior year and decided to keep the child. She dropped out of Vanderbilt for a year, still receiving credit through independent studies, and graduated a year late in 2006.

Now finishing up a master's degree at the Vanderbilt Divinity School and raising her 3-and-a-half-year-old daughter Caroline, she has founded a non-profit organization called "Finished Up." It provides the necessary assistance with things like housing, medical needs, childcare and counseling, which a single mother needs to complete her undergraduate or graduate degree.

"At Vanderbilt, even in 2004, there were no resources for a pregnant student," Ford said. "(The administration) wanted me to stay but didn't know what to do for me."

Ford, who planned from the beginning to keep the baby, said she felt like her only options were an abortion or adoption if she wanted to stay in school and on track.

"I shouldn't have to relinquish my dreams if I want to keep the baby," she said, "and girls at Vandy should be able to know, regardless of the choice they make, that they can finish out their life at Vanderbilt."

And that is just what Ford set out to make possible with "Finished Up." She plans to include the Office of Financial Aid, student health, the Office of Housing and Residential Education and even Greek life in the program.

"My sorority enveloped me in love and were very supportive," Ford said. "(Caroline) grew up in the sorority house while I went to class."

Ford has ideas to include the Office of Greek Life by offering service credit to chapters on campus who offer to volunteer as babysitters.

Finished Up, the first program of its kind in the nation, has not only been well received at Vanderbilt, it has sparked interest across the country. Western Kentucky University, Western Michigan University and SMU are a few of the universities who have told Ford they want her program at their schools.

"Vanderbilt is setting the bar," Ford said. "We are telling other colleges that this is what you should be doing. It's groundbreaking."

Although Ford says there is not a huge demographic of pregnant undergraduate students, she thinks most girls who decide to have their baby subsequently drop out and leave Vanderbilt. She is living proof that it is possible to both stay in school and raise a child.

"Getting pregnant made my life dramatically change," she said. "I didn't have a social life for two years. I didn't date, I didn't go out, I worked odd jobs because I had to make ends meet. ... Finishing (school) to Caroline says that I can do this, and I did it for you."

—Allie Morris can be reached at allison.d.morris@vanderbilt.edu.