A potential pregnancy poses a difficult choice for any female student, particularly at a school of Vanderbilt’s caliber, where unplanned pregnancy tends to hold a stigma for an over-achieving student body, and fast-track career options produce limited options.

Mary Cady Ford’s dilemma during her junior year at Vanderbilt — faced with an unplanned pregnancy, but determined to complete her degree — speaks to the perceived limited options. At the time, she felt the choice presented to her was between abortion and adoption, rather than the choice she made: raising her child and completing her degree.

As with any difficult choice of this magnitude, her circumstances forced Ford to sacrifice many of the trappings of the traditional college experience — she worked, didn’t go out, didn’t date.

Nevertheless, she completed her degree, a profound individual accomplishment, especially considering the lack of available assistance from the university. Her story serves as a good reminder of the work and sacrifices incurred by many of our peers, like those who participate in federal work-study.

An institution of higher learning must aim, first, to provide an education and the included opportunities. In the modern conception of the university experience, the expectation is that a student who earns acceptance to our university should be able to — through a variety of potential financial avenues, if necessary — matriculate and further themselves intellectually and socially.

Ford’s organization, Finished Up, embodies an avenue by which a university can help provide for each student, regardless of circumstance. Since the creation of the non-profit group, the organization has been approached by multiple universities for the possibility of expansion. While the group likely does not cater to a particularly large constituency — the campus doesn’t appear, on the surface at least, to have many pregnant students — assistance to a pregnant student or young mother could drastically change the life of both mother and child.