(ARA) - You'd love to get (or finish) your degree, but as a working parent how do you afford college, even if you can find the time? Good news -- there is help, about $2 million worth, and you could be entitled to a share of it.
Ann Marie Casey-Ulery, 25, always yearned for a college degree, but put her dream on hold to raise and support her 2-year-old and 7-year-old daughters while their armed forces dad was deployed overseas. In addition to caring for her own family, she also serves as power of attorney for her best friend's young daughter while both parents serve in Iraq.
"With the girls' father being deployed on and off over the past two years, I've had to double up and be Mommy and Daddy all alone," Casey-Ulery says. "School couldn't be a factor when I was alone to raise my family."
However, Casey-Ulery's greatest wish was granted when she recently applied for, and won, a Project Working Mom scholarship to attend an online college for free. Project Working Mom … and Dads, Too! is a program that will grant at least $2 million in full-ride scholarships to working parents across the country. Thanks to the Project Working Mom scholarship, Casey-Ulery will now get her degree in accounting from Everest University at no cost to her.
Online classes grant her the flexibility to attend school from home at any time of day, which frees her from childcare worries. Casey-Ulery is home for her children when they need her, and she now sees herself as a role model for her them.
"My goal is to do my best so that my daughters can see that if Mommy can do well in school, so can they," Casey-Ulery says.
Casey-Ulery is one of 93 Project Working Mom scholarship recipients from across the country. All told, these recipients shared in more than $4 million in the last two successful Project Working Mom campaigns.
The newest campaign - Project Working Mom … and Dads, Too! - began on Jan. 8 and will wrap up on April 30, and, as the name suggests, this time around the campaign applies to fathers as well as mothers.
"We launched Project Working Mom as a response to staggering statistics indicating that working moms are an underserved population that simply need to overcome the obstacles of time, money and confidence to achieve the education they need to improve their lives," said Helen MacDermott, content director for Project Working Mom. "But in today's economy, we realize there are plenty of dads who are also in desperate need of financial aid and deserve a chance to tell their stories, too."
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, of the 2.1 million single dads in the United States only 16 percent have a bachelor's degree or higher. "Fathers play such a tremendous role in the lives of their children and it's important that they set a good example by getting the education they want their children to have," said Carey Casey, CEO of the Kansas City-based National Center for Fathering and fathers.com. "Project Working Mom listened to the needs of dads and opened this great opportunity to them; it couldn't have come at a better time for many people."
eLearners.com, an online education resource that connects learners with online education, and which created the Project Working Mom campaigns, also created an interactive, in-depth Web site to help learners tackle their questions and fears about returning to school. The site is designed to empower working parents and offers: advice on going back to school; self-assessment quizzes on numerous subjects, including how to determine what subjects to study; an online support community; numerous articles; and, a database with $15 billion in financial aid opportunities.
Take the first step towards your perfect degree. Apply for a Project Working Mom…and Dads, Too! Scholarship and get advice and financial aid information on going back to school online. Visit
www.ProjectWorkingMom.com. to apply for your share of $2 million in scholarships for working parents.
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