Photo Courtesy of MAMS
By Diego M. Higuera
Of the 3.8 million college students with children, more than 2.7 million are mothers. Many of them are single mothers.
Southwestern College has a club to help mothers who are trying to push their way through. Mothers and Mother Scholars (MAMS) was founded by Anna Sanchez, who is soon heading to UC Berkeley.
“One day I was walking out of class and my little one had a meltdown,” she recalled. “I was literally on the floor with her trying to calm her down. A student stopped me and she said, ‘Hey, it’s going to get better.’ She didn’t even know me, but it just felt like things would be okay because there is somebody else here like me.”
Sanchez said that was the seed of MAMS.
“By the time the pandemic hit I was already looking for ways to fix the situation in my college community,” she said. “I ended up doing a bit of research asking students at Southwestern how they felt about being a parent in college. Then I started the club and it felt like it was just what we needed. Everybody was so grateful.”
Cynthia Hernandez, the current president of MAMS, said the support it gives women is essential.
“MAMS is so much more than just a Southwestern College club. It is a network of empowered women who bring an assorted array of lived experiences to the table. It is a collective, a support system.”
Hernandez said MAMS has a motto, “If I don’t know the answer, I can find someone who does.”
“We inform and educate our members first and foremost about all resources available to them as students at Southwestern,” she said. “Then we collectively direct one another based on our own experiences to resources needed outside the scope of what Southwestern offers based on one another’s specific needs at the time.”
MAMS offers workshops such as mental health, physical wellness, transfer support, scholarship applications, breast cancer awareness, domestic violence awareness, sexual assault awareness, LGBTQIA+ allyship and success empowerment. Club members also support an orphanage in Tijuana.
Challenges are unique to each mother.
“Often as primary caregivers and also as financial providers, it becomes easy to put ourselves, our dreams, and our aspirations last,” said Hernandez.
Mothers are often taken for granted and abused. Domestic violence is a focus for MAMS and offers women support and people who will listen, said Hernandez.
“Speaking out is often the first step to healing,” she said.
Sanchez said she had been a victim of domestic violence and made it a priority at MAMS.
“High School was when I started learning more English and started my journey as an adult,” she said. “I was a teen mom at 17 and a survivor of domestic abuse. A teacher who helped me out was none other than Dr. Silvia Garcia Navarrete.”
Abuse takes many forms, Sanchez said.
“It’s not just physical, it can be mental or emotional abuse,” she said. “And yeah, it happens every day. When you have spaces like this, with the zoom or the regular meetings we have, one mom or woman talks about her experience, it encourages others to do the same. We heal together and I think that’s a beautiful thing.”
Sanchez said MAMS elevated her life. She said she will soon enroll at UC Berkeley, but will never leave behind sisters who suffer from abuse.
Hernandez said MAMS helps to build agency.
“This organization has been pivotal in my development of resilience and grit,” she said. “There have been moments when the energy and strength of these empowered women have held me up and propelled me forward toward my goals. My advice to women and mothers is to find a system of support that will hold you up when you are thinking of faltering. Join MAMS. We would love to have you and to become part of the rooting section that helps you.”
