And, to be sure, there are campuses trying to do just that. Miseracordia College in Pennsylvania has free babysitting; and St. Paul’s in Virginia has a mentorship program to help keep parents afloat. Endicott College, where Isis Patterson ultimately enrolled, provides suite-style living reserved for parents and their children, as well as early learning stipends and meals in the dining hall for kids through its Keys to Degrees program. Patterson is thriving at the picturesque campus along the Massachusetts coast — and her son, Kaiden, now 5, is too. She was even able to use a program stipend for Kaiden to see a speech therapist, who helped catch him up on crucial developmental milestones he had missed during his early childhood in New York. “School has been the gateway for me to excel beyond poverty,” she says. It has also been a way to ensure a better life for Kaiden. "He’s relying on me."