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When 19-year-old Jill Mills found out she was pregnant, she was determined not to give up on her college dream.
“I didn’t want to be a statistic, another single mom with no degree,” said the Sherwood native. “Thankfully, I found the Single Parent Scholarship Fund. It was such a blessing because I didn’t know how I was going to make it work.”
Her scholarship check went toward car payments so she could drive to campus. The program’s workshops taught her financial literacy skills, which she passed on to her son Riley! In his teens, he started his own shoe-shining and vending machine businesses.
Jill, meanwhile, received her bachelor’s degree and married Tony, Riley’s dad, who owns a hair salon. She worked for many years in the public school system as a family service manager. Now, she’s a stay-at-home mom and loves volunteering in the community.
“Without ASPSF, I don’t know what I would have done,” Jill said. “It gave me a way to finish school and set me on the right path for the wonderful life I have today.”
Riley came along when Jill was a college sophomore. Thanks to ASPSF’s flexible scholarship, she could handle the financial strain as a single parent student.
Here’s Riley and Jill today (both left)! Jill and her husband had another son, Reece, and the family gives back to ASPSF and other organizations.