How One Transportation Emergency Can Keep Parents From Achieving Their College Dreams (Abigail Seldin)

The Brake: A Streetsblog Podcast

One in five U.S. college students are also parents with children of their own — and in many cases, a single unexpected expense can be enough to force them to drop out before they earn their degrees. And too often, that emergency comes in the form of a transportation challenge like a cancelled bus route or a flat tire that keeps them from ever reaching the classroom. In honor of Mother's Day and Father's Day on The Brake, we're talking to Abigail Seldin of Scholarship America about the 3.8 million students who are earning degrees while raising families, and how they're helping them access the emergency funds they need to keep moving towards their higher education dreams. And along the way, we revisit Seldin's past work on the challenges of getting students of all ages to class in a car dependent country, and explore why the "safe routes to school" movement tends to stop around 12th grade.

Listen up below, visit their site to donate, and learn more about the stories of the parent-scholars whose lives they've already helped. To donate to St. Louis's tornado relief efforts, please visit ActionSTL, LoveTheLou, the Urban League of St. Louis, the St. Louis Community Foundation, or any of the organizations listed here.