Chihoski hopes to walk across the stage with Lucia, who will be wearing a toddler-sized cap and gown on graduation day.
“I think she will walk across the stage with me, if I can figure out the logistics,” she said. “I would love to make that a tradition for future graduating mothers.”
Chihoski said that although she had some worries about attending school with a young daughter, Lucia has made things “twice as fun.”
“Coming to school, I expected to be seen as different, and somewhat outcast from the typical college life,” she explained. “I think it was difficult to get used to my tag-along when going to events on campus, but Lucia makes the world twice as much fun.”
“Attending school with my daughter, Lucia, has been the most amazing thing to witness,” she said. “Children bring out the joy in people and offer a fuller sense of purpose.”
“Our students hear all the time about how they can give their life away in love,” Ruggles added. “This community shows students what that can look like from a practical perspective and gives students an opportunity to practice that by giving their time and love to these mothers and their children.”
“It has been wonderful having the community of mothers on campus,” Ruggles said. “We have students from as far away as Texas and Colorado and from right here in North Dakota. Supporting these mothers is truly a gift to us.”
Chihoski’s happily ever after
Chihoski was a sophomore studying abroad in Rome when she discovered she was pregnant.
St. Teresa’s hadn’t begun at the time, but Chihoski said that her UMary classmates were supportive of her: checking in on her, encouraging her to stay at UMary, and helping her move back in.
“It was the best day of the whole semester!” she said, recalling the day she announced her pregnancy to “the whole cohort” of study abroad students.
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While pregnant with Lucia, Chihoski took online classes for a semester from her home in Golden, Colorado. She moved back to UMary junior year and stayed with a residence director until St. Teresa’s opened the next semester.
At St. Teresa’s, each mom has two rooms, one for her child and one for her, Chihoski explained. Mothers in the community are assigned a semester chore to focus on and babysit at least once a week. The moms go to fun events or eat dinner together, Chihoski said. Students volunteer to babysit so the moms can go to class and other campus events.
“I have seen [the student babysitters] make time for the kids and even bring them to classes if we are short on babysitters one week,” Chihoski said. “They come into our community willing to help in whatever way they can, and they do it so cheerfully!”
“One thing that has made the biggest difference for me returning to college was the mothers in the Bismarck community and residence directors [RDs] on campus,” she said. “Some of the RDs are mothers, and they are beautiful witnesses to living the role of a Catholic wife and mother well.”
Because of this, Lucia has several playmates her age. She’s also very popular on campus.
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