Sarah Trembley

Scholar kept on the run, won race
Springfield Republican, Saturday, May 26, 2001
By Patrick Johnson -- South Hadley

In her three years at Mount Holyoke College, Sarah Trembley of Springfield majored in biology, minored in geology and excelled in time management.

Trembley will graduate tomorrow "if I ever finish my honors thesis" as a Frances Perkins Scholar, the college's program for non-traditional students that is named for the 1902 alumna who became Franklin D. Roosevelt's secretary of labor, the first woman to hold a Cabinet post.

Sarah Trembley and familyWhat makes Trembley non-traditional is that the 25-year-old student is also the single mother of two girls, Jasmine, 9, and Savannah, 7.

Between school, her children and her third-shift job as a cashier at a Holyoke gas station, where she does homework between customers, Trembley said there are not a lot of minutes to spare in a 24-hour day. "I've learned about time management," she said. "I just know I have to do 'X' number of things today." Trembley said she averages four to five hours sleep a night during the semester. Being a single mother may have made college more difficult, she said, but her children have been a motivation. "I think a lot of the reasons for why I've done as well as I've done is because of the kids," she said.

Not wanting welfare or a lifetime of minimum-wage jobs, Trembley said she knew she would need a good education to find a good job to give her children a good life. The girls' father is not involved in their lives, she said. "I work harder for them," she said. "They are my motivation." This fall, she starts graduate school at the Michigan State University school of veterinary medicine. In the middle of August, she and the girls will pack up and move to the Midwest.

Frances Perkins Program director Kay Althoff said Trembley's resolve is perhaps her most remarkable feature. "There is nothing really extraordinary about Sarah. You don't meet her and say she's going to set the world on fire," she said. "I'm really surprised by her drive." The Perkins program was created in 1980 for non-traditional students or those typically older than 24. The average age of the 160 women in the program is 37, Althoff said.

Trembley transferred to Mount Holyoke after completing two years at Springfield Technical Community College, where she enrolled at 19. She dropped out of high school when she became pregnant at 15, but said she never gave up on continuing her education. "I needed to go back to school; it was not an option," she said. Althoff said Trembley's story should be an inspiration to other teen mothers who feel their futures are bleak. "To me the most remarkable part is that she somehow didn't give up, that when she found herself pregnant at 15 that she just didn't say 'Well, this is it,'" Althoff said. "I hope other young mothers read this and realize there is hope."

Trembley said her professors and classmates were really understanding, especially on days when she had to bring the girls to campus with her. Professors would offer to baby-sit the girls if she was busy or give them bread to feed the ducks at the campus pond. Jasmine and Savannah often went with her to classes on the condition that they remain whisper-quiet and not bother anyone. "Some people tell their kids they've got to be good in church," Trembley said. "My kids know they've got to be good in Mommy's classes."