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The "Baby Ada": A Nontraditional Traditional-Aged Student By Sally Rubenstone '73 ...................

Like many other eager candidates, Rachael Gordon stapled extra pages to her Smith admission application. There simply wasn't enough space on the form to list all of her activities and awards: senior class president, honors student, graduation speaker, track star, student council member, community volunteer. Yet, while such achievements made Gordon merely typical of other 18-year-olds en route to Smith, one addition to the bulging file made her quite the exception: Rachael Gordon was also already a mother. When Gordon joined the Smith community as a 19-year-old sophomore in the fall of 1993, she became the youngest-ever Ada Comstock Scholar. Although she was no older than most of her classmates, she arrived with her son, Felix Perez -- then 4 -- in tow, making her eligible for the Comstock program. Some on campus have dubbed her "the baby Ada"-a moniker she finds both amusing and apt-but Gordon instead calls herself "a traditional-aged student with nontraditional circumstances." One of Gordon's earliest memories is of fleeing from an abusive father. She and her mother sought sanctuary with relatives but were turned away. Much of her life, in fact, she has been ostracized by family members because she is biracial: her mother Caucasian, her father African-American. Growing up in Worcester, she witnessed friends and neighbors succumb to drugs, AIDS, crime and homelessness, yet she also watched her mother work two jobs and earn a college degree, while still making Rachael her top priority-a role model that now serves her well. "We should all be given the same opportunities in life, but we're not," Gordon told Burncoat High School classmates in a 1992 commencement address. "I know that doesn't sound fair, but the way we strive to get what we feel we deserve is the same way in which we learn who we are as individuals. We can't change the world; however, we can make a difference by first bettering ourselves, and then using those energies to pull others up with us." And, indeed, despite many struggles and setbacks, Gordon is heeding her own advice. Just shy of her 14th birthday when she got pregnant-the result of her only sexual encounter-by the time Gordon started high school she was already juggling diaper changes and homework assignments, waking each morning by five to ready Felix for day care before beginning her own school day. Although Gordon and her son shared a home with her mother, she insists that the boundaries that separated mom and grandma were always clear. "My mother gave me tremendous emotional support," Gordon reflects, "but she was not a live-in baby-sitter." Similarly, Gordon did not allow herself to make excuses in school. "I never went to a teacher and said, 'I can't turn in a paper because my son spit up on it,'" she says, laughing, "but, of course, it had really happened." In addition to earning good grades and other honors, Gordon became known throughout the region as an advocate for young parents and single mothers. She lobbied for public-assistance benefits, sex education and teen centers-often with Felix by her side. While some adults in Gordon's life applauded her efforts, others were dismissive and even cruel. Once when she received an 80 on a test-an unusually low grade for Gordon-she approached the teacher for assistance. "I'm trying hard," she explained, "but I can't seem to get it right." "You weren't trying so hard when you were lying on your back" was the reply. Even a guidance counselor suggested that college just wasn't in her future. But it was. Gordon proved herself at Worcester State College, where she spent her freshman year. She had hoped to come to Smith straight from high school, but the Ada Comstock Program requires students to enter with some prior college experience. The program's director, Eleanor Rothman, recalls her first meeting with Gordon: "She was charming-very bright, very highly motivated," says Rothman. "I thought she had significant potential." At Smith, Gordon, who is majoring in biochemistry, has tackled some of the most challenging courses. But one of the biggest challenges has been living on her own for the first time as a single parent, making room in each day for Felix, for her schoolwork and for a campus job. She wrestles constantly with child support and welfare-system woes. She spends many sleepless nights worrying about putting food on the table and about paying tuition at the Campus School, where Felix is a first-grader. She wonders which utility will be shut off next. "She is struggling," agrees Rothman, "but she is also very determined, very goal-oriented, and she doesn't complain. She's a valuable member of the Smith community and has a much more mature attitude about her college education than some women in the program who are twice her age." One of Gordon's greatest successes at Smith so far was a research project she undertook last summer with Associate Professor of Chemistry David Bickar. Gordon had approached Bickar in the spring to ask if he needed help with his work, which focuses on Trypanosoma brucei brucei-the parasites that cause African sleeping sickness. Thanks to funding by a General Electric fellowship and an additional grant from the Smith Students' Aid Society, the project was a go, and the lessons Gordon learned that summer extended far beyond the lab. "All of my life," she recounts, "people have been telling me what I can't do. This enabled me to realize what I can do. By working every day and many nights in the lab, I was able to confirm that I wanted a career in science and to see that things I used to put on a pedestal, like writing a thesis-things I used to think were out of reach-are really attainable for me." Although, like many of her classmates, Gordon is now hoping to pursue an honors degree and then a Ph.D., hers is surely not an average Smithie life. She is quick to acknowledge, however, that other students bear financial burdens and that many other "Adas" are also single parents. But what clearly sets Gordon apart is her age. In fact, while picking up Felix at his school, she has been asked if she is waiting for her little brother. Yet those who see the pair together realize at once that Gordon is a proud and very caring mother-and, she admits, a strict one as well. "Felix has a lot going against him already," she observes, "but I don't want him to grow up making excuses. He knows that he's different and that he must set an example." Gordon, too, often feels as if she is setting an example. Throughout her nearly seven years of motherhood, sexually active and pregnant teenagers have been sent to her for counsel. "I don't tell them what to do," she points out, "but I do say that whatever path you choose, you'll have to live with that decision for the rest of your life. Then I make them take a look at my life, the pros and the cons. I tell them what my daily schedule is; I talk about what it's like to be a mother and to be in school and pay the bills." "I don't like being called an exception," she continues. "I think that others, too, can do what I'm doing, if they're willing to work hard-but I also think it's important to give them a little smidgen of reality."

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