When her pregnancy test confirmed a positive, Malika Clarke said it felt like everything was in slow motion. She was 20, working on her degree, and six weeks pregnant. She had always told herself she would never have children.
Clarke wondered how her life would change and if she would be able to finish school. She wondered if abortion was an option.
Clarke is part of a quiet minority of students at Cosumnes River College dealing with the toll of unplanned pregnancies while pursuing an education.
Community college students are more than twice as likely as students of 4-year-colleges to report they've either gotten themselves or someone else pregnant, at a rate of 48 percent, according to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Sixty-one percent of these students end their education early, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
Veronica Weire, a 23-year-old nursing major, knows what it's like to be pregnant in college.
"It was hard to come to school," she said. "Sometimes when I woke up in the morning, my heart hurt and I didn't want to get up."
Weire is married and employed as a military guard, but others like 21-year-old Kaplan College nursing major Shelby Floriz, who is planning to attend CRC, had the opposite experience. When she found out she was pregnant, Floriz was a self-proclaimed party girl and wasn't going to college.
"I had the feeling that I shouldn't be drinking," Floriz said. "When my boyfriend went to buy some drinks, I bought a pregnancy test."
Floriz said her pregnancy convinced her to go back to school and be a more responsible person.
She and other women dealing with unexpected pregnancies as students said life as a mother and a student, and often a worker is difficult and stressful.
"I don't know how someone can do it without their family," Floriz said.
She put off telling her parents, but when they found out, they supported her along with her boyfriend.
Clarke, on the other hand, told her family immediately but received mixed reactions.
"My mom was the only one who was happy," she said."It was almost as if it was forbidden."
Clarke said the excitement and support of her mother, Letitia Clarke, encouraged her to keep her new son. Letitia Clarke works at the campus Health Services Office, where students dealing with pregnancies or seeking birth control can come to her for services provided by Planned Parenthood.
Most students qualify for financial assistance, said CRC Nurse Michelle Barkley, who helps students get services from the group.
Barkley said the Health Services department assists faculty and students like Clarke with birth control and caring for new children.
Tishawn is now seven months old with a constant, vibrant grin.
"He's very animated," his mother says as he curls his fingers in her hair and tugs on her shirt, adding that she couldn't live without her son now. "He loves singing. He loves being around people. He's always laughing, smiling."
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