Faithly Flores, born and raised in Austin, is the first in her family to “even get a foot in the door” of college.
It wasn’t easy. Flores, 24, tried to attend classes at Austin Community College when her son was a baby, but without reliable child care, she was forced to drop out. She worked as a cashier at H-E-B to afford rent for the “smallest bedroom” in her grandmother’s rented home, where she and her 2-year-old son live together.
But when a college adviser from Breakthrough Central Texas told her about federal financial aid that could pay for her education and a licensed vocational nursing program she could take on weekends and during the evening to care for her son during the day, she leapt at the opportunity…