16歲未婚生子 22歲劍橋高材生

【聯合報╱編譯田思怡／報導】

※更多新聞請看udn共享書籤》 ‧22歲劍橋高材生 2個孩子的媽 現年22歲的英國未婚媽媽潔德．諾曼（Jade Norman）身世坎坷，3歲父母離異、15歲懷孕輟學、16歲生第一個孩子並住進收容所，19歲第二個孩子出世，但她為了不讓孩子在貧窮中長大，用功讀書，現在已是劍橋大學高材生。 諾曼15歲發現自己懷孕，當時她已與父母失聯，並與肚中孩子的父親、當時18歲的男友烏柯分手，她為了不為同住的祖父母帶來麻煩，搬進未婚媽媽收容所，隔年生下女兒，靠政府獎學金復學。 後來諾曼與在奈及利亞出生的男友烏柯復合，竟又懷孕了。她一面照顧女兒，一面在貝德福學院求學，她的社會學、歷史和政府與政治都拿到Ａ，接著她的兒子克利斯丁出世，她只休學一個月就復學，而且各科都拿到Ａ。 她說：「我的指導老師建議我申請劍橋大學，從來沒有人對我這麼有信心。我必須通過困難的考試，並接受口試，我和口試委員討論我必須帶孩子的事。」 諾曼兩年前進入劍橋大學專收女生的露西卡文迪許學院，攻讀歷史學位。她每天早上5點半起床照顧一對兒女，每周要讀10本書，寫3000字報告，但仍樂此不疲。 她說：「每個人都會碰到難題，但必須相信情況會好轉。我希望我能改善我孩子的生活。」 【2009/07/17 聯合報】

At 15, Jade was pregnant and living in a hostel. At 22, she's taking a degree at Cambridge!

By Andrew Levy
Last updated at 11:52 AM on 16th July 2009

Jade Norman’s future appeared as bleak as her troubled childhood had been when she became pregnant aged 15, dropped out of school and moved into a homeless hostel.

To compound her problems, the teenager lost contact with both her divorced parents and split from the 18-year-old father of her unborn baby.

Then, with a baby girl to care for and struggling to gain the qualifications that could help realise her ambitions of a better life, Miss Norman discovered she was expecting another baby.

 Jade Norman with Jacy and Christian: 'I didn't want them growing up in poverty'

Her troubled early life echoes that of so many teenage mothers across the country who all too often have to abandon even the most modest ambitions they once held.

Yet now, aged 22, Miss Norman is rubbing shoulders with the country’s academic elite as she prepares to embark on the second year of her history degree at Cambridge University.

Despite juggling motherhood with reading up to ten books a week and writing 3,000-word essays, she is thriving.

‘I’m delighted with what’s happening and hopefully I will have changed the course of my children’s lives,’ said Miss Norman.

‘Everyone has problems in their life. But you have to know things will always get better in the end.’

Miss Norman’s parents divorced when she was three. She lived with her mother until a falling out at the age of 11, then moved in with her father, who was by then remarried with two children.

During this period she was bullied at the Roman Catholic school she attended in Bedford, and eventually switched to a special measures school in Clacton, Essex, where her grandparents lived.

‘It was unbelievable. The teachers didn’t want to be there and neither did the kids,’ she said.

‘And I started getting bullied again. There was name-calling and bitchiness. I loved learning. I always have. But I hated school.’

Then the 15-year-old discovered she had become pregnant by her boyfriend Henry Uko. The pressure soon led to them splitting up.

‘I considered an abortion but knew I couldn’t do it,’ said Miss Norman. ‘Not that I have a personal objection to it but because I just didn’t feel I could get rid of my baby.’

Ashamed at the burden she feared the birth would put on her grandparents, the teenager moved into a homeless hostel in Bedford, surviving on £4 during her first fortnight as she waited for her first income support payment.

Proud: Jade with partner Henry Uko

In February 2003, Miss Norman moved into a housing association flat in the town and three months later, aged 16, gave birth to her daughter Jacy, now six.

Lacking qualifications and with the local job centre offering only cleaning work, she decided to return to education and was given a government grant to cover the cost of a childminder.

After resuming her relationship with Mr Uko, she became pregnant again.

Yet months later, she gained a respectable B in GCSE English language from Bedford College.

Her confidence boosted by the success, Miss Norman went on to take A-levels in sociology, history, and government and politics, while pregnant and looking after Jacy.

When Christian, now three, was born, she took only one month off before returning to her studies and scoring straight A grades.

‘My tutor suggested trying for Cambridge,’ she said. ‘It was lovely because no one had ever put that much faith in me.

‘I had to take an exam which was really hard and I had an interview where we discussed my situation with my children.’

Miss Norman was accepted at women-only Lucy Cavendish College and now starts her days at 5.30am to get her children ready before plunging into her studies.

Nigerian-born Mr Uko, 25, starts a forensic computer science degree at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, in October.

The family are on a waiting list for accommodation in the city.

Mr Uko said: ‘She is an inspiration. What she has achieved helped me believe in myself. We work hard and share looking after the kids but we couldn’t be happier.’

Miss Norman said: ‘It’s all been such a whirlwind. I still sit in the library and think “How did I get here?”

‘I have no regrets about my life. If I could go back I’d still have my baby at 15 because she changed my life.

'I felt I could achieve anything and I didn’t want her to grow up in poverty.’

The undergraduate has words of encouragement for other young or single mothers who might think life’s opportunities are closed to them.

‘Keep positive and definitely stay in education, training or an apprenticeship,’ she said. ‘It will help you get a better job and it pays in the end.’