Setbacks aside, recent graduate gazes steadily into the future

There is something about Jennifer Banks that erases doubt.

Perhaps it's her clear and steady gaze, the way she never looks away as she talks about her past -- or her future. Or is it her voice? Calm and matter-of-fact when she says she never doubted herself. Talk to Jennifer Banks for just a little while, and you see what so many others who have met and helped her have seen: Determination to achieve.

Banks graduated last month with a two-year degree in radiography from the College of St. Catherine. Two days later, Hennepin County Medical Center hired her.

In this season of graduations, Banks stands out because she reached this goal after she gave birth to her first son at 14 and another at 15. She moved to Minnesota from Arkansas as a pregnant ninth-grader.

Her own parents sent her away to find better schools and, perhaps, a better life here.

"Every time I looked at my kids, I realized that I was working for them, not me," Banks, 26, said on a sunny Saturday at her graduation party. "So many people when I was younger said that I'd messed up my life. I wanted to prove them wrong. And I wanted a better life for my boys."

She held the graduation open house recently to celebrate and thank all the people who have helped her get to this point.

Along the way, she says, she reached out to a lot of people for help. Melissa Roberts, a Hennepin County adolescent social worker, helped her get her start here. Mary Williams, now retired but then-assistant principal at Arlington, became a mentor. Dan Labore, her guidance counselor at Arlington, kept reinforcing that college was in her future.

The people Banks asked for help all say it was easy to give. There is something about Banks -- her maturity, her resolve -- that convinced them that she would succeed.

Kae Peterson, Williams' mother, tutored Banks in math. She has stayed involved in Banks' life ever since.

"I guess it was because I was so amazed at what she was accomplishing," said Peterson, who returned to school herself and earned a master's degree in 1999, at the age of 84. "Here she was, working full time, going to school full time, raising those boys. You know, help isn't easy to get. You have to have a lot of know-how to get what you need. She has a lot of personal pride."

She added: "She's been an example for me."

"It didn't take long to talk to her before you realized how smart she was," she said. What she needed, Williams said, was a boost here and there. Banks had the drive to do the rest.

"I just reached out," Banks said.

School officials at Arlington got Banks into a summer program for talented teens at Metropolitan State University. There, she met people who were willing to watch her kids if she stayed in school and worked hard.

"I always thought we were supporting what was already inside of her -- and just getting her to believe in that," Labore said. "I got as much out of working with her as she did, probably more."

Banks graduated from Arlington in 2001, the second in her family to earn a high school diploma. She went to St. Kate's right out of school, but admits she lost track that first year and didn't immediately return to school for the second.

Helping others on the path

She made deals with the other teen moms to continue high school. If they stayed, she'd buy their babies some clothes.

Happily, she said, she bought more than a few outfits for those babies.

It took Banks three years to get back into St. Kate's, she said, becoming the first in her family to graduate from college.

She used the bus driver job to get her oldest son, Avery, now 12, to school at Capitol Hill in St. Paul. Her younger boys, Anthony, 10, and Amari, 5, go to different schools and are on different schedules. That makes it hard to stay connected to their teachers. But she does it.

"She had me at a young age, but she didn't give up," said Avery, whose favorite classes are math, social studies and history.

And will Avery go to college someday? "Yeah," he said, with a clear voice and a steady gaze.

Just like his mom.