photojournalism: photo essay

Caitlin McKee, then 16, still remembers January 4, 2002 when she took her first pregnancy test. The results were negative. "Hey, I passed that test. What did I have to loose with taking a second... POSITIVE?! Must be some mistake," she thought. Test after test, a total of 7, read the same results... Positive. Caitlin was pregnant. "Now what?"

Deternined to finish school, Caitlin enrolled in the Project Effective Parent Program (PEPP), a small school for suburban pregnant teenagers near Liverpool, New York. Thanks to this program, Caitlin graduated from high school and is now studying to become a veterinarian assistant while raising her daughter Jenna Eileen.

The Project Effective Parent Program (PEPP) school provides pregnant and/or parenting teens the opportunity to complete high school and helps them become effective parents. Math and English, mothering, birth control and cooking, are part of the school's lessons. Building self confidence, how to pay bills, relationships and changes in their lives are themes discussed in the one room school where the students find the support they need. The school, run by Onondaga-Cortland-Madison BOCES in Central New York, has been operating for ten years.