The Day the World Became Her Oyster

As Anderson's Academic Coach, I am always looking for openings — moments in conversation where I can help a Scholar dream past her circumstances and toward something that actually inspires her. You can't force these moments. You just have to be ready when they arrive.

Mandi gave me a whole day of them.

When she asked me to go to orientation with her at Ball State, I was genuinely gobsmacked. There are so many wonderful staff at Anderson Scholar House, and I am the newest member of the team. But Mandi is our first and longest-serving Scholar, and she asked me. I was honored.

The morning was overcast and threatening rain. We prepared water bottles, jackets, bags, and a plan to get her registered. What we were not fully prepared for was the sheer scale of Ball State's campus. If you have never traversed it on foot, you do not quite get it until you are out there. Mandi got it immediately. "Wow, this is huge." First teachable moment. We found an app with a campus map. We talked about the free bus service. We navigated. We walked (7,071 steps, for the record) and we used the bus. I made a mental note to talk to her about what it really means, logistically, to be a commuting student.

At some point in the morning, I realized I had lost her. We were making our way through the second or third building when Mandi stopped in front of the Study Abroad office. She turned to me: Do you think I could do this?

Of course.

But do you think I can take my child?

I am pretty sure you can. Let's find out.

That was the moment. I watched something shift in her. Her mind opened up to travel, to other cultures, to wanting her daughter to grow up understanding how other people live, to not taking anything for granted. We talked for a long time. I made a mental note to help her research Study Abroad at BSU. The world, it turns out, was her oyster. She just needed to see the poster.

One of our stops was a Social Work presentation — her major. The Health Professions Building was well stocked with healthy snacks and, as I discovered, a lot of merch. While Mandi made the most of the free offerings, I found myself chatting with the Dean. I explained who I was, who I was with, and why we were there. He knew Scholar House. Had met our director Briana several times. He was genuinely excited that one of our Scholars would be joining their program.

As if on cue, Mandi appeared. And then she did something I can only describe as remarkable. This woman, who that morning had been nervous about navigating a big campus, stood in front of the Dean of the Social Work department and held her own completely. She talked about why she was drawn to Social Work. About research she had done recently. About her plans to one day open her own nonprofit. Professional. Engaged. Knowledgeable. Impressive in every sense of the word.

She was shining.

There were tears a few times that day from both of us, I'll admit. But I noticed a particular moment when the tears seemed to lift something from her shoulders. She discovered there is a Christian student group on campus. She didn't say so outright, but I believe Mandi felt, maybe for the first time, that Ball State could also be her community. She had talked all morning about what Scholar House means to her. The other mothers. The support. The sense of belonging. And now she was seeing that it could exist here too. I made sure to mention the lovely community church just one block from her building that offers groups, fellowship, and, critically, free coffee. I am choosing to count that as a teachable moment.

The yard sign almost got away from us. As we arrived that overcast morning, Mandi noticed the families walking through campus, students and parents, many of them carrying BSU yard signs. She mentioned it once. Twice. Then it clicked. This mattered to her. We asked everyone we could find and eventually tracked down the tent where she could get one. When she finally held it, I could see it on her face: pride, plain and simple. Scholar House was going to know she was BSU bound.

We were heading back to the car, on the far side of campus, when a student outside another tent offered Mandi a free t-shirt. She hesitated. I did not. After a morning of watching her work for everything, a t-shirt that actually fit seemed like the least the universe could offer. The catch was talking to enough tables to earn it. In true Mandi fashion, she took every conversation seriously. At the accounting table, the department head launched into a lesson on why social workers benefit from understanding basic accounting. Mandi talked about her future nonprofit. He suggested specific courses. I added more to my mental list.

None of that would have happened without a free t-shirt.

When she finally got it, there was an ironic look on her face. The student at the table had asked her where her child was, assuming she was a parent dropping off an incoming freshman, not the student herself. We laughed. I made a joke about the benefits of age. But I knew what it meant. For just a moment, someone had pulled her back to her reality: she would be older than many of her peers, even as a Junior. Most of those students would never know what it takes for Mandi to get to campus, getting her daughter on the Kindergarten bus, driving 30 minutes across Central Indiana, navigating a vast campus on arthritic hips.

Maybe that is exactly why she invited me. Maybe the yard sign mattered so much because she needed something to mark the fact that she belongs here too. MaybeHeartland Scholar House has built something real, a community where the non-traditional student doesn't have to explain herself, where the world genuinely is her oyster.

I think it has. I watched it be true on a cloudy Tuesday in Muncie.

~ This story was guest written by Edie Belitza, Academic Coach, Anderson Scholar House

---

The Documentary Is Coming

That day at Ball State — the yard sign, the Study Abroad poster, the moment Mandi realized the world might be bigger than she had let herself imagine — it is part of a bigger story. One that has been years in the making.

Mandi is one of the Scholars featured in our upcoming documentary. The journey that brought her to that orientation day, and everything that has happened since, will be on the screen this August.

We are hosting a select-audience screening for close supporters in August, followed by a wider public release this fall.

Join our mailing list for behind-the-scenes content, trailer drops, and first notice when the film goes live.

Join the Mailing List