“I take her with me maybe six times a semester,” Taylor said. “It’s when she’s sick or her school has decided not to have school that day. I can’t leave her so I just take her to class with me.”

The Detroit senior said the hardest part about balancing parenthood and going to school full time is how short her day is — especially when it comes to studying.

Taylor said her most rewarding part of parenthood is being a role model for her daughter, Zorianne.

“I have this little person looking up and depending on me for everything,” she said. “I’m her hero. It’s amazing that she looks at me this way.”

Taylor typically wakes up around 7 a.m. to take her daughter to Morey Charter School, in Shepherd.

From there, she heads to her first class at 9 a.m. After finishing up with lecture halls for the day, it’s around 3 p.m. and she’s off to run errands and get work completed before her daughter gets home from school.

“I’m busy every minute of the day,” she said. “I’m never just sitting around waiting.”

After her daughter gets home from an after-school program around 5 p.m., the two of them sit down for dinner at a table free of textbooks, laptops, bills and chaos.

Taylor said she tries to do this at least twice a week so she can focus on Zorianne.

As soon as they finish, Taylor cleans up and tells her daughter, “Mommy needs to get her homework done.”

“I don’t have time to study all day,” Taylor said. “I study at night after I put my daughter to bed at 9 (p.m.).”

At night, she juggles between checking her e-mail, chatting with friends, working on research projects and washing loads of clothes.

She tries to get to bed between midnight and 1 a.m., but said it doesn’t happen as often as she’d like.

Taylor is unemployed, but remains financially stable by tightly budgeting the money she receives through state and government financial aid.

“I pay all of my bills at the beginning of each semester, sometimes five months in advance even if it means that I will be broke,” Taylor said.

This semester, she plans on working toward a 3.0 grade point average, while at the same time, applying to three graduate schools.

One thing CMU lacks is adequate resources for single-parent students, Taylor said.

“We have no support on campus,” she said.

Tracy Holt, administrative clerk for Student Life, said there is a non-traditional resource center for single parents who commute to campus.

There used to be a larger resource area in previous years, Holt said, but has since shrunk to the size of a cubicle.

“It’s a place for people to meet each other — somewhere to go and regroup during the day,” she said.

When she’s not studying or spending time with her daughter, Taylor spends her time volunteering as a student campus ambassador, applying to graduate schools and researching for the McNair Scholar Program. If time allows, she also enjoys scrapbooking, quilting and computer games.

In times of need, she falls back on her best friend, Muskegon senior Elizabeth Dennie.

Dennie often stays home with Taylor on Friday nights and baby-sits Zorianne.

“You need to vent to someone so that you don’t lose your mind,” Taylor said.