Single-mother students taking classes full time have the opportunity to apply for financial aid available through a university program.

The Women’s and Gender Studies Program is offering two scholarships:

• The Betty Baum and Norman Hirschfield Award offers three $4,000 awards through an endowment. The scholarship was created in 1999.

• The Empowerment of Spirit Award, which was created in 2009, gives what it can based on yearly funding.

Applications for both scholarships are due March 1.

Applicants must be a single mother raising children, a full-time student at any of the Norman campuses, have completed two full semesters within the last five years and have a GPA of 3.0 or higher.

The recipients are chosen by the Women’s and Gender Studies Faculty, said Brenda Houser, program spokeswoman.

Jamie Brown, microbiology senior, received the Betty Baum and Norman Hirschfield award last year. Brown, the mother of a 2-year-old, said it was nice to see scholarships established for single mothers.

Brown’s daughter, Addison, was born in the June after her freshman year. She was enrolled in class the next fall, without taking any semesters off, she said.

Brown said she also receives tuition waivers and grants, but takes out some loans to pay her bills. The scholarship allowed her to take out fewer loans, she said.

“I was grateful not just for the money but to know that there is a support system out there for single moms who are trying to go to school and make their kids a better life,” Brown said.

In addition to going to school, Brown has worked as a teaching assistant for Undergraduate Human Physiology Labs and this semester she works as a note taker in the athletic department.

Brown plans to go to medical school after graduation.

One of the 2010-11 Empowerment of Spirit Awards went to letters senior Sara Linman, a mother of two. Linman said she returned to school in 2006, taking night classes and has been a full-time student at OU since 2008.

Linman graduated from high school in 1995 and took university classes but left school to get married. After her divorce, Linman decided to go back to school and pursue her dream to be an attorney.

“I have such an immense amount of gratitude to be able to have the opportunity to go back to school and get an education, it’s kind of like a do-over,” Linman said.

Linman has two sons, ages 10 and 7.

“My kids and I do our homework together, they have seen me struggle through classes that are really, really hard for me to take,” Linman said. “It’s really good for them to go through that experience with me.”