NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — An app built by students in Nashville is helping people understand just how tough it can be to balance school and parenting.

Lipscomb University students in a programming course teamed up with Ella's House, a nonprofit serving student parents, to develop an app called Dilemma that walks the player through the decisions faced by pregnant and parenting students in college.

Instead of just hearing statistics, players experience the scenarios, including starting with limited money, making choices on childcare, healthcare, and school costs, and watching those decisions add up.

At a recent gala, guests of all ages sat down to try it. Developers said the best part wasn't the coding, it was watching the room react. Some players admitted how quickly they felt the weight of those choices. Elise Jenkins, the app's co-founder said that's the point: the game isn't easy to "win," because for parenting students, there are no easy choices.

"It was really easy to spit facts at donors and community members and volunteers," Jenkins said. "But we wanted a way for people to be able to experience firsthand a little bit of what our scholars experience every day."

Jenkins founded Ella's House after she experienced pregnancy in college, and named the foundation after her daughter Ella Rae. She thought the app would offer something presentations and data couldn't.

She said she hopes people who play Dilemma walk away with a deeper understanding of the challenges she and many others experience, and a desire to take action, whether through funding, volunteering, or simply spreading awareness of student parents in the Mid-State.

Follow the link to play Dilemma ellashouse.org/Dilemma.

News Source : https://www.wkrn.com/news/local-news/nashville/lipscomb-university-students-non-profit-create-app-to-show-challenges-faced-by-student-parents/