Return to Learn Project, Inc.
Who We Are
R2LP delivers practical support and resource pathways to stay-at- home mothers returning to education, a population frequently overlooked by traditional scholarships and student services. We empower mothers to reimagine their future, champion master's and doctoral degree completion, and facilitate conditions for children to be inspired by the most powerful living example of resilience through education, their mom.
Problem
A Gap No One Else Is Filling
Many of stay-at-home mothers want to return to school, yet face a convergence of barriers most scholarships were never designed to address: childcare costs, financial aid gaps, credential loss, re-entry anxiety, and the invisible labor of running a household while pursuing a degree. These are highly motivated adults who have delayed education to raise the next generation. All they need is a system that believes in them.
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Why now?
Why this population?
Research shows that maternal education is one of the highest-leverage investments in a family's long-term economic stability. When a mother earns a degree, her children are statistically more likely to pursue higher education, a generational ripple effect no other intervention can replicate. R2LP is purpose-built to close that gap.
What We Do
Direct Meaningful Offerings
🎓 Tuition Assistance
Direct financial support applied to tuition, fees, and course materials — reducing the barriers traditional scholarships overlook for returning adult mothers.
📚 Academic Resources
Study tools, tutoring, course prep materials, and technology support so mothers re-enter the classroom with confidence — not anxiety.
🤝 Support Services
Advising, peer mentorship, and resource pathways to help mothers persist — not just enroll. Because enrollment is only the beginning.
🌱 Community & Belonging
A peer network that sustains motivation through hard semesters. No mother should navigate this journey alone.
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Ways To Give
How We Use Your Support
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Direct tuition & fee assistance
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Course materials & technology
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Advising & mentorship programming
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Community-building events
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Open to other options based on donation types
Get In Touch
Start the conversation
We welcome questions about our programs, impact, financials, or partnership opportunities. Every inquiry is answered personally.
Our Status
Return To Learn Project is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. All donations are tax-deductible to the fullest extent permitted by law. We operate with a lean model to ensure the maximum percentage of every dollar goes directly to the mothers we serve.
Links to Donate
Link to Mom's Application
PARTNER WITH US!
DONATE TO ADVERTISE YOUR BUSINESS INFO HERE!
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GRATITUDE FROM OUR
STAY-AT-HOME MOMS
COMING SOON
COMING SOON
COMING SOON
Our Leadership
Dr. Elisa Pellegrino
Founder & President
Dr. Elisa Pellegrino is a counselor educator, licensed professional counselor, and Founder and President of Return to Learn Project, Inc. Her professional work spans higher education, counseling, clinical supervision, consultation, and advocacy. She is also the Founder and Clinical Director of Pellegrino Talks, a private counseling and consulting practice.
Her own journey through higher education while raising a family helped inspire the vision for Return to Learn Project: creating opportunities for stay-at-home mothers to pursue advanced education and build pathways toward personal, professional, and economic opportunity.
As a professor working closely with master’s and doctoral students, Dr. Pellegrino began encountering other mothers whose stories echoed parts of her own. She witnessed women pursuing advanced degrees while simultaneously navigating the demands of parenting, financial strain, childcare challenges, relationship and family responsibilities, employment demands, limited support systems, and, in some cases, significant housing instability or homelessness.
These women were not lacking in ability, motivation, or ambition. They were attempting to build a different future while carrying responsibilities and confronting barriers that can make completing an education extraordinarily difficult.
Those experiences reinforced what Dr. Pellegrino had come to understand through her own educational journey: access to higher education is only part of the equation. Mothers also need the resources, support, community, and opportunity that make persistence and completion a reality.
Return to Learn Project, Inc. grew from that understanding and from a belief that when a mother is given the opportunity to invest in her education, the impact can extend far beyond a degree. It can expand her choices, strengthen her economic future, and create possibilities that reach across her family and future generations.
Board Leadership
Dr. Angela Cross
Founding Member & Board Secretary
Dr. Angela Cross is a counselor educator, licensed mental health counselor, clinical supervisor, and professor whose work spans counselor education, higher education, clinical practice, supervision, and advocacy. She is also the Owner of Cross Counseling & Consultation, PLLC.
Her professional journey across clinical mental health, academic advising, counselor education, and higher education has shaped her commitment to creating learning environments where students are holistically supported. Her work focuses particularly on trauma-informed and healing-centered teaching, trauma work as an EMDR clinician, inclusive andragogy, accessibility, Universal Design for Learning, and student belonging.
As a Founding Member and Board Secretary of the Return to Learn Project, Inc., Dr. Cross extends this commitment to stay-at-home mothers re-entering education, a population that traditional scholarships and student services were not necessarily designed to serve. She recognizes that these mothers may face a convergence of barriers, from childcare costs and financial aid gaps to credential loss and re-entry anxiety, and that addressing those barriers requires intentional, systemic support.
For Dr. Cross, supporting maternal degree completion is both an equity intervention and a generational one. When a mother returns to school and thrives, her children witness a powerful example of resilience, growth, and the transformative potential of education.
She believes that access to education is only the beginning. Students need environments where they can belong, participate, and thrive in ways that work for them. Her work is grounded in the belief that when educational systems intentionally remove barriers and center the needs of all learners, they can create more equitable pathways for learning, professional development, and lasting change.
