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Despite the challenging start, their determination, supported by a School District of Janesville alternative education program, helped the two not only graduate from high school but also begin to lay plans for professional careers.

Co-parents to their one-year-old son, Dylan Jr., they credit Rock River Charter School and its youth advocate, Michelle Wales, for providing the flexibility and resources necessary to finish their educations while embracing parenthood.

Rock River Charter School is a public alternative high school for grades 6-12, enrolling 253 students with a 16-to-1 student-teacher ratio.

For older students, who are at least age 17, it offers an e-learning program that combines online courses and teacher-planned curriculum, allowing students to work at their own pace. To enroll, participants must have already earned 16.5 credits toward high school graduation and be in their fourth year of high school. Students must attend for two hours per day — 10 hours per week — and can complete coursework virtually at their own pace.

The e-learning program additionally has a dedicated teacher who offers hands-on instruction in parenting skills to help support students who have children. Teen parents also get intensive, wrap-around case management.

The e-learning program got Jaionna Fowler and Dylan Statam across their high school finish lines.

Fowler graduated in the spring of 2025.

Statam’s graduation from Rock River Charter School this week was marked by tradition: he wore a cap and gown and rang a bell that signaled his achievement to students and staff across the school’s speakers.

Statam credits their son for being the inspiration that has kept him working toward graduation.

“I feel like he helped me graduate and helped me get through what I needed to get through,” Statam said. “I feel like God brought him here just to help me get through.”

Statam’s graduation ceremony was attended by family, friends and school staff — and by Janesville Superintendent Mark Holzman and Janesville School Board member Greg Ardrey.

Holzman said he rearranged his schedule to be there after meeting Statam at a school board meeting just this week.

“I first met Dylan Tuesday night at the board meeting and his passion and appreciation for the district and for me made me rearrange my schedule to be here today,” Holzman said.

Statam noted how inspired he is by Holzman, a person of color in a prominent educational role.

When you’re a person of color “the odds are stacked against you a little bit. And he beat the odds, and that’s very inspiring to me,” he said.

Statam said he’s determined to also beat the odds — to keep overcoming the hurdles that have accompanied teen parenting.

“I haven’t beat the odds yet, but I’m on my way to beating them,” he said.

Wales knows that journey firsthand.

“I was also a teen mom. I don’t know that I would have made it through college if I didn’t have my ‘Why,’” Wales shared. “We talk about that a lot with our teen parents. They can still do everything they wanted to do. They just chose a little bit harder path to get there.”

The support provided by the School District of Janesville’s teen parent program — formerly the InSPIRE grant program, named after a federal grant that initially funded it — is locally countering a national teen parenting trend.

Nationally, only 53% of young women who bear children before age 18 ultimately earn a high school diploma, compared to 90% who have children later in life.

At the time of the launch of the InSPIRE grant program in 2012, the School District of Janesville’s graduation rate for teen mothers aligned with the national average, at 54.7% in 2012-13.

Since September 2012, the program has maintained a high success rate.

“In Janesville, we’ve been able to maintain over 90% graduation rate for our teen parents,” Wales said. In the 2024-25 school year, the program served 32 students and their families with a graduation rate of 93.75%.

Wales’s position, which the school district picked up the cost for after the federal grant ended, relies on community support. The Janesville Woman’s Club has, for instance, has provided grants to help Wales directly assist students with essentials like diapers, car seats, cribs, and even driver’s education fees.

Both Statam and Fowler are moving forward with career goals.

Statam is pursuing a career as an electrician. He has applied for an electrical workers union apprenticeship and registered for classes at Blackhawk Technical College.

Fowler plans to soon start classes at Blackhawk Technical College to study nursing and aims to earn a bachelor’s degree in nursing and to work as a registered nurse.

Both are also working full time — Fowler as a manager at McDonald’s and Statam at Firehouse Subs — and they are preparing to move into an apartment together with their son.

“Don’t get discouraged, you can do it,” Statam said to other young parents. “Kids don’t stop your life. It should be the greatest motivation to keep going and figure it out.”

Wales emphasized that her support for the students doesn’t end at graduation.

“I’ll be here, you know, for them to come back. If they need help next year filling out a financial aid form or two years from now, if they need help getting a transcript or getting daycare, anything like that,” she said. “We’re here to help them as long as we can.”