‘My Purdue Global degree set me on a path to the life I always wanted’

Entrepreneurship was never Sienna Clawson’s vision, but experience sparked a passion that grew into a vital resource for moms

Sienna Clawson’s home is full of life wherever you look.  

Two-year-old Sarah shows off two monarch chrysalises they’re watching. The family’s gentle giant, George, a cuddly goldendoodle, tries to get attention with nose nudges. Photos of Sienna with her husband, Brendon, and their four kids cover the living room wall. Torty the tortoise loudly munches lettuce a room away. And Sarah forgets about butterflies in favor of performing a series of belly flops on the couch. 

The lively scene is not necessarily a surprise, considering that the two businesses Sienna runs are devoted to the holistic care of postpartum mothers and their newborns. But the fact that she’s built this life she always wanted — the family, the photos and the memories they hold, the bear-sized dog, the soon-to-be butterflies, the work she loves, the clear confidence she carries — defies every known statistic. Sienna and Brendon were teen parents. 

And today, Brendon takes Sarah outside to play while Sienna pulls out a chair from her dining room table to talk about how she went from pregnant high schooler to Purdue Global graduate and successful entrepreneur.

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Beating the odds 

Early in her senior year of high school, Sienna discovered she’d have enough credits to graduate in December, ahead of the rest of her class. So she weighed whether to graduate early or take some fun classes and enjoy the home stretch.  

Ten days before December graduation, she found out she was pregnant, and her decision was made for her. 

That August, their baby boy arrived the same weekend most of her friends moved into their college dorms. While her peers eased their way into adulthood by exploring career paths in college, Sienna was thrust into a new life as a grown-up and had to learn on the job. 

She and Brendon were strong as ever, but the isolation was still overwhelming. She had all the medical care and support she needed throughout her pregnancy, but as soon as she gave birth, when she had more concerns and bigger questions than ever, somehow she suddenly felt like she was in the middle of a postpartum desert. The stress was unbearable, and she suffered from postpartum depression. 

“It was really lonely,” she says. “I was so young. I didn’t have much help. I basically did it myself, and it sucked.” 

Amidst all the struggles any new mother faces, plus depression, Sienna also endured the stigma of being a teen mom everywhere she went, whatever she did. 

“Teen moms get a bad rap,” she says, tears springing to her eyes.  

She takes a moment and a deep breath.  

“There’s this stereotype that if you’re a teen mom, you’re irresponsible,” she continues. “So it was always our goal that we provide him with a life that never feels to him like it’s weighed down by the way we got our start.” 

That’s why, in the young family’s earliest days, they gave everything they had to support each other and their new baby. 

As residents of Lafayette, Indiana, Brendon (who is a couple of years older than Sienna and had already started his engineering degree at Purdue University’s campus in West Lafayette) opted to work full time while maintaining full-time student status. Sienna stayed home with the baby for a few months, but they needed another source of income, so she began bouncing around to different types of work.  

Eventually, she settled on providing child care out of her home, but something was missing. She felt like she had the right story with the wrong angle. 

“My husband sat me down one night,” she says. “And he said to me, ‘You seem lost.’” 

It was during this difficult conversation that all the pieces started coming together for her. 

“I started looking back on those early years, and I truly realized how much I had gone through by myself during postpartum and all the things that came with it. I asked myself and I asked Brendon, ‘Why? Why is nobody helping moms with newborns?’” she says. “I didn’t start a business because I like business. I started a business because I had to.” 

She felt strongly that if she’d had professional support with breastfeeding, or if she’d had counsel and education on what to expect, her experience as a new mom would have been dramatically different. She would have been able to focus on bonding with her baby. She was sure the intense stress of trying to figure out everything by herself, in the highest-stakes situation of her life, was a primary factor in developing postpartum depression. If she could help new moms address those challenges, maybe their first experiences with motherhood could be more positive than hers. 

First Expressions — a local business to offer birth photography and doula and lactation services — was born that day.

A comeback made possible with an online education 

But in order to provide the kind of care that was so desperately needed, there was one big hurdle she had to find her way over. 

“I needed foundational knowledge with a bachelor’s degree to be able to know if I wanted to get into a master’s program for lactation, but I never saw myself being able to finish a degree. The statistics of teen parents even getting a bachelor’s degree after they have children is really low,” she says.  

She’s not wrong. According to data from both the National Conference of State Legislatures and Child Trends, fewer than 2% of teen mothers earn a college degree by the age of 30. With stats like that, she knew exactly how difficult it would be to come back — and now she and Brendon had four kids, not just one. 

“I knew if I was going to be a respected resource in my community, I need those letters behind my name. People look for that, and they want to know where you got them. The Purdue Global name earns trust and respect,” she says. 

Brendon was already a year deep into a second degree through a Purdue Global program in finance. Sienna saw firsthand the great experience he was having, so she took the leap. She began a bachelor’s degree in health and wellness from Purdue Global.  

One of the first things she noticed was how engaged she felt. 

“The health and wellness program at Purdue Global has blown my mind,” she says. “I love the live seminars; I love the structure of the courses. And there’s no fluff — all the information is pertinent. They get straight to the point. They know what you need to know, what you’ll need to apply in the field.” 

She says the 10-week terms are short enough to be manageable, too, which is important for her motivation. And with the kids watching, she’s communicating daily — without words — that if she can do school, so can they. 

“The kids know they can’t quit either; they know they’ve got this. We check on each other every morning. They ask me, ‘Hey, Mommy, did you finish your homework last night after we went to bed?’ Or when we’re looking at their report cards, they want to know what my grades are, too,” she says. “And if they’re going to be looking that closely, I better do it right so they know they can, too.”

Now, since crossing milestone after milestone, she’s just weeks away from the finish line. In the meantime, as First Expressions has grown in the services it offers, Sienna has partnered with a speech-language pathologist to begin a second business called Pediatric Wellness Group, which aims to be a one-stop shop for holistic care. Both businesses are rapidly becoming essential resources for the community.  

Above all, nothing compares to what it feels like coming home from work every day — she says seeing relief in the eyes of new mothers makes it all worth it. 

“There’s nothing better than knowing you’re truly helping somebody’s journey and setting them up for success,” she says. “Some people leave work and they’re like, ‘Thank God I’m done!’ But I leave every single appointment knowing that I’ve helped somebody. I leave work feeling like I have made a difference.”