Baldwin ? It was Wednesday night at the Zeta Tau Alpha sorority, and “The Bachelorette” was being ignored on the big-screen television in the corner of the living room.

Instead, 15 young women were huddled around a pastel blanket on the floor, urging 5-month-old Anessa Rosebrook to roll over.

The week before, the baby got stuck midway through the roll. This time, she finally succeeded. Cheering erupted.

“Woo-hoo!”

Anessa is the daughter of Jana Rosebrook, who until last fall was the sorority’s president.

At first, Rosebrook had been terrified to tell her sorority sisters that she and her boyfriend of one year, Julian Parks, were going to have a baby. Rosebrook knew the stigmas that often come with an unwed pregnancy.

But instead of shunning their sorority sister, Baker University’s Zeta Tau Alpha members have embraced her, baby-sitting Anessa 20 hours a week for free and showering her with gifts.

“Anessa has 50 moms,” sorority member Sarah Jensen said. “That’s just the way it is.”

Rosebrook, 22, last spring found out she was pregnant. She initially considered dropping out of school and moving back to Lincoln, the small town northwest of Salina where her parents farm, even though she was only a year away from graduating.

“At first that was an option,” she said. “Once the girls were so supportive, there was no talking about it again.”

Zeta Tau Alpha sorority members play with Anessa Rosebrook, the 5-month-old baby of sorority sister Jana Rosebrook. Sorority members watch the youngster while her mom, who considered dropping out of college, attends class at Baker University in Baldwin. ZTA sisters baby-sat the girl on Wednesday. Pictured are, from left, senior Kate Staupp, sophomores Katie Walker and Emily Finger, and seniors Sarah Jensen, Amanda Sherck and Miriam Rice.

She told only a handful of friends about the pregnancy last summer. One of those was sorority member Miriam Rice, a senior from Cheney.

“It was really, really hard — very difficult,” Rice said. “She was worried about time management, whether she’d be ready to do it or not. I know she was a little concerned. She knew she could do it — she just needed reassurance.”

Rosebrook told the entire sorority during a meeting around the first of the school year. From the beginning, members pledged their help.

Parks, also 22, said he had heard plenty of “gibberish” about other Baker students who had been pregnant. He was worried similar negativity would ripple across the tight-knit, 900-student campus.

“It was completely scary to tell anyone and everyone,” he said. “I think the house’s acceptance of it has made the campus more accepting.”

Free baby-sitting

Rosebrook continued living in the Zeta Tau Alpha house during her pregnancy.

Sisters sang to Rosebrook’s stomach, carried Rosebrook’s backpack to class and threw a baby shower for her in November.

Jensen, a senior from Clay Center, and Rice attended Lamaze classes with Rosebrook while Parks was at football practice. He plays cornerback for Baker.

Rosebrook gave birth to Anessa on Dec. 13 in Salina.

Jana Rosebrook, a Baker University senior, gets help weekly from her sorority sisters, who baby-sit Rosebrook's 5-month-old daughter, Anessa.

Now, sorority members can’t get enough of their 5-month-old unofficial member. They watch her while Rosebrook is in class or at work in the financial aid department at Baker’s Overland Park campus, and while Parks is at class or football practice.

“We fight over who gets to baby-sit her for free,” said Katie Walker, a sophomore from Harrisonville, Mo.

Sometimes, the women keep Anessa in their rooms, reading textbooks on Civil War history, genetics or chemistry to Anessa to keep her occupied. Other times, they put her in the living room for group play time.

“They’re backing me up,” Rosebrook said. “Basically everything I’ve ever needed, they’ve been there to help me out. They have made a lot of things possible.”

Rosebrook and Parks, who now live together, are planning to marry after he graduates in the fall. She’s a business management major; he’s majoring in athletic administration. For now, Rosebrook plans to continue working after graduation in the financial aid office until the fall.

‘Community effort’

Jeanne Mott, director of financial aid at Baker, said Anessa was well known around the Baldwin campus. Some campus offices now have pictures of Anessa on their walls.

“It’s a community effort, for sure,” Mott said. “This baby pretty much belongs to the community. She just happens to sleep at her parents’ house at night.”

Mott said the sorority’s support showed a benefit of attending a small university.

“They’ve managed to surround themselves with family support and Baker support, so it’s worked for them,” Mott said. “If they didn’t have that system, it would really, really be a challenge.”

Zeta Tau Alpha sorority members play with Anessa Rosebrook, the daughter of sorority sister Jana Rosebrook. ZTA members at Baker University baby-sat Anessa on Wednesday. Pictured are, from left, sophomores Emily Finger and Katie Walker, and seniors Amanda Sherck and Kate Staupp.

That support has been a comfort to Rosebrook’s family in Lincoln.

“It’s been real assuring for us to know she’s got help, because it’s not easy raising a child in normal circumstances, let alone her circumstances,” said her mother, Debbie Rosebrook. “It’s not the normal way you want things to happen. You want marriage to come first. But by the same token she made the right choice to have the baby and go that way. I’m proud of her for that. I think her religious upbringing helped. I don’t think there was ever any choice.”

Jensen said the sorority sisters have learned a lot about changing diapers and strapping Anessa into her car seat. But Jensen said Rosebrook has provided some lessons of her own.

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“She had so much courage,” Jensen said. “It would have been so easy to make a different choice than she did (and not have the baby). She took the hard road.

“Jana’s an amazing person. She’s a wonderful friend. Even now, with work and school and the baby, she’s a wonderful friend. It wasn’t a matter of whether we’d help, but how we’d help.”

Today, on Rosebrook’s first Mother’s Day, she’ll attend a dedication service for new mothers at Pleasant Green Baptist Church in Kansas City, Mo. She’ll receive her diploma from Baker May 18.

“I feel pretty special because of the way things have happened,” she said. “I feel so lucky to have this support — and to have Anessa, too, puts me over the top.”