Cindy has always dreamed of being a high-powered executive.

But first she needs to pay for her business degree from one of Canada’s most expensive universities. It’s something she has to do on her own because her family can't afford to help out.

So, she got a job and it wasn't flipping burgers.

“One night of work covers my rent… The way it is now, I don't need to get a student loan to go to school,” says Cindy.

Cindy entered an amateur night at a strip club and the self-proclaimed shy girl came second in the competition. She then ended up leaving the club in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia with a job offer and a shot at making a lot more than minimum wage.

“I mean you could be here one day and make $200 and be here another day and make $800. So it goes up and down pretty dramatically.”

Although a lot of exotic dancers hide what they do, all of Cindy's friends and family know exactly what she does. She is perhaps the most-famous export from Middle Lehave, Nova Scotia. It's tough to keep a secret in a small town, but Cindy's mom has learned how to deal with it.

“Although it's like, ‘What will the neighbours think?’ I've had to remember some of the things I taught her, to grow from the inside out, and not always be looking and doing what other people expected her to do, but to do what felt right what felt good for her.”

Canadian university tuition fees have risen by 135 per cent since 1990. More than half of students graduate with an average debt of $25,000. So, the chance to make big money, fast, can be very tempting.

From a statistical point of view, stripping has been a largely under-scrutinized industry. No one keeps track of how many strippers there are in Canada or how many are students are working as strippers. 21© did its own research and found that people like Cindy aren't as rare as you might think.

We surveyed 45 strip clubs in university towns across Canada and we spoke to five agencies that supply clubs with dancers, representing almost 5,000 strippers. The results suggest that 20 per cent of them claim to be students, or one in five dancers.

Mary Taylor says she sees more and more students working the brass rails. Taylor danced for more than 20 years from headline gigs at high-end clubs to grungy bars.

Today, she's an author and has even produced a video on how to lap dance. Although Taylor says the stage can sometimes look like a Vegas casino, she warns the conditions are often not so great.

“There's a lot of smoke. [Dancers] tend to drink a lot because they're offered cocktails from their clients. A lot of them drink a lot to cope. There's more access to drugs and there's the risk that they may quit going to school because this business can be so lucrative,” says Taylor.

But a club in Windsor, Ontario is going the extra mile to attract smart dancers and encourage higher education.

“Educated entertainers or an educated anybody frankly makes for a better individual,” says owner Rob Katzman.

If you strip there at night, go to class during the day and your grades are “B” or better, Katzman will write a cheque for your tuition. Instead of facing a growing debt, strippers make cash and get a degree for free.

“Our girls see that we're trying to give back, trying to contribute. We're not the exploiters that adult operators are accused of being.”

Katzman is a well-known philanthropist in Windsor and has paid for the education of strippers turned accountants, nurses and therapists. Last year he handed out $25,000 in tuition to women, like Anastasia.

She spends part of the week waiting tables and the rest of it dancing on stage. Now she's starting a psychology degree at the University of Windsor and is eager to sign up for the strip club scholarship.

“Rob's a very good guy. I mean who's willing to take money out of their own pockets to help their employees better themselves? What other job can you go to that your boss is going to further your education and pay for it?”

But there are some who will go even further to make enough for tuition.

In British Columbia, Kelly has always wanted to be a lawyer and she's even managed to land a part-time day job at a courthouse. But she's also moonlighting with another job.

Kelly is a prostitute working to put herself through law school.

“I think it's degrading and somewhat embarrassing, but I do it. The money's good.”

It’s not something she would choose to do if she didn't have such a huge student loan debt. In total, she owes more than $50,000 dollars. To make things harder, she's also a single mom.

“I just figured this is a good way to make money without expending a lot of time.”

To keep her secret, she targets out-of-town clients who are mostly American and who are willing to pay.

“I had someone come in last week and for a night that was $600 and that was just a couple of hours. We went for dinner and drinks and it's about an hour or so in his hotel room."

What Kelly does is probably not illegal since she doesn't actively solicit clients and doesn't work at a brothel. But she lives in constant fear that her family or future bosses will find out that she sells sex.

“I don't think they'd be overly impressed... I just want to finish my education and you know eventually just get out, because I don't plan on staying in this forever. As soon as I'm done school, I'm going to be finished."

There are no definitive studies on how many students work as prostitutes. But there is evidence their numbers have grown with tuition rates. Weekly tabloids are peppered with sex ads, advertising people who at least claim to be students.

Meanwhile back in Dartmouth, even though customers have asked Cindy for sex, she just smiles, says no and thinks about her degree.

"It would be a better world if there were more people like Cindy and that's been a fact since she was little, right through her life. There's no question and because she takes her clothes off and makes money for it, she's not any different, she's still my little girl," says her mom.

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