I do think that you are being a little too thoughtless about your friend, when LIO steps in the picture and your a mother watching your kids being taken away no amount of money is worth it.
If you feel absolutely compelled to do this, then take about $10000 and by a beat up mobile home and turn that into your grow opp. and invest another $6K into your set up. with a 2K system you should beable to pull 2 two 3 LB every 2 months or so witch would be about 4 to 6K every 2 months.
It is a very bad IMO to get involved with her, she has too much to loos, let alone the business dynamics that are so hard to maintain in a normal situation let alone this kind of situation, you will be starting off taking an unnecessary risk right out of the gate when you can avoid it by doing your own op, don't even let her know.
Like someone else said, give her a gift of a couple thousand. If she doesn't have any savings and 3 kids still at home, she may be a poor decision maker judging by her baggage and you don't want to get caught up in any of it.
Or else, just take the money and invest in a 4 plex apartment building or a two plex , live in a unit, convert a bedroom into a small 1K set up and stack your chips and sale it when your done with college if it doesn't suit you.
Your going for a business degree? You should be up on your game partner, not trying to bust your ..., just trying to save you a headache down the road.
Adieu