HOUSTON (WSVN) — A single mother of five who overcame a sea of obstacles and graduated from law school has passed the bar exam.
Ieshia Champs, 33, made headlines in April after a photo showing her with her five kids went viral. The photo showed Champs wearing a cap and gown, holding a sign saying “I did it.”
Champs graduated from Texas Southern University law school with honors, proving that it’s never too late to realize your goals.
Champs’ accomplishments didn’t end there. She recently took to Facebook to announce that she passed the bar exam.
“From High School Drop Out to Attorney! Don’t tell me what God can’t do!!! I’m a living testimony of what He can!” she wrote on Facebook.
Champs said she ended up homeless while she was still in high school, bouncing around to stay with different friends. She ultimately dropped out, and had her first child at 19.
Champs said she soon lost her mother, and then the father of two of her children died from cancer while she was seven months pregnant.
Not long after, she lost her home in a fire.
“I literally, literally tried to commit suicide,” she told Fox 26. “It was just that bad.”
It wasn’t until the pastor and first lady at her church encouraged her to get her GED in 2009 that Champs began to turn her life around.
“I figured I was too old, I had too many kids, and there was no way possible,” she said.
But upon finishing her GED, she kept going, eventually enrolling in TSU’s law school to realize her dream of being a lawyer, a career she aspired to as a little girl.
And though it wasn’t easy, she said her kids helped her with her studies, quizzing her with flash cards and serving as a mock jury.
_____
Copyright 2024 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.