Single mom of 5 graduates law school with inspiring social media post

Ieshia Champs and her five children

Being a law school student is tough. Being a mom of five is not for the faint of heart. Being a single mom is a herculean task. Being a single mom of five who is about to graduate from law school? That is practically unheard of, but that is precisely what Ieshia Champs is doing.

The 33-year-old Houston, TX resident took a rather circuitous path to this juncture in her life. Champs bounced around from home to home in the foster care system in her youth partly because of her mother’s drug addiction. One of her sisters had a baby at 14 years old and Champs herself dropped out of school in the 10th grade. She met the future father of her children around that time. They had their first child when she was 19.

The Port Arthur, TX native’s life changed when she was pregnant with her fourth child and her sister convinced her to attend a church in Houston. It was there that she met Louise Holman, a prophetess who told Champs that God wanted her to go back to school for her GED, so that she could fulfill her dream of becoming a lawyer.

Champs felt buoyed by Holman’s encouragement, but soon after, her faith was tested. “During that same year — it was 2009 — I ended up having a house fire, I lost everything that I had. I got laid off from my job, the father to two of my children died of cancer while I was seven months pregnant, I literally tried to kill myself, and I ended up going back to get my GED,” shared Champs in a Yahoo interview.

Ieshia Champs thegrio.com
Ieshia Champs and her five children

From there, Champs earned an associate’s degree, a bachelor’s degree, and this May, she will be graduating from the Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University. She credits her children, who range in age from 5 to 14, with doing their part to make sure she made it to the finish line.

Her way of acknowledging them was to put them in her graduation photos. The photos from her shoot featuring all five of her kids have gone viral along with her inspirational story.

As far as post-graduation plans, She uses her own unstable childhood as a motivating force for her career choices

“I feel like with what I’ve been through as a child and in my upbringing, I can probably help some of these juveniles who may feel like there’s no hope for them. I want to be the one to fight for those children who are in these horrible living arrangements,” she noted.

Champs intends to specialize in family and juvenile law and one day become a judge.

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Comment by marc anderson on April 22, 2018 at 5:20pm: You are and inspiration to those who don’t think they can’t do it especially dealing with those unforeseen occurrences. Your a great mom a great and a terrific motivator. I highly respect you and love you keep up the great work .

Comment by Ab Gai on April 22, 2018 at 12:04am: Congratulations to her educational accomplishments and aspirations, however she has 5 kids by 5 different men. As much as I want to blame the men for this broken family, we don’t need to celebrate the idea of a single mother having 5 kids by 5 different men because she did not achieve these accomplishments on her own. She did have help. Stop making these other young girls think that they are stronger women for being single mothers when we know kids need both parents in the home Especially for black kids, since we all know. I don’t know if y’all know this, but the educational system is picking out black kids, mostly males and classifying them as special ed with ADHD in particular as well as the autism spectrum. And do you know what the test is to tell if a kid has this made up “disease” called ADHD? It’s a questionnaire with questions that include “ is the daddy in the house”? Y’all need to wake up now.

Comment by Inez Malone on April 20, 2018 at 10:41am: Congratulations we can do anything in life when we put our mind to it and stay focused on the dream

Comment by roland newport on April 19, 2018 at 6:30pm: Congratulations to you and your family. This is a great accomplishment and a shining example to your children especially the boys on the meaning of hard work and the resounding pay-off. Black women get it, they always have, now black men have to do the same. Education is the key and can’t be taken away.