Single mother of 5 passes bar exam, achieves ‘lifelong goal’

HOUSTON – The single Texas mother who made headlines when she graduated from law school at Texas Southern University last spring has passed her bar examination.

Iesha Champs, a 33-year-old mother of five, said she couldn’t stop screaming when she got the results Monday morning.

“I screamed so loud and I ran through my apartment 15 times, I just keep saying thank you God,” Champs told the Houston Chronicle. “When I saw it was just so surreal.”

She posted the letter from the Board of Law Examiners to Facebook and wrote, “I’m still shouting!”

According to KPRC, Champs grew up in foster care and dropped out of high school. When her children’s father died of cancer, she lost her job and home.

Champs told the Chronicle that she reached a point when her lifelong goal of becoming an attorney “kind of shattered.”

But her luck began to change in 2009 when she was urged to get her GED. Her high school diploma turned into stops at Houston Community College, the University of Houston Downtown and now, Texas Southern Thurgood Marshall School of Law.

In April, Champs posted a graduation photo of her and her five children on Facebook. In the picture, she wears her cap and gown and holds a sign that says “I did it.”

Champs told the paper that the now-viral photo gave her exactly the boost she needed. The Texas mom says she’s been asked to speak at multiple events and has received a stream of gift cards and money that helped put food on the table over the summer.

She said she’s now applying for jobs and hopes to one day become a federal judge or run her own family practice.

“Whoever counted me out miscalculated, cause God counted me in!” Champs wrote on Facebook.