Fox 32
Beginning freshman year of high school with a newborn baby is certainly not the ideal scenario, but Chicago teen Trameka Pope is living proof that it is possible to excel beyond the challenges of teen motherhood.
According to Fox 32, Pope got pregnant while in middle school and gave birth to a baby girl the summer of her eighth-grade year, just weeks before she was scheduled to begin high school. Despite the hurdles presented by Pope becoming a mother at such a young age, with the support of her mother she was able to complete high school and in two weeks, she will graduate at the top of her class from Wendell Phillips High School.
“I was told that God don’t make mistakes and he wouldn’t give anyone a child who wasn’t ready for one,” said the valedictorian.
Of course, the odds were not in her favor. One in four Chicago Public School students drop out of high school.
“I didn’t give up. I pushed myself hard,” she continued. “And my baby motivated me every day because I wanted to provide for her and I also didn’t want to be a statistic.”
In addition to being a mom to her daughter and a star pupil, Pope is a member of the National Honor Society and the Wendell Phillips Varsity Cheerleading squad. She also works part-time at a local grocery store. A typical school day for the teen consists of college prep courses at Kennedy-King College followed by four classes at Wendell Phillips, including AP Calculus.
The high school senior has been accepted to 26 colleges and universities and her scholarship awards exceed $80,000. While she credits her mother for much of her success, she also explained that Chicago Public Schools’ staff members have shown her immense levels of support by taking her on college tours and assisting her in the scholarship application process.
“I always said that I wanted to make change and I wanted to be in the history books, and I started with myself,” she said.
This fall Pope will attend Western Illinois University. After completing her undergraduate studies, she intends to get a Ph.D. in social work.
Beautiful.
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