{"id":64331,"date":"2015-06-01T07:02:14","date_gmt":"2015-06-01T11:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"\/news\/?p=64331"},"modified":"2015-06-01T16:36:39","modified_gmt":"2015-06-01T20:36:39","slug":"life-week-pregnant-homeless-8th-grade-wont-believe-just-accomplished","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/life-week-pregnant-homeless-8th-grade-wont-believe-just-accomplished\/","title":{"rendered":"Pregnant and homeless in eighth grade, teen defies odds and becomes high school valedictorian"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

Trameka Pope<\/a> is just graduating high school, but the valedictorian already has a remarkable life story to share.<\/p>\n

As an eighth\u00a0grader, Pope was facing an uphill battle: she was homeless and pregnant. Many people would say she was too young and that she had too much ahead of her\u2014 that having a baby before she even started high school would ruin her future.<\/p>\n

Pope knew that none of that was true.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was told that God don\u2019t make mistakes and he wouldn\u2019t give anyone a child who wasn\u2019t ready for one,\u201d Pope told FOX 32 News<\/a> in Chicago.<\/p>\n

Now, Pope is more than a teenage mom graduating high school at the top of her class. She currently takes college prep courses at Kenney-King College before even heading to Phillips High School for the day, where she takes four classes, including AP calculus. She\u2019s also a cheerleader and a member of the National Honor Society.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always said that I wanted to make change, and I wanted to be in the history books, and I started with myself,\u201d she told FOX 32. \u201cI didn\u2019t give up. I pushed myself hard. And my baby motivated me every day because I wanted to provide for her, and I also didn\u2019t want to be a statistic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thanks to her hard work and help from those around her, Pope has received over $600,000<\/a> in scholarships. Her school counselors helped her apply to colleges. School staff members accompanied her to college tours. And her social worker, Dawn Jackson, taught\u00a0her how to be a good mother.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo matter what background you come from, it doesn\u2019t matter if you have a child as a teen. No matter what people say about you, you can make it. \u00a0And you can become something,\u201d Jackson told FOX.<\/p>\n

In the fall, Pope will attend Western Illinois University, where she will continue to prove that teen moms can do great things. Having a baby doesn\u2019t mean your life is over\u2014\u00a0not even close.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trameka Pope is just graduating high school, but the valedictorian already has a remarkable life story to share. As an eighth\u00a0grader, Pope was facing an uphill battle: she was homeless and pregnant. Many people would say she was too young and that she had too much ahead of her\u2014 that having a baby before she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":64371,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[3749,3613,2005,3750],"yoast_head":"\nPregnant and homeless in eighth grade, teen defies odds and becomes high school valedictorian - Live Action News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/life-week-pregnant-homeless-8th-grade-wont-believe-just-accomplished\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pregnant and homeless in eighth grade, teen defies odds and becomes high school valedictorian - Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Trameka Pope is just graduating high school, but the valedictorian already has a remarkable life story to share. 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