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Your support makes all the difference.A single mother-of-six – who said her son used to be “disrespectful” towards women until she told him about her past – is now so proud of his graduation – that she rented-out an entire billboard.
Ovella O’Neal, from Camden, New Jersey, in the US, told ABC News she received a call one day from her 18-year-old son Aljelani ‘AJ’ Igwe’s teacher at school, saying AJ had been “a little edgy with his female teachers.”
“I was not having it,” said Mrs O’Neal. “I had a long talk with AJ that night and told him some serious things about my past.
“I let him know if he continued to be disrespectful towards these women, he was saying it was okay that men in my life had disrespected me.”
The teacher called Mrs O’Neal two days later: “She said: ‘I don’t know what you said to him, but he is totally different’.”
AJ’s efforts at LEAP Academy have since paid-off and proud mum couldn’t think of a better way than to surprise him with a two week-long billboard ad which reads: ‘A Mother Can't Raise a Man, but I Raised a Gentleman. We have the total package’.
When AJ saw the billboard, Ms O’Neal said he was “surprised” and couldn’t stop asking how she even managed it.
At a cost of $725 (£460), Mrs O’Neal thinks the money was well-spent and advised other mothers across the world: “Lead by example because if I can do it, you can too.”
The tough mum also put strict rules into place which she believes contributed to his success: no mobile phone, no girlfriends, waking up at 7am every morning, doing volunteer work and joining LEAP’s basketball team.
AJ’s feat is undoubtedly something to celebrate; census data from 2013 highlights that 35 per cent of adults in the City of Camden have not completed high school and less than eight per cent go on to earn a bachelor’s degree.
Falling into that eight per cent, AJ will be attending the state’s Rowan University and hopes to pursue a career in engineering.
At the unveiling of the billboard, CBS Philly reported how a journalist asked AJ: “Let’s say a 10-year-old boy looks up and sees your picture up there. What do you hope he sees?”
AJ replied: “A young man trying to do good with his life.”
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