Published Online: July 9, 2013

Woman's achievements push mom to get GED diploma

UNIVERSITY CITY, Mo. (AP) — Eboni Boykin did so well academically, even in a troubled suburban St. Louis school district, that she earned a full scholarship to Columbia University. Her mother now has her own academic accomplishment.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch (http://bit.ly/15ak2Zn ) reports that Boykin's mother, Lekista Flurry, recently earned her GED certificate. Boykin was in attendance last month in a University City School District meeting room to watch her mother in a gold cap and gown get her diploma.

"It's a bigger deal than my own graduation," Boykin said.

Boykin graduated last spring from Normandy High School in an unaccredited district. A court ruling will allow Normandy students to transfer to a district in neighboring St. Charles County, if they choose to do so.

While Boykin was tackling nuclear physics and other difficult classes in New York City, her mother back home was pressing ahead in the University City Adult Education and Literacy Program. Flurry dropped out of high school at age 16 because she was sick during her pregnancy with Boykin.

She was a single mother who ultimately had four children, often rising before dawn to get them off to school before going to her low-wage jobs. The family bounced between homeless shelters in several St. Louis-area communities.

Boykin wanted to shed that life, so she set sights on trying to get into an Ivy League school. She read constantly, in part to make up for what she didn't get in school. Columbia offered a full scholarship.

Boykin was immersed in her freshman year in college. She pledged a sorority, began learning Italian and about world religions, even writing for campus publications. In one article she recalled her often difficult childhood.

"So those memories come back in my dreams, when I'm alone and when I'm stressed," Boykin wrote last October in the Columbia Spectator, the campus newspaper. "The past was trying to catch up with me, and I was trying to outrun it. But if I kept running, who would ever learn from or be inspired by what I went through? And what would all those years be worth, if I don't share them so people struggling with poverty can know that social mobility is possible?"

Her own mother has learned the lesson. In January, she expects to graduate from barber school and begin a career.

At last month's ceremony, Flurry wiped away tears as she approached the podium to receive her diploma.

"I'm working on my dream as we speak," Flurry said into the microphone. "I've always wanted to be a beautician."

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Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com


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