TOLEDO, Ohio — Pete Kadens shocked the nation when he announced he would be covering every graduating Scott High School student's college tuition. It's a life-changing event for them all but for one student, this past week has completely changed her perspective on the future.
"I got pregnant at 14, I had her at 15, now I'm 17 and I'm graduating early and on time," Scott High School senior Ma'Nysha Burton said.
Burton got into the Mom's House, a daycare program designed to help single, low-income moms graduate, just four months ago and said the organization has turned her life around.
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"There's really only a tiny bit of hope because of where I come from, my family situation, things like that and without Mom's House, I wouldn't have even had the hope and strength to get up every morning and go to school," she said.
This place is more than a daycare for Ma'Nysha and her daughter Patience.
"It just feels so good to have a home you can come home to and talk about school and stuff," Burton said.
"Seeing her come this far and not only come this far but be rewarded with something so great it is a life-changing, transformational opportunity," Mom's House Executive Director Christina Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez is part of Ma'Nysha's Mom's House family and was already excited about her future. Then, Kadens' announcement came.
It was an opportunity Burton said seemed too good to be true at first.
"It shook me, I can go to college now. I have an opportunity," she said.
An opportunity that just four months ago, when she first walked through the Mom's House doors, she never could've imagined.
"Cause I'm here, they see me, I'm here. And I'm doing exactly what most of my family thought I wasn't going to do," Burton said.
She said she wants to stay in Toledo and go to UToledo.
Her goal is to own a salon, maybe someday do for others what Kadens did for her, and set her daughter Patience on the same path.
"My daughter's going to be able to say, 'My Mom did that.' And she's going to do that because I did that. Not just high school, but college too," Burton said.
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