Tyler Collins was born just over a week ago and, already, the baby girl has some pretty big shoes to fill. Tyler’s mom, Tommitrise Collins, completed a college exam while laboring in her hospital bed — and is being praised for her determination and focus after a photo posted to facebook by her sister went viral.
Collins is studying forensics, working her way through the criminal justice program at Middle Georgia State University. Since Tyler was her first baby and her due date was still several days away, Collins says she was shocked when her water broke the night before the big exam.
“Before I took the test, I emailed my teacher and told her, ‘I’m in labor right now and I just wanted to let you know in case I get a bad grade,’” Collins told TODAY Parents. “I just didn’t want to make up an excuse for not taking it, but I also wanted to keep my GPA up.”
Collins’ sister posted this image on Facebook, which shows the young student laboring while completing an online psychology test. The image quickly went viral.Tommitrise Collins
The 21-year-old, who lives in Macon, Georgia, was in labor for twelve hours when she started the two-hour, online exam. She finished in just ninety minutes, and scored 76 percent — a grade she was not satisfied with. Collins emailed her teacher a second time, asking if there was a way to retake the exam at a later date, but was told since she had completed it in the computer system, the test could not be retaken.
