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Saturday, July 26, 2025

Student passes for college after using parents’ cellphone for online classes

by

Carisa Lee
1407 days ago
20210917
Aleem Truman and his mother Kelly Ann Boyce during an interview at their clothing stall on Railway Road, San Juan, yesterday.

Aleem Truman and his mother Kelly Ann Boyce during an interview at their clothing stall on Railway Road, San Juan, yesterday.

ANISTO ALVES

To join class­es and study for this year’s SEA ex­ams, 12-year-old Aleem Tru­man had to use ei­ther his moth­er or fa­ther’s cell phone. This was be­cause nei­ther par­ent, who are both ven­dors, can af­ford to pur­chase a lap­top or tablet.

“He re­al­ly didn’t have his own de­vice so be­fore I leave to come out here, I will leave my phone,” his moth­er Kellyann Boyce said yes­ter­day.

But Tru­man, a for­mer pupil of Nel­son Street Boys’ RC, said he made the best out of what he had and did not al­low any chal­lenges to in­ter­rupt his fo­cus.

“Like in­ter­net prob­lems and some­times it would like shut­off at mo­ments, but I find my­self to keep to do­ing it,” Tru­man said.

He said his teacher, Mr Phillip, was al­so very un­der­stand­ing and worked with him as he bal­anced school work, con­nec­tiv­i­ty prob­lems and al­so help­ing his par­ents sell.

“Every­thing that I had to that would oc­cu­py me from do­ing my work, I could com­plete them be­fore I start my work. Then I would go in a cor­ner, I will sit and I would com­plete all as­sign­ments. I may not be able to do all but I did what I could at the mo­ment,” he said.

He is now off to St An­tho­ny’s Col­lege, his sec­ond choice.

“I felt joy­ful that I passed for one of my choic­es. When I first saw it, I be­ing re­al, I thought it was fake be­cause of how re­al it was and I was stunned for a mo­ment and I just was pro­cess­ing it and then af­ter it hit me,” he said.

He said he can­not wait to join the chess club.

His moth­er cried when Guardian Me­dia asked how she felt about the re­sult. She said this was be­cause she re­mem­bered the sac­ri­fices they all made to get to him to that point.

“He might not do good all the time but he made sure he tried his best, I am very proud of my son…I was cry­ing, I cry, I cry, oh my God ,to see I out here work­ing so hard and he,” she said in tears.

“He did this us­ing a phone.”

Tru­man is thank­ful for their ef­fort to en­sure his ed­u­ca­tion.

“Thanks for what they did for me dur­ing their lives, be­cause they made it their oath to pro­tect me and my work so I can move for­ward and learn a next chap­ter of knowl­edge, so I would say thank you very much for the sac­ri­fices they have made for me,” he said.

And as they start this new chap­ter, with many of the same chal­lenges, their fam­i­ly re­mains op­ti­mistic and thank­ful.

“Al­ways be con­tent­ed,” his moth­er said.

They priced half his book­list at a cost of $1,400, mon­ey they don’t have. But his moth­er says she will sell all week to get that mon­ey and sup­port her son.

Any­one seek­ing to as­sist this fam­i­ly can call 350-7668.


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