BATON ROUGE - Nearly 400 students are settling into Totty Hall at Southern University ahead of fall classes, and among them is 18-year-old Tyrione Dejoie, who is pressing on despite her mother's death seven years ago.

Dejoie has a busy schedule this semester as she plans to double major in early education and business, but she says the hardships she's faced have put her up to the challenge. 

"In order for you to keep going, you have to dream, you have to manifest, you have to do all types of things," Dejoie said. "You have to keep going because if you stop, you ain't gon' get nowhere."

On July 5, 2016, Dejoie's mother Shondrica Dejoie was waiting at a red light in Sorrento when the father of her youngest child walked up to her car with a gun.

"The coward took his gun and shot her and killed her," former Ascension Parish Sheriff Jeff Wiley said. "Their 10-month-old baby was in the back seat of the car."

Dejoie was just 11 years old when her mother died, but she stepped up to the plate for her brother because she watched her mom do it for her every day.

"You have to work for what you want," Dejoie said. "My mama had four jobs. Four! Two in New Orleans, and two in Gonzales. I used to go to school in New Orleans, we used to travel back and forth every day."

Although her mom is no longer with her, Dejoie knows she is proud.

"I know she's happy, she's happy. I could hear her now: 'That's my child, that's my child.'"

Dejoie graduated from Sophie B. Wright High School in May wearing a tassel with her mom's picture on it. She says she wanted to make sure her mom did not miss the big day.