Proudly sporting a Temple T-shirt, Cory Matthews, Course of 2025, stepped up to the podium final October at a ceremony celebrating the university’s Cecil B. Moore Scholars Application and flashed the owl tattoo on his correct forearm.

Matthews—a North Philadelphia native who grew up at 10th and Jefferson—has in no way shied absent from the limelight, from the pressures of life in the inner town, or from the issues he confronted working to graduate from significant faculty and earn an associate’s degree before than his friends. 

Cory Matthews talking to 6abc Action News during the Cecil B. Moore Scholars Method ceremony on Key Campus in Oct. (Picture by Joseph V. Labolito)

He done his significant school graduation needs at the age of 16. And at 18, he been given his associate’s degree from the Local community School of Philadelphia in a dual enrollment plan that allows students to earn faculty credits although they are still enrolled in high school. 

Now a 1st-year student at Temple, he is committed to earning both equally a bachelor of small business administration in company management diploma and a grasp of small business administration diploma from the Fox University of Business by the age of 22.

“I appear from a community that is gritty, tough-functioning and optimistic. Philadelphia is a metropolis of toughness and to live here you have to be resilient. And a lot of kids my age go by means of a lot of struggles at such a young age,” he explained. “It’s about currently being ready to defeat every little thing that you went via in your childhood and have that motivation to preserve heading.” 

The congratulations commenced pouring in on March 2, when Matthews acquired an email from Temple informing him that he had been chosen as just one of the initial Cecil B. Moore Students.

He very first shared the news with his mother, Christine Redd, who has elevated him in a single-father or mother, small-revenue family since the demise of his organic mom when he was 3.

“When I instructed my mother she was so fired up and jumping all around the place and she explained to the whole family members,” said Matthews. “I was so joyful and felt emotional inside of. I imagined anyone who has been by way of my experience is not intended to be in this placement. So,…