The duo from a sweet viral story appeared on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” to discuss the experience that made them Facebook famous.
Ashton Robinson, her 10-month-old son Emmett and her professor, Dr. Henry Musoma, were guests on DeGeneres on Sep 21. On Sep. 7, Ashton had posted a photo and video of Musoma holding Emmett while giving a lecture in her “Ethical Decision Making and Conduct” class at Texas A&M University’s Mays Business School.
“So today I emailed my professor before class saying that something came up and I didn’t have a sitter for Emmett and he called me back and said to please bring him!” Robinson wrote in the caption.
“Being a single mom is so challenging but it’s people like Dr. Henry Musoma that make life just a tiny bit easier!” she added. “THIS is why I’m so proud to be an Aggie! Definitely something I’ll never forget and can’t wait to someday tell Emmett that it’s because of people like this that mommy was able to graduate from the best university in the world.”
The post received more than 35,000 likes. Musoma is the latest in a slew of viral stories over the years of professors going above and beyond for the student mothers in their classes.
Appearing on Ellen, the duo opened up about that day. Musoma said that Robinson emailed him asking if they could meet to discuss his lecture for the next class because she would be unable to attend due to lack of childcare.
“You see the commitment. You see that she wants to do school,” Musoma said of her email, which led him to invite Emmett to class. The professor’s gesture had an immense impact on Robinson.
“I thought that things were just going downhill. I just recently became a single mom. So I was depressed. I didn’t know what to do, and he just completely turned around my year,” she said.
Watch the full video above to hear more from Musoma and Robinson and see the special way DeGeneres surprised the single mom.
