Afrika Owes is a single mom and lawyer striving to reach her highest potential

NEW YORK -- Shortly before graduating Fordham University School of Law earlier this year, Afrika Owes took the New York bar exam. When the time came to check her results, she set up her phone, hit record and managed to capture her emotional reaction to learning she had passed on her very first try.

"I knew I could do it," a tearful Owes can be heard saying in the video, which ended up going viral on both TikTok and Instagram.

Owes' path to a career in law has been anything but conventional. As a teenager, she was arrested and incarcerated on gang-related charges. That experience, Owes said, helped shape her vision of her future career.

"Being incarcerated and seeing what it was like to be on the other side of the legal system, I think really pushed me to say, okay, I definitely want to be a lawyer."

Owes hopes that sharing her story will empower other moms to realize their motherhood is an asset, not a hindrance.

"Being a single mom is one of the biggest strengths that's not listed on my resume," Owes said, "but it should be because I'm dealing with the world's most demanding client."

And just like Morgan Gillory on ABC's "High Potential," Owes hopes to inspire other moms to not be afraid to forge their own path and create a space for themselves where there might not have been one before.

"I think when you become a mom, so much of our life is devoted to our kids and we focus on developing and discovering their new abilities, so to see a mom like Morgan discover her own ability and to lean into that, to tap into it and become really good is really important."

"Because as a mom there's a lot of guilt surrounding chasing our dreams and discovering our new personalities or our new skills. But the reality is in the same way that my son is growing and he's learning, I'm growing and I'm learning and I'm changing. I almost feel like I'm raising myself again as I'm raising him."

Watch new episodes of High Potential Tuesdays at 10/9c on ABC and stream on Hulu.

Disney is the parent company of ABC and this station.