Amazing Grace

Geography made her a Stanislaus State student. Drive, survival skills and determination make Laurie Grace a Warrior.

A victim of child abuse, dumped into uncaring foster homes, graduated from high school two years early because administrators were happy to be rid of a student who fought rather than work to understand her behavioral issues, Grace had no easier life as an adult.

She didn’t fall prey to the prostitution or drugs that cloaked her neighborhood. She married the first person who showed her love. She had six children.

Her husband was abusive, and after one horrific beating, she knew she had to leave the man she said is a drug dealer and convicted felon.

“I was locked in a room, and he tortured me for two hours while the kids were outside,” Grace said. “I took a shower and tended my wounds. I got my kids and left and had to figure out what to do with myself.”

She was determined to break the cycle of abuse. And as a devoted mother, she also is setting an example for her children.

She enrolled at San Joaquin Delta College and earned associate degrees in liberal arts and communication studies.

“That’s when people started noticing I was smart,” Grace said. “They said, ‘You’re a foster kid, a single mom who’s been through all this and you’re here getting A’s and B’s? Why don’t you think about going to a university?’”

Grace assumed it was beyond her financial means, but she found financing options. She took out loans, and now works at Amazon, which pays its employees’ tuition.

That’s not to say her road to a bachelor’s degree — which she hopes to receive in May, then enter a credential program and become an elementary school teacher — has been smooth.

She was sometimes homeless, the last time spending three months living in her car as she waited for public housing assistance. Her schoolwork began to suffer.

One of her communication studies professors, Dan Carranza, knew something was wrong. She stopped attending class and turning in assignments.

When Grace told Carranza of her plans to drop out of school, he reached out to the StanCares team, which receives reports on the well-being of students and provides necessary assistance. He also directed her to Basic Needs.

“I thought, nobody is going to help me,” Grace said. “Who helps people in the world? But I reached out. They called me back and said, ‘We want to help you.’”

Specifically, Leticia Caballero called her. Caballero was hired in August 2022 as the Stockton Basic Needs lead to give the program — which provides resources to help students address food, housing and/or financial insecurity — a full-time presence at Stan State’s Stockton Campus.

Caballero found an Airbnb home for Grace and her children, who range in age from 9 to 18, to stay until they could move into subsidized housing.

There are still challenges. One day her younger children stayed home from school because Grace didn’t have gas in her car to take them. She didn’t enroll in spring classes until late January, because she owed money for summer school courses not covered by financial aid.

Once again, Caballero and Basic Needs stepped in to help.

Grace relies on the Warrior Food Pantry at both the Stockton and Turlock campuses. She is grateful for assistance she never imagined existed.

“Doors are opening,” Grace said. “God keeps me going, moving barriers out of my way. I work full time, I’m a full-time mom, I’m single and I have no family. I feel I can do it.

“I’m going to graduate and become a teacher and tell little kids, ‘You can do it. It doesn’t matter what your circumstances are.’ I want to be a light for a child in darkness.”

She already is. Her twin daughters, 17-year-old seniors at Edison High, have applied to Stan State and hope to live on the Turlock campus together in the fall.

Grace has reason to hope that will happen. A lifetime of being told she wouldn’t succeed, of having no family support, turned around that day Caballero called her.

“I went in skeptical,” Grace said. “I’ve been let down so much. I was depressed and guarded. I’m 38. I have kids. I was self-conscious.

“Leticia was so eager to help me. She got on the phone and said, ‘This is what we need to do.’ She made it happen. I picked up the kids and we went to this Airbnb, and there was a bathroom. We could take a shower. There was an oven and we had food.

“How did this happen? My school did it. Stan State really cares.”