When You Save One Parent, You Save an Entire Family

November 2016

Kathy Grajales had been married for 20 years when her greatest fear was realized: she was left alone and didn’t know how she’d survive and provide for her family. She tried to support her two daughters on the low wages she could earn without an education, but “the Lord had other plans,” she says. She was inspired to move to Utah.

Shortly after arriving in the Salt Lake area, Kathy was next inspired to participate in the Discovery Experience at LDS Business College—a six-week workshop that helps people discover their strengths and natural abilities and identify the steps to accomplishing their goals.

“They don’t look at what’s wrong with you and try to fix it,” Kathy says of the experience. “They look at your natural strengths and hone and harness them, which in turn helps you overcome your weaknesses. The Lord has given me strengths and is providing opportunities for me to use them to help others.”

Following that experience, Kathy’s ward employment specialist suggested that she apply to LDSBC to pursue her education. One of Kathy’s strengths—her desire to work with people—became a driving force in her decisions to attend LDSBC, major in professional sales, and compete in the college’s DECA chapter.

Receiving the single-parent scholarship made all the difference between returning to school and not trying at all.

“I had been worried about paying for school, going to school full-time, and somehow paying for everything for my family,” she says. “The scholarship made it possible for me to say, ‘Okay, I’m going to do this.’ Going from not sure where we are going to live, to being confident that I can do this and do it well—this has been a huge learning experience and a blessing.”

Kathy calls LDS Business College the best-kept secret in Church education. “The spiritual perspective has been transformative,” she says. “I’m trying to get as much from this education as the Lord has for me to learn. I feel a tremendous responsibility to get straight A's. I’m trying to gain as much knowledge as I can to become not only more marketable but more of what my Heavenly Father wants me to be. This education is propelling and preparing me to help myself, my family, and those around me.”

Kathy’s gratitude is deep. She says she’s a different person now, knowing who she is and what she stands for: “I’ve had so many supportive people who have helped me; they’ve opened the door for me in ways I could not. I want to offer my example and my love, as they have done, and be successful so I can turn things around and become a donor to the school as well as serve a mission someday. And I want to show my children what they can do with their lives, with the Lord’s help, regardless of any setbacks.”

“When you save one parent,” she says, “you save an entire family.”