Grace Outreach

Lois Grogan Student Profile by Elisabeth Anderson

Lois Grogan: “The one time in my life I said, ‘nothing is going to stop me.’”

Lois Grogan, a 34-year-old mother of one, works part-time as a receptionist at a hair salon and is looking for a full-time job. She spends her non-working time playing with daughter Ariyanna, 11, and helping her with her homework. A recent transplant to the Bronx from Manhattan, Lois likes exploring her new neighborhood. Few things make her happier than a meal prepared by her longtime girlfriend Tawanna, a professional cook.

By all accounts it’s a happy life, with hope for an even better future. And in meeting Lois today – focused, articulate, professional – nobody would suspect that her happy life was once a cacophony of drugs, poverty, and prison.

“I’m one of those lives that could have been better,” Lois explained. “I’ve been through a lot of trouble. I’ve made bad decisions, made wrong decisions.”

Lois grew up in the East River Houses, a project in East Harlem. She was raised primarily by her mom, Wanda, and stepdad, Leroy. Her own dad wasn’t around much and her only sibling, older brother Vincent, was raised by Wanda’s parents.

“My mom had a lot of changes going on in her life,” Lois said. “And I wanted to run out of the house.”

In middle and high school, she cut class a lot. “My education stopped in 1991 because I wanted to hang out with this boy, who turned out to be my daughter’s father,” Lois explained.

She had passed the ninth grade, but didn’t continue on to the tenth.

“My childhood was rough,” Lois said, but she takes ownership of all the decisions she’s made in her life. “I chose to follow the wrong crowd. I’ve experienced prison. I’ve never been on hard drugs, but I did sell for a living.”

Drug charges turned into four separate jail sentences for Lois, spanning her teen years. Her last sentence, which lasted two years, ended in 1998, when she was 21.

“I came home on parole and maxed out parole very well,” Lois said. Soon after, she learned she was pregnant with Ariyanna, who was born in 1999. “I realized it was finally time to get my life together.”

In small ways, she did. Lois worked when she could, and lived a quiet life with her mom and daughter in East Harlem. She signed up for the occasional social service program, even contemplating getting her GED. “I went to little programs,” Lois explained. “But some had loans. Or one teacher with 30 or 40 kids in the room trying to get their GED. It wasn’t working for me.”

Lois was on and off public assistance, and credits a friend she bumped into at the welfare office for introducing her to Grace Outreach. She’d moved to the Bronx just months before, when she secured housing in the Bronx River Houses on 174th Street. Lois called Grace Outreach to give her information, and the staff reached out to her when registration began.

Lois’s friend never returned to Grace Outreach, but Lois was eager to get started. “I said it was about time,” she said. “I’m getting older and the only way to get a better job was to be here at GO. It was the one time in my life I said, ‘nothing is going to stop me.’”

She was on public assistance when she started at Grace Outreach on February 7, 2011. She was cut off on February 20. “And I felt like, fine,” Lois said. “Because I need to go” build a better life.

Readjusting to school life wasn’t easy, though. “If you haven’t been in a classroom for a long time, it’s a lot to adjust to,” Lois admitted. “What kept me going is they kept pushing,” she said of Grace Outreach tutors like Lorraine and Tamara, themselves graduates of the program. “Their drive and example is amazing.”

She credits her tutors and teachers for helping her keep her focus in the midst of tremendous stress. “I had a breakdown one week before the test,” Lois said. On top of the perennial stress of being a single mom with financial constraints, in that one week Lois’s dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer and her daughter suspended from school. Both are doing better now; her dad is receiving chemotherapy and Ariyanna is doing much better in school.

Stresses aside, it took Lois all of two months of focused preparation at Grace Outreach to pass her GED test with flying colors. On April 12 and 13, Lois earned herself a score of 2,500 – a full 250 points above the passing point.

“My girlfriend was the first one who saw on my computer that I passed,” Lois said. “She yelled so loud, I think people in the building were wondering what was going on!”

Lois has been pleased by the support she’s received from people in her life. “I’d see people and tell them I’m back in school and they’d say ‘you go girl.’ Now with my GED they say ‘that’s what’s going on! Keep going.’”

She can’t wait for her mother and daughter to watch her participate in Grace Outreach’s graduation ceremony on June 23. “I have wanted to wear a cap and gown for so long,” Lois said. “Just knowing I can walk down the aisle, it’s overwhelming. I’m proud of myself for that.” Lois is already planning her outfit; her mom is buying her dress and shoes, and taking her out to dinner.

Lois says her experience at Grace Outreach has done wonders for her confidence. She’s now working with GO’s team as she continues her search for an administrative job as a receptionist or office clerk. She’s also been accepted to GoodTemps, a temporary agency. In a few years, she hopes to attend Grace Outreach’s sister organization Grace Institute, which helps women build key business skills.

It’s been a long journey for Lois from the project, to prison, to the promise of a bright future. She owns her struggles, and feels the pride of moving on. “If I didn’t bump my head,“ Lois said, “I probably wouldn’t be where I am now.”