Sandra Granados

“My husband came home last August from traveling for work, and two weeks later he was diagnosed with cancer. It has been an extremely difficult season for my family, but the Invest in Kids scholarships, and our incredible school community, have eased the burden.”

“I have received more from the community than I could ever repay. I’ve been working two jobs to pay the bills, and the other parents and school staff have just done so much for the kids, offering them counseling, rides and making sure they’ve been fed. The other parents started a food train to make sure we had food over the holidays.”

“We only had Christmas because of them. A lot of people gave us gift cards, and I was able to buy the kids Christmas gifts, and we were able to celebrate together.”

“I don’t know what would have happened had we continued to stay in the city and been going through this.”

“My two boys and I lived near Midway Airport for several years. At one point, three people died on our block within the same year, so my oldest was always traumatized. He didn’t want to come home late. He thought we were going to get killed. Even the neighbors’ kids never wanted to go outside to play because they thought they were going to get shot. So, we decided to move out of the city before the situation got worse.”

“We moved to Joliet, but initially we commuted back and forth to the city until one day my oldest asked, ‘Mom, can we just be like normal people, stop commuting two hours morning and night, and go to private school near our house?’ It was my son’s idea to go to private school because he’s really into baseball, and he started researching local schools in the area.”

“‘If I go into Catholic school now I can get to a Catholic high school, and look at the records! They have so many state championships and all these students went to great colleges,’ my son told me. They didn’t have the greatest experience in the Chicago Public Schools, so they really pushed to try private school.”

“Well, I started looking into it and realized we couldn’t afford it, but speaking with the school staff, they informed us of the scholarships. When we moved, we transferred mid-year, so we paid half the tuition and were able to make it through. The next year, we applied for the scholarships [through Empower Illinois], and got approved. We’ve been able to receive scholarships for the last three years.”

“My boys has straight A’s in public schools. And when they transferred to Joliet Catholic, they went down to Cs and Ds. ‘What the heck happened here?’ I asked. And my boys told me, school was just harder. They’ve had a lot of learning opportunities to stay in school extra hours to study, and they caught up quickly. It was also different because of religion class as well.”

“My kids truly have really strong faith, and I am so thankful the schools have been able to provide space for them to learn to grow in that. When they see me crying, my little one will come up to me and say, ‘Let’s just pray. Mom, we just gotta pray. If we pray, we’re gonna be fine.’”

“My kids really love their school and they love to be in school and go to church and go to school retreats. It’s really incredible because it all comes from them. They want to be here, and they are so happy here. I don’t know many teenagers that have such a zeal for school these days.”

“I am so proud of these Catholic schools. They’re teaching these boys to be such great boys and men and responsible kids. I don’t know how to explain it. It’s just amazing to me how my boys bring this up to me. Even my oldest says, ‘I don’t ever want to move out of Joliet. I want my kids to go to these schools.’”

“Because of the Invest in Kids scholarships, my boys are thriving in schools they love in a community that has really supported us. And now that my husband has cancer, the scholarships are an even greater blessing, because I know that my kids are going to get covered. So it’s just a great program.”

Sandra Granados
Mother
Joliet, Illinois