Olney Resident Sandra Lee’s Perseverance Pays Off with a
La Salle University Degree and Award for “Grace and Grit”

Sandra Lee never drank coffee. Until it was time to bear down and complete her degree at La Salle University. The Olney resident not only juggled jobs, children and year-round classes, but also received the “Grace and Grit Award,” given annually to a Social Work major who is a single parent.

“I just can’t believe it, can’t believe that I’m here [with a degree]. It was not easy,” said Lee, who began her college studies in 1990. “I felt like I was on Cloud Nine when I crossed the stage at commencement. But it’s my mission to become a social worker.

Lee was in a bad marriage with a man who, she said, abused her. She has begun divorce proceedings against him, but she says that in court he’s contesting her on child custody and support issues. Part of her motivation to seek a divorce was her children, Elijah, 12, and Angelica, 9. “I didn’t’ want them to think that being abused was OK,” Lee said.  Her oldest child, Bryant, 23, has a clothing design business in Germantown.

Another motivating factor was a career in social work was possible only if she had a college education, which is required by many social service and government agencies. 

“Being a social worker is what God has meant for me to do,” she said. “Nobody but God could have given me the strength (to finish).”

At the ceremony where Lee received the award, La Salle Social Work Professor Janine Mariscotti said, “after 23 years of marriage, the recipient became a single parent after a series of seemingly positive events in her life unfortunately led to increasing marital difficulties. As a parent to three children, Bryant, Elijah, and Angelica, she continues to be a steady, loving, and consistent presence. She describes her children as ‘my special gifts sent to me by God.’ She balances her essential role as parent with her responsibilities as a social work student where she has achieved academic success.”
 
“I can honestly say that I admire and aspire to be like this year’s recipient, who as a woman, parent, and social worker, faces seemingly insurmountable challenges with amazing grace and grit,” said Mariscotti.

In 1990, Lee started taking courses at La Salle, but then married and had children. Later, she earned an associate’s degree at Community College of Philadelphia and enrolled at La Salle again in 2001.  She held several jobs during this period, at daycare centers, summer camps, and as a counselor at a mental health facility.

Currently, Lee works two part-time jobs, at a social service agency, and on weekends at the St. Vincent’s Tacony Center For Teenage Girls, where many of the young women have children, are pregnant, homeless, or have been abused. “I have so much love in my heart for those girls,” said Lee, who recognized something of herself in them.

Her classmates, most of whom were half her age, also saw something of Lee’s real life.  In some classes, students act out potential cases with people who are homeless, abused, or have nowhere to turn.

“It wasn’t acting,” said Lee, when she participated in those scenes. “I fed off of what had happened to me. It was real to me. And real is better.”

The Ruth Mahar Grace and Grit Award is named in honor of Sister Ruth Mahar, a member of a religious order, the Daughters of Charity. The Daughters of Charity were established in France in 1633 by Louise de Marillac, the patron saint of social workers.