Road to Rome paved with hard work and ingenuity

Gracie Brauser is a perfect example of how you can achieve a goal even if you don’t have sufficient funds. The North Lake College student dreamed of traveling but thought it was too expensive. When she heard about the Rome Study Abroad Program at NLC, she decided to check it out.

“I would have given anything to go on that trip,” said Brauser, who participated in the Rome program last fall.

Brauser did what any typical student would do — she asked her parents to pay for the trip. Her parents, she said, could afford to sponsor her, but chose to let her earn her own way.

“Gracie, you can do this,” her mom said. And she was right. Brauser raised over $7,000 for the Rome program on her own.

She is no stranger to hard work, either at her job or applying for scholarships or working fund-raisers. But how did a student raise that amount of money by herself?

“No one is going to put money in your lap,” she said.

Brauser owns a small jewelry business and it helped her think of more creative ways to make money. “Join student clubs, you can make money by organizing group funds.”

Brauser, with the help of Rome Director Marsha Anderson, will hold two seminars this semester. One seminar will be after Cafe Roma which is on April 5. The other one will be in May. The seminars will break down everything she did to raise money for her trip. There are many ideas and resources available that students don’t even know about, she said.

Brauser stayed in Rome for about 10 weeks. She went from Venice to Capri and saw about 80 percent of the world’s greatest art, she said. “That is what having a dream and a goal is all about,” Brauser explained. To sum it up, Brauser hopes that she inspires students because the trip was more than she expected.

“Do whatever you have to do, it pays itself off over and over again,” she said.

Brandi Powell, a former high school classmate, said Brauser was “very involved in high school and is multitalented.”

Brauser thanks her parents for not paying for her trip because it was a learning experience. Her words of advice to anyone trying to pursue a dream like hers? “Don’t ever feel like you can’t. Everything in life is about strategy,” she said.

Brauser wants to transfer to Southern Methodist University and get a business degree.

Her next goal: to be a dermatologist.

For more information about Brauser’s seminars, contact Anderson at 972- 273-3584 or e-mail her at manderson@dcccd.edu