Class of 2010
Peabody College
Hometown: Tujunga, CA

Grace's service efforts center upon the impact of globalization of American social, economic, and cultural models on the youngest generations of society. These generations are the creative genius of the future, the architects of change and consistency, and the voices of domestic and foreign communication. Grace recognizes that the many interactions and relationships children encounter in their earliest years shape their character and ambitions for a lifetime. They need role models. They need justice. Children and young adults must be able to represent their ideas and be represented themselves. Psychological and intellectual maturation is dependent upon those who advocate their well-being and reach out to them in a genuine, insightful way.

Armed with this viewpoint, Grace ventures to touch young lives around the world in light of their present and future influence. She has served as a private flute instructor, a peer counselor and mentor to incoming high school freshmen, a music therapist and flute performer for bedridden children at the Los Angeles Orthopedic Hospital, and an Equestrian Summer Camp counselor. She ventured through impoverished Cumbres, Mexico in one of three oversized vans equipped with donated medical supplies to translate for a professional medical relief team. There, she watched as children suffering from innumerable illnesses formed endless lines in hopes for the attention and advice of American pediatricians.

During her freshman year as an Ingram Scholar, Grace volunteered at Baptist Hospital in the Postpartum and Newborn Nursery and alongside doctors in the Pediatric ER at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt. She was the Events/Philanthropy Chair of the Vanderbilt Chapter of the Make-a-Wish Foundation, designing events dedicated to granting the wish of terminally-ill children. She engaged in psychological studies in the Maternal and Infant Health Research Lab at Peabody College, which works to detect early markers for developmental delays in infants.
Her principal long-term project in this lab was conducting research on the correlation between newborn congenital heart disease and at-risk behavioral development.

Grace aspires to use her love for languages and interest in international relations to reach out to children of distinctive cultural backgrounds. She speaks Spanish and has served young, native Spanish speakers in various locales and capacities, including community outreach in Mexico and in schools, churches, and tutoring clinics of her vastly Latino hometown, Los Angeles. She participated in a Field School for Intercultural Research in Guangxi Autonomous Region, China during the summer following her freshman year. Her voluntary research endeavors there were principally concerned with the globalization of American diet in Liuzhou city, the presence of American nutritional behavior as a venerable or disreputable trend, and its stereotypical implications as per establishments such as KFC and McDonald's. She investigated dietary knowledge, attitudes, and habits in middle schools and kindergartens, distributed surveys that probed anemia as a common condition in young children, and tutored Chinese college students in English. Together with her team of Vanderbilt student researchers and Chinese collaborators, Grace hopes to publish these findings in a behavioral research journal. She is currently studying the Chinese language and plans to return to China to write a book about the American media and its global impact in East Asia.

In addition to her future service in China and in Latin America, Grace plans to work with the Somali and Sudanese populations in the Sudanese Refugee Center in Nashville as grants-writer. As the president of Vanderbilt's Club Cross-Country team, Grace also hopes to introduce a philanthropic approach to running by integrating charitable races into the Club's activities.