Gracie credits her role models to her roots with Salve Regina’s Mission, “Salve and the Mercy mission taught me a great deal about social justice, and how important using your privilege to make the world better and help others truly is.” Gracie explains, “If anyone embodies the Mercy mission, Dorothy Day does. The Mercy mission-shaped my view of my Catholic faith to one that is more inclusive and welcoming, and less judgmental and exclusive.” 

Gracie looks back at her time at Salve Regina remembering her senior year best.  

“I felt so lucky that I’d made such remarkable friends, and that I had professors I was close to and could talk to about my life,” she says, “I got the chance to celebrate my accomplishments, go out with my friends, and celebrate their accomplishments, too.” 

Gracie loved living in “80 Vic” her last year. She looks back on nights that ended with the sunset on Ocean Drive with a Ma’s coffee roll, she remembers that “the second half of senior year, culminating in Senior Week, was one giant nostalgia trip. I didn’t want it to end.” 

After Salve Regina, Gracie temporarily relocated to Florida to work at the Disney College Program. She moved back home to Long Island the following January and went back and forth to Florida as a Seasonal Cast Member until the travel was no longer practical. Gracie then worked in insurance full-time while going to graduate school for her master's in Public Communications and Media Studies at Fordham University. This resulted in Gracie attending graduate school and insurance school at the same time. Gracie worked in insurance after she earned her master's with a 3.97 GPA, and then searched for a job. One week before she was supposed to start her first job as a publicity/editorial assistant, she broke her leg in two places – while visiting Salve Regina for a weekend, which Gracie says changed her life forever! She then spent three months getting a different education: learning the privilege that comes with being an able-bodied human being. Gracie spent nearly three months wheelchair-bound after two surgeries and required six months of physical therapy twice a week. Once she recovered enough, she started her new job, then moved to a publishing company after a year, and landed some freelance work in the process – Gracie is proud to say she has several internet and print bylines.  

Currently, she spends her evenings doing freelance work and hopes to maintain a full-time freelance career. In the meantime, Gracie is the office manager at her father’s commercial leasing business. Gracie is also active in community organizations and helps a close friend run a networking group that they started together before the pandemic. Previously, she served on my local Rotary Club for four years and was the youngest board member of her local chamber of commerce at the time. Additionally, Gracie became more active in community theatre when she came back to Long Island in 2012; she was part of theatre groups at home while she was a student at Salve Regina because she performed at home while on breaks. Since 2012, Gracie has produced cabaret theatre, performed in approximately 10 mainstage productions, served as stage manager, program designer, and publicity manager, took a side job as a box office manager, and has landed a few paid concert gigs. In addition to performing, Gracie has also done a bit of modeling (on a small scale).  

Gracie is also active in her home parish as a paid song leader as well as a volunteer lector. She met her boyfriend in 2018 through friends while working on a political campaign -- so Gracie has a number of friends in local politics and has experienced campaigning and poll watching.  

During her time at Salve Regina, Gracie was part of the Positive Role Model program which paired Salve Regina students with residents of a local group home; she ended up mentoring three different girls over two years. Additionally, Gracie attended one alternative spring break trip to New York City and found herself looking at her home through an entirely different lens. “It’s cliché, but that trip changed my life and my worldview.” 

Today, Gracie dedicates time to social justice initiatives including anti-racism focus groups, and she's working on a new anti-racist and anti-bullying initiative at her former high school. Gracie believes anti-racism is part of Catholic social justice teaching and is more important today than ever. She has also had the chance to help feed those in need through initiatives started by her politically active friends. Before the coronavirus pandemic, she also loved attending protests – including an NYC Pride almost every year, a local March For Our Lives against gun violence, a rally against anti-Semitism as well as the Women’s March NYC in 2018. It’s safe to say that she is living up to her Salve Regina reputation of extreme business!