During her volunteer hours, Stephanie would stay overnight with the residents of the home providing motivation and care to the young women that lived there. Stephanie was with Living Grace during the opening of their second location where she was the “house parent” who assisted young women with job training, and anything else they needed in order to get their life together.

In March of 2013, Stephanie became the assistant to the executive director and she was given the opportunity to continue building the Living Grace brand, as well as assisting with fundraising and day-to-day operations of the facility. In 2017, her position was changed to chief of staff; through which she was able to expand her interpersonal skills as well as her ability to adapt in high-stress situations. 

“Since becoming chief of staff, this position has allowed me to continue to work with our staff to build a larger brand, and we are on the doorstep of our Phase III project. This will be by far our largest project and will make a fundamental change in our outcomes. I have expanded my skills, but feel it is time to increase my education with some classes I think will have a huge impact on our organization,” said Gazar.

Stephanie is interested in studying to receive her MBA to expand her knowledge on all things business management given that she’ll begin taking on more responsibilities at Living Grace as the time progresses and eventually take over her father’s business. Being given the opportunity to study business with WGU, Stephanie wants to maximize her skills, and be able to be a valuable resource for incoming staff members at Living Grace with her long term goals being that she wants to own and run her own company. Stephanie Gazar has grown show much throughout her life and we here at WGU couldn’t think of a better person worthy of this scholarship. Congratulations Stephanie!!