When Andrea Lacy was in elementary school, she knew she wanted to attend college and work for Hewlett-Packard. Still, she recognized there was something different about how she processed information.
Lacy’s high school counselor dissuaded her from applying to college. Ignoring the advice of the counselor, she applied to San Jose State University (SJSU) through the Equal Opportunity Program, where she was officially diagnosed with dyslexia. Lacy worked with university administrators to replace some classes with other course requirements to help raise her GPA. “The experience taught me the following important lessons,” Lacy says of her diagnosis, “Never let anyone tell you what you can and cannot do. Put your mind to whatever you want to accomplish, make a realistic plan and timeline and start working toward your goal.”Â
From Challenges to Opportunities
Between the ages of 17 and 20, Lacy worked three jobs at a time to pay her tuition, rent and car payments. “I was a Sears bill collector, a DoubleTree hotel phone operator, a Macy’s handbag salesperson and a salesperson in the Nordstrom Brass Plum department and in credit card new accounts,” she shared. Along her journey, she met some wonderful people who believed in her, even someone at SJSU who helped her land a job at Hewlett-Packard.
As a thank-you gift, Lacy baked some brownies that were thicker and different from what she was used to. It wasn’t until after her diagnosis with dyslexia that she discovered that her dyslexia had transposed the numbers in the recipe. That very fortunate mistake led to Luv’s award-winning brownies.
Now, through her successful business, Luv’s Brownies, not only does Lacy get to share her brownies with a broader audience, but she also has a bigger platform to help those with a wide range of disabilities. Over the last 28 years at the helm of her business, Lacy has always given back to her community. She teaches students marketing and entrepreneurship skills at her alma mater. She is even involved in the Black Leadership and Opportunity Center’s African American College Readiness Program, which helps Black and African American students prepare for the next steps in education.
Lacy decided to take her desire to help others in a similar direction and created the Andrea R. Lacy Grit Award Scholarship––three $500 scholarships designed for students who have shown tenacity in overcoming challenges and wish to build on their success by pursuing higher education or vocational training. A portion of all sales from Luv’s Brownies goes to support these scholarships.
“I developed the high school seniors’ scholarship fund because I wanted to recognize other hard-working individuals who were working on pursuing their educational goals,” Lacy says. “While I was earning my undergraduate degree, I was hustling to figure out why I failed the same math class five times, struggling with dyslexia, all while working three jobs to afford books, tuition, room and board while managing to study. When I think about all the people who have supported me over the years, I am so thankful for their kind words, prayers, counseling, mentorship and financial assistance. The scholarship foundation is my way of giving back.”
To learn more about the scholarship program and Lacy, please visit luvsbrownies.com.
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