Safety, Persistence and Belief: Sierra's Story
Sierra G., a 2026 Live Your Dream Awards recipient from American Fork, Utah, never answered calls from unknown numbers. But last year, a few days before Christmas, one came through around 10 p.m., and something told her she needed to pick up.
On the other end was a Soroptimist member calling to tell her she had received a Live Your Dream Award. Sierra had spent that evening worrying about how she would give her daughters a Christmas. She sat on the couch and cried while the girls slept in the next room.
“It felt like someone finally handed me a flashlight in a place that had been dark for a long time.”
Sierra grew up without stability. Her mother raised four children alone, and her family moved so often she began to normalize disorder and unsafe situations.
Becoming a mother changed what Sierra was willing to accept. After leaving a dangerous relationship, she and her daughters sought refuge at a domestic violence shelter. She describes those days as the most frightening of her life: she worried about their safety, and she wondered whether she had failed her girls. The shelter is also where she began to rebuild. It gave her therapy, classes and the first real path toward stable housing.
After the shelter, Sierra earned a certificate in data analytics, and the work opened a door for a world of other opportunities. She is now studying for a bachelor's degree in computational data science, drawn to the way patterns in data can explain how people connect and behave, and she hopes to use that understanding to help others.
The award covered childcare and school costs, so Sierra no longer had to choose between a class and feeding her daughters.
Getting to class was its own obstacle. Money was scarce, and childcare and transportation often made attending seem impossible. The award covered childcare and school costs, so Sierra no longer had to choose between a class and feeding her daughters. The award also gave her something she hadn’t realized she needed: the knowledge that someone believed in her enough to invest in her future. It helped her believe in herself, and it turned her fear and uncertainty into momentum.
Sierra is still in school and has not yet graduated, but her coursework has already helped her find steadier work and better hours. She plans to specialize in human behavior and trend analysis. Her daughters now watch their mother build a future rather than simply survive.
“If my story can give one person hope or make one person feel less alone, then every hard night was worth it. Thank you for believing in people like me.”
Domestic violence is one of the most significant barriers to women’s empowerment. According to the UN, nearly 1 in 3 women will experience physical or sexual violence in their lifetime. This kind of trauma often derails educational goals, leaving women struggling to reclaim their dreams. Only a fraction of survivors manage to ever break free from these cycles, and even fewer go on to pursue higher education.
By investing in programs like the Live Your Dream Awards, Soroptimist donors and members help women like Elizabeth achieve brighter futures for themselves and their families.
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