Greenville High School senior Stacey Grimaldo Garcia, 17, is graduating this year near the top of her class after caring for and helping brother overcome cancer. — Submitted photo
GREENVILLE — As a high school student, completing class after class, joining one school group after another, Stacey Grimaldo Garcia has long held onto one goal in life — excel.
Excel at school, excel at home, excel at everything — no matter how difficult the task may be.
In a school year clouded by the coronavirus pandemic, caring for a younger brother and seeing an older brother through a cancer diagnosis and chemotherapy treatments, Grimaldo Garcia’s senior year was the definition of difficult.
However, she serves as the definition of excelling through it.
From participating in numerous activities, ranging from sports such as soccer and school initiatives including student council and the National Honors Society (NHS), Grimaldo Garcia surrounded herself with task upon task, even filling up her final semester schedule with eight classes instead of the required six.
For a student who will be attending the “Little Ivy League” school, Middlebury College in Vermont, planning to double major in biology and neuroscience with a goal to one day become a pediatric oncologist, her ambition toward excelling in school shouldn’t come as a surprise.
But that path to success — she will be graduating in the top 4% of her class with a 4.1 GPA — was anything but easy for the 17-year-old.
While other students may have been studying or completing assignments from the comfort of their home, Grimaldo Garcia was doing the same from the seat of a hospital room armchair, watching over her younger brother, Alexander Grimaldo, 11 — as a mother would a child — while tending to her older brother, Victor Garcia, 22, as he lay on a hospital bed battling stage 3 cancer.
Greenville High School senior Stacey Grimaldo Garcia, 17, right, joined by her younger brother, Alexander Grimaldo, 11, hold a sign that reads “My scars will never go away … but I’m proud to say I beat stage III cancer #survivor” over the head of their older brother, Victor Garcia, 22, in a hospital in Grand Rapids to celebrate him overcoming cancer. — Submitted photo
At times, nearly daily, Grimaldo Garcia would find herself, first as a junior and then into her senior year, picking up Alexander from school and heading to Grand Rapids to spend the remainder of the evening with Victor as he underwent chemotherapy treatments.
“It was kind of difficult at times. I knew that I had to do really well in school, but I tried to do whatever I could to help my brother,” Grimaldo Garcia said. “School was one of the things that was in my control, and I wanted to excel at it, so that was a push factor for me.”
Victor originally traveled to the hospital daily for treatments, but as his cancer didn’t improve, metastasizing into three different locations in his body, he was then admitted for several weeks for more rigorous treatment.
As a result, Grimaldo Garcia found herself spending even more time at the hospital, refusing to relax her care for Victor.
“My younger brother and I always went to visit him, and while there, I took care of him while doing my homework,” she said. “We were mostly there for him emotionally, but I’d try to accommodate him. I always tried to make him food that he would like because going through chemotherapy, he needed lots of nutrition.”
But that commitment to aid her brother — bringing him food, offering him emotional support — all while serving in a semi-parenting role with Alexander as the three siblings lived with their uncle, only served as further inspiration for her to push harder with her educational endeavors.
“I kind of took over the role as a guardian. My older brother is usually the one who takes care of my younger brother and I; however, when he went through chemotherapy, the roles reversed,” she said. “I guess, to deal with my emotions, I joined lots of extracurriculars. That helped me to do what I could in school while knowing that I was also helping my family in some way.”
Greenville High School senior Stacey Grimaldo Garcia, 17, stands next to a project while attending a DECA conference in Detroit earlier this year. Grimaldo Garcia went on do develop a concept for a non-profit aimed to support childhood cancer research, one she hopes to still make a reality someday. — Submitted photo
In her senior year, Grimaldo Garcia became the president of the student council. In her fourth year of DECA, she became the vice president of fundraising.
She remained dedicated to the school’s art club, served as a college ambassador, worked for the Jacket Buzz school newspaper and became treasurer of the NHS.
Her involvement in DECA and passion for helping others led her to focus on a project that proposed to create a non-profit to support childhood cancer research.
While the national DECA conference was cancelled due to the pandemic, Grimaldo Garcia is hopeful her concept, which placed at the state competition in Detroit, could one day become a reality.
“That project was really important to me because my goal was to raise awareness for childhood cancer,” she said. “I was just really excited to be able to present how I went about creating a non-profit, all of the marketing that went into it. Last year I was really unsure about even starting one, I was nervous of how I was going to start one in the first place, but now I’m one step closer to achieving my goal as that was something I considered very personal.”
All of these tasks were completed while maintaining an above-perfect GPA, while keeping her focus squarely on her family.
“I kind of knew that I was the one who had to step up, because the inability of my family, not being able to be there, and my dad working, us living with our uncle, we all kind of adjusted to it the best way that we could, but I felt this was about getting my older brother better,” she said.
Grimaldo Garcia said she has long had a passion toward wanting to be a doctor, and caring for her brother only reinforced her position on the matter.
With the pandemic having taken hold during the conclusion of her senior year, she’s more certain now than ever that her desired career path is the right one to follow.
“I had always wanted to be a doctor. I always wanted to be in that hospital setting, helping people, and after my brother was diagnosed and we went through that whole journey, that was what pushed me to want to be a pediatric oncologist,” she said. “Doctors are really needed right now. There’s not enough people that are able to help all of those that need help, especially going through a pandemic. I want to be able to help, and it kind of made me more motivated, to want to be on the front lines and be an essential worker.”
After months of treatment, Grimaldo Garcia was relieved to see that Victor entered into remission this year, and will be soon attending a six-month checkup with a hope for continued good news as he overcomes his cancer diagnosis.
While caring for a family member with cancer on its own was a difficult scenario to overcome, Grimaldo Garcia saw her traditional senior year of school come to an abrupt halt on March 13, as she would leave the high school for the final time— unbeknownst to her at the time — due to the coronavirus.
Since then, she has completed her coursework remotely from home and endured closing out her K-12 education with no prom, no senior mystery trip and no traditional commencement ceremony.
“Not being able to see my friends for the last time or even the question of not having graduation be the same — the way I envisioned it to be — that’s been very difficult to think about,” she said. “But this is a global, worldwide thing, so I can understand that other people are going through this as well. Technology has been a huge help. Talking with my closest friends or family, through Zoom and phone calls and Skype, has helped.
“In life sometimes things are not going (to go) as you expected … (and) it is okay,” she continued. “Don’t lose hope, just enjoy the moment, have faith and challenge yourself to be the best you can be.”
Grimaldo Garcia is hopeful the coronavirus won’t have too big of an impact on her freshman year of college.
“There is still some uncertainty as to whether my college is planning on going through with attending school in the fall,” she said. “We’re going to find out on June 22 of how the school year is going to start off or look like. That’s one of the things I’m really nervous about, but also excited about. It will be challenging, but that’s what I want.”
Representing a graduating class of around 260 students, Greenville High School Principal Michael Leiter said he’s proud to see students such as Grimaldo Garcia endure a difficult end of their school year.
“Stacey is a kind, compassionate, and extremely motivated person. Her desire to succeed is only eclipsed by her caring spirit,” Leiter said. “Stacey’s maturity and character are well beyond her years, molded by life experiences that have resulted in resilience and grit. Stacey’s aspiration to become a medical doctor/researcher stem from supporting her brother through a cancer diagnosis. Stacey is selfless and she represents the very best of Greenville High School.”
With Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s latest extension of the “Stay Home, Stay Safe” executive order now lasting through May 28 — the original date of the high school’s commencement ceremony — Leiter said alternative ways to eventually celebrate the class of 2020 are being discussed with students, parents, teachers and school administrators, for a later date.
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