October Student Spotlight: Meet Aurora
October 23, 2023
Meet Aurora Grimwade, who is currently a freshman at Arizona State University. Aurora was a speaker at our Corporate Champions Breakfast in May 2023 and shared her success story as an Arizona Leadership Foundation scholarship recipient. She attended Phoenix Christian, receiving scholarship funds from ALF for eight years. She has two brothers, Cashis, who is a sophomore, and Damignon Danger, who is in 8th grade. Both brothers also receive scholarships from ALF.
Aurora’s mother, Abigail, was a mobile lab phlebotomist but is no longer able to work because she has Epilepsy. Abigail was having such frequent seizures, she couldn’t keep up with the demands of her job. Aurora explained how her mother’s job loss impacted her and her educational journey, “One time while my mom was driving, she had a seizure and passed out, the police showed up and had her license taken away. She was told she would no longer be able to work in this position. This was a huge turning point in my life it made me grow up a little bit faster because I had to take care of my brothers and my mom. This part of my life turned me into the person I am today, it taught me how to be responsible for my brothers and how to take care of myself when I needed to and turned me into a mature young woman. On top of that, we weren’t doing well financially which contributed to the massive hole that was starting to impact my family. The scholarships we received for school took some of that pressure off of my mom. They helped us all stay in school and we knew that we wouldn’t have to struggle for our education.”
Phoenix Christian seniors do a capstone project, Aurora explained her project during her speech at the Corporate Champions Breakfast and what it meant to her moving forward with her life and education: “For my project, I choose to do a basketball camp for grades 5th-8th that taught them the fundamental skills of basketball while having fun. This camp taught me how to change the role of being an athlete to being a coach, it made me appreciate all the coaches I’ve had in the past a lot more because of the difficulty of actually running a camp with a younger age group. The camp also taught me how important it is to be a leader to younger kids, growing up in a small school all the younger kids tend to look up to the older kids and you have to watch yourself around them because they are always watching you. I had an amazing time doing the camp and having the ability to learn and grow from the opportunity. Through my time with the capstone project and my time at Phoenix Christian, I’ve been equipped and prepared for my next phase of life. None of these opportunities would be possible without the help of scholarships like the ones I received from the Arizona Leadership Foundation.”
Aurora graduated Phoenix Christian with a 3.9 GPA. She was involved in volleyball, basketball, track and student government. Her favorite subject was English and she still likes to write. She also had a job at a coffee shop, Java Grounds. It is an organization paired with the school that also gives scholarships to students in need. She is a freshman at Arizona State University studying Business and Marketing, minoring in Administration. She would like to be a social media manager when she graduates.
Jeff Blake, the Superintendent of Phoenix Christian Preparatory School had this to say about Aurora. “It is truly an honor to have witnessed Aurora’s growth through the years at Phoenix Christian. Her grit on the volleyball and basketball courts, her relentless focus on her academic growth, and her ability to lead her peers as a student body officer will no doubt prepare her for a bright and successful future. We are proud of Aurora.”
About Phoenix Christian Preparatory School:
Since 1949, Phoenix Christian Preparatory School has grown to now include Christ-centered education for infants through twelfth grade. Phoenix Christian has over 5,000 alumni and many second and third-generation families attend Phoenix Christian. With “no ethnic majority”, PC is proud of our beautifully diverse students. Seventy percent of our students qualify for tax credit scholarships and are fully funded through tax credit organizations like Arizona Leadership Foundation. Our missional pathway welcomes students of all backgrounds and abilities to study in a Christ-centered atmosphere. We create an environment of opportunity: opportunity to be academically challenged, opportunity to receive an individualized education, opportunity to encounter God’s truth in all areas of life, opportunity to grow in unique gifts, opportunity for families to learn how to prioritize education, opportunity to be a first-generation college student. The future is bright for students of Phoenix Christian! For more information visit us at: phoenixchristian.org
