The Gorman family establishes a scholarship in honor of their daughter.
In 2013, she had graduated from Westfield State University with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice. She subsequently found a job working with children and adults with disabilities. She’d even had a stint as a nanny. None of it felt right.
Gorman regularly reminded her parents, Tina and Gary, that she loved working with animals. Her father Gary, a chiropractor, knew of a woman in his office who was enrolled in the veterinary technician program at Holyoke Community College. He suggested Grace consider that as a possible pathway to a new career.
In 2021, Gorman enrolled in the one-year veterinary assistant certificate program, figuring that, by the end, she would know if she wanted to continue on for her associate degree. By her third week of classes, she knew.
“She came home and told me, ‘This is it, this is what I want to do. I’m going to finish this program,’” Tina recalls.
Things were going great for Gorman. She approached her courses with a passion she had never known before. She completed an externship at the VCA Montgomery Road Animal Hospital in Westfield, Massachusetts, and was offered a part-time job there. But after completing her certificate program in 2022, she discovered she was pregnant.
“Grace absolutely thrived at HCC, and I think a lot of it had to do with the support that she got from the college.”
Tina Gorman
“My professors were some of the first people to find out since I missed a few classes due to morning sickness, but they were very understanding,” she said.
After her daughter was born in 2023, Gorman wanted to return to her courses full time so she could graduate with her classmates. Her professors made every accommodation, rearranging her classes around her pumping schedule and encouraging Grace to bring her daughter, Charlee, to lab when day care was not available. Still, it proved to be too much, and she reduced her course schedule to part time.
“I was getting up three to four times a night with a newborn, while going to school, work, and externing,” she said. “I was running on fumes, but was determined to graduate.”
In May 2025, she did — with honors. She also received the Award for Excellence in Veterinary and Animal Science (and had made the Dean’s List three times in four years).
“Grace was helpful to other people, friendly, a good team worker, and an all-around good student, even though she was juggling a lot,” said Jennifer York, DVM, chair of the veterinary and animal science department.
the first recipient of the Grace and Determination Scholarship
Gorman’s parents had taken notice of their daughter’s resilience and were inspired to take action. Tina wrote a letter to President George Timmons: “We feel strongly that it is time for the Gorman family to pay it forward.”
“Grace absolutely thrived at HCC, and I think a lot of it had to do with the support that she got from the college,” her mother said. “We feel very indebted to HCC. We can’t say enough great things about the school.”
In April 2026, Tina and Gary Gorman established the Grace and Determination Scholarship through the HCC Foundation, an annual scholarship for students in the veterinary and animal science program, with a preference for nontraditional students.
“The one thing that kept going through all this was her determination,” said Tina. “She wanted to prove to herself that she could do it, and so that’s where the name came from.”
When her parents shared the news, their daughter was amazed. “That’s literally me. That’s my life. I was very honored,” said Gorman, who was herself a recipient of an HCC Foundation Scholarship in 2023.
During the 2026 Scholarship Reception, Gary and Tina met Nicole Couture, the first recipient of the Grace and Determination Scholarship. Like Grace, Couture also had to take time off from her studies for the birth of a child.
“I’ve had a lot of struggles but I just pushed through, kept working, trying to better my life,” Couture said. “The Grace and Determination Scholarship perfectly describes the way that I’ve made it through those struggles.”
“We couldn’t have handpicked a more appropriate and better candidate,” said Gary. “She was just above and beyond my expectations.”
As for Grace, she is now working full time as a veterinary assistant at the animal hospital where she started as an HCC student.
If you are interested in establishing a scholarship, please contact the Institutional Advancement division at 413.552.2737 or send an email to foundation@hcc.edu.
