Oct 20, 2017 - in a small room across from the packed hall awaiting her arrival. ... she shut a black notebook filled wi
12th Annual
WLP Fall Symposium October 20, 2017
Amazing, Grace
Grace Byers, USF Class of ’06 and Co-Star of FOX TV hit Empire, Leads Lineup that Helps Another Soldout WLP Fall Symposium Soar
By Dave Scheiber, USF Foundation TAMPA – In a program aptly named “Finding Your Grace,” you could find Grace Byers, the keynote speaker for the 12th annual Women in Leadership & Philanthropy Fall Symposium, sitting in a small room across from the packed hall awaiting her arrival. As nearly a thousand attendees streamed into the Hilton Tampa Downtown’s spacious ballroom for the luncheon presentation, Byers completed the last of her media interviews with an ease and humor befitting her first name. She bantered comfortably with a few remaining guests. And she shut a black notebook filled with handwritten points jotted down for her impending talk.
The truth is, Byers wouldn’t even need to refer to them. The message she had specially crafted came straight from the heart of a gifted 2006 USF theater graduate whose journey of perseverance and self-awareness thrust her to stardom four years ago on the hit FOX series Empire. The words were those of an insightful traveler on her path in life, forged from a challenging Cayman Islands childhood in which she was often teased and bullied for being a biracial daughter of deaf parents. Byers as Anika Calhoun on Empire
Her mother, Cheryl McCoy Gealey, stood nearby, conversing in sign language with several women on hand to interpret for her. “I visit with her often and just try to encourage her,” said Gealey, a Brandon resident. “I’m just very, very proud of her.” With the start of the luncheon now just minutes away, Byers shared one last story – how she had nearly quit acting in 2013, facing eviction without enough money to pay the next month’s rent for her New York City apartment, in spite of working multiple jobs. Instead, she accepted the offer of a friend in Chicago, where she’d done some regional theater, to sleep on spare couch and give her dream one last shot. “In my mind, I was done with the whole acting thing,” Byers and mom Cheryl McCoy Gealey share a laugh with interpreters she says. “My mom wanted me to come back to Florida, but I just wanted to see what happened in Chicago.” She quickly landed a night job managing a ballroom dance studio, saved enough for a small place of her own and re-connected with an agent she’d once worked with. Soon after, the agent told her about a script that had just come across her desk – a new TV series about the music industry called Empire – and encouraged her to audition. “It happened just as I was thinking, ‘Maybe I’ll become an interpreter for the performing arts – I can interpret plays for the deaf community,’ ”she says. “I’d even bought books and planned to get my certification. But I kept going out on auditions. And then, out of the blue, Empire happened.” The irony isn’t lost on her. If she hadn’t left New York, amid an uncertain future, she would never have known about this life-changing opportunity, where she wowed producers and won a leading role as conniving Anika Calhoun. She would never have met, fallen in love and last year married her co-star, Trai Byers. And she wouldn’t be here now – the first USF graduate to serve as the Symposium’s keynote speaker – ready to uplift an appreciative audience with stories of building inner strength and learning to be true to herself in moments of adversity. In fact, words of grace filled multiple levels of WLP’s largest, mostsignificant public event and fundraiser and fifth straight sellout – presided over by WLP Chair Carolyn House-Stewart, Esq., a USF alumna supporting deserving students through a named endowed scholarship in WLP. There were the six lively and informative morning breakout sessions on the topics of health, media, financial fitness, aiming high in life and, in keeping with the day’s theme, “Finding Grace Under Pressure.” There were the stirring stories, presented on a pair of large video screens, of the day’s two special honorees: Community Leadership Award winner Debbie Nye Sembler and Community Leadership Lifetime Award winner Ann McKeel Ross. There was the message from WLP Executive Director, India Witte, who underscored that the work of Sembler and Ross had created so many opportunities for others. “That really is what WLP is all about,” Witte said. “It’s not about the individual member. It’s not about the staff or our big donors or our small donors. It’s about all of us, together – the power of the collective. You can do so very much if you put ‘self on shelf ’ and you’re willing to collaborate and cooperate and leverage everything together.” Panel in action; Witte, House-Stewart (below)
And there was the moving talk from WLP Scholar Katherine Garcia. Her tale of overcoming enormous odds to become a standout USF biological sciences and pre-med student – coupled with a poised presentation – brought many in the audience to tears and to their feet. Garcia started by pointing out that she, like Byers, shared something in common: an education made possible through scholarships. But her story would also serve as an ideal bookend to Byers in her own search for grace amid intense hardship. “Throughout my childhood, I dreamed of attending college,” she began. “But it was a dream similar to that of a child who dreams of being an astronaut, and has the rocket ship but has no access to the fuel necessary to get into space.” Garcia explained how her impoverished, immigrant parents were devoted to making a better life for their young daughter and son. They eventually arrived in Tampa from Panama, living in a small, singleroom apartment that adjoined a bathroom – the place Garcia would stay up late doing her rigorous International Baccalaureate program homework in high school, with the toilet serving as a chair and the sink as her desk, so not to disturb her sleeping family. “Our family confronted and overcame every challenge that life brought our way,” she explained. “...Every challenge was a learning opportunity; every obstacle, the chance to learn more about myself – what I could achieve in the now, and what I could become in the future.” It was a poignant, powerful show of grace, followed soon after by Grace herself. An experienced public speaker, Byers was thrilled to learn several weeks earlier of the event’s theme and purpose and decided to customize her talk to the occasion, weaving in stories she’d never before shared at the podium. She began by discussing the meaning of grace. “Now I may be a little biased, but I think it’s an amazing word,” she said, triggering a wave of laughter. She went on to explain how she felt constant pressure to live up to the name’s many definitions, but gradually came to feel that they “not only continued to lift and inspire “Grace and Katherine” (above); Byers and me, but they’ve taught me how I can empower myself through grace itself.” House-Stewart touched by Katherine’s talk; Donors
Carol and Frank Morsani offer their congratulations
Byers began her talk by telling the crowd how inspired she was to hear Katherine’s story. She followed by expanding on the event’s theme: Finding your grace in the face of opposition. “Believe it or not,” she said, “grace is most desired and most needed when we face challenges and opposition.” Byers touched on the obstacles of her youth. But she focused primarily on a professional experience as an adult – searching to find the grace to deal with a difficult New York agent who refused to let her out of a contract to make way for her move to Chicago. Byers struggled to make it clear to the unyielding agent that she needed to part ways for personal reasons several months before her contract was up. It was an awkward and tense dispute, but she relied on her instincts, held her ground with honesty and firmness and ultimately prevailed. Her lesson: “There’s a way to show up in this world fully and authentically you – and to give yourself the grace in order to be able to do that. I learned from this situation that I have the permission to give myself the grace to
own my ‘yes’ and just stand in my ‘no.’ And sometimes in life that is the biggest lesson you can possibly learn. It continues to show people around you that you’re showing up as an individual, as someone who knows who you are. And that is the greatest asset you can bring to any company.” Byers closed by talking about the importance of her spiritual life. “I’d be remiss if I didn’t include God’s grace,” she said. “It humbles you. It lays you down in a way that continues to ground you.” Her 45-minute talk was greeted with a rousing standing ovation, yet a quieter session that followed carried a special power of its own. Byers met privately for severel hours with dozens of WLP Scholars, seated with her in a large circle. They shared their own stories of overcoming obstacles and their dreams for the future, while soaking up her advice and feedback. From the back of the room, Byers’ USF theater instructor, Fanni Green, who had a profound influence on her former student, beamed with pride. “I told her it felt like she was teaching me today,” she said.
Byers catches up with USF acting professor and mentor Fanni Green
For that matter, anyone in attendance would likely agree that one word summed up WLP’s day of Grace: Amazing.
Three Questions for Grace Q. Can you talk a little about growing up as the child of deaf parents, how that impacted you as a child and the lessons you learned? A. As a child, I assumed that having deaf parents was normal – until I was old enough to realize that everyone else’s parents were hearing. Because it was something so out of the norm for the children I grew up with, they had a difficult time processing and understanding that my mother was, well, different. They expressed this in the form of bullying, which of course, was painful and difficult. But as I’ve grown, I’ve learned two things: First: Regard the world with grace. We are born the way we are. We are also not impervious to the experiences of life that may show themselves on our bodies, minds or spirits. So if we make it our mission to make others feel bad about something they cannot change, how are we really positively impacting the world and becoming better versions of ourselves? Furthermore, how are we encouraging people to be better versions of themselves? It’s a futile and unfulfilling task. It’s easier to destroy than it is to build, and we are remembered best by what we build (unless what we are destroying benefits mankind). Let’s build well. Second: We are enough. We should ever give anyone the power to make us feel less than - for any reason. I’m so glad my mother is the indomitable woman she is. She owns herself fully and it’s because of her that I was able to eventually do the same. Q. What was the feeling like when all your hard work paid off being cast in a major role on Empire? A. It really was a dream come true. I felt, in a sense, that all the years of sacrifice, study and struggle paid off in a small way for this one humbling moment where I could make history for myself, my family and my country. I’m still very honored and grateful for this opportunity. Meeting my incredible husband on the show was a marvelous bonus as he is one of the most spectacular people I’ve ever met. Q. Can you describe how it felt to return to USF and also bring your message to WLP’s Symposium? A. As I touched down on the plane the other day, a wave of nostalgia flooded over me. I had such amazing years in Tampa and at USF and I still feel those emotions and memories viscerally. USF was that impactful. The campus has changed and grown in so many wonderful ways and I love that Dr. Judy Genshaft continues to surpass and transcend above what anyone could imagine for this school. I’m proud to call USF my alma mater. Seeing the tremendous impact WLP had on young, diverse, powerful women, shook me. In our world, it seems as if women truly and genuinely supporting other women in any field and industry is hard to come by. Not only that, but as women, we are still shattering glass ceilings and breaking barriers continuing to garner titles as the ‘first woman to’ or ‘one of the only women who’. These titles are even more prevalent for women of color. WLP has created a community environment where women – many first-generation college women - can be taught, supported, fostered, cultivated and uplifted. The only thing that made me sad seeing WLP is the fact that I graduated as it was still coming into full effect! I couldn’t be more proud of USF for creating this huge initiative that has shifted so many women’s lives and for changing the face of what it means to truly stand behind and with women. Go Bulls!
