Story by Eric Jay Toll
Morgan Lomas, 45, is a high school dropout.
But the central Pennsylvanian, who has overcome many challenges in her life, has started a new chapter as an online student at Grand Canyon University, where she began her journey this spring as an early childhood education major.
“I don’t know what possessed me. I have no idea,” said Lomas of jumping into the demands of getting a degree while working multiple jobs, including a cheesecake business. “Well, you know, it’s never too late (to go to school)."
Lomas left home at 15 to live with a 21-year-old and had her first child at 19.
She said she spent 16 years in a bad relationship and finally hit a tipping point. She took her boys and left to live in an aging single-wide mobile home in a rural area north of Lancaster.
“I was burning the candle at both ends and setting fire to myself for a long time,” Lomas said. “I grew up harder than I needed to, simply based on choices. It was choices other people made and choices that I made.”
She had a difficult home life growing up but found solace with her grandmother, who raised her.
“She was a very good woman. She took very good care of us,” Lomas said of her “Nanan."
“She started putting me into the church, and we were doing summer programs. It was a Catholic church that we went to here. And then she died,” Lomas said. “And my mom doesn't believe in the church.”
She rattled around working multiple jobs – waitress, bartender, in-home care worker – and struggled to support her two boys while raising her younger sisters. Everyone in her life was dependent on drugs or alcohol. Soon, so was she.
“I decided I didn't want to live that life anymore,” she said, looking down at the table.
After walking out on her relationship, Lomas found herself with two young boys and her first taste of freedom.
“I was bartending. I was receiving a lot of attention,” she said. “A lot of attention, and I did a lot of things with that attention. I was working four or five jobs to support my boys.”
Then she started making progress.
He (God) was there, even for all the wrong people that were in (my life) at the time. There were those good people that never stopped.
GCU online student Morgan Lomas
“I got out of the bar scene. So I stopped putting myself in positions like that. I went into the nursing field, and after that, I went into the mental health field.”
Five years ago, Lomas moved in with another man. Although her oldest had broken the chains of addictions and gone to college, her younger son was still at the single-wide. She found herself raising four teenage boys, still working multiple jobs and added her boyfriend’s two daughters.
“My son moved three friends into the single-wide,” she said. “I made sure they went to school every day.”
She considers all those children as her family. However, she was again in a relationship where, “History started repeating itself,” she said. “I had to get out.”
Vowing never to make those same choices, Lomas escaped by baking a cheesecake.
“It was really good,” she said. “I was asked to make some for a party. I did.”
The cheesecakes were a hit. She offered them on Facebook and soon sold them at coffee shops and a few restaurants. She started catering and added mini-cheesecakes to her offerings.
What started as a whim became a beacon. Baking cheesecakes stirred up something else in her – it boosted her confidence.
And so has starting her college journey.
Lomas said she chose GCU because of its online offerings. It's her first foray into any type of college, let alone online.
“I didn’t know what I was doing; I don’t even know how to get this financial aid stuff going,” she said. “But, yes, I decided that this is what I was going to do.”
Early childhood education was a natural major for her after her own childhood and then raising her two kids and six other teenagers. She wanted to be part of the solution to prevent other children from going through what happened in her life.
“I was overwhelmed, but I found a (GCU) Facebook group with some other students here in Pennsylvania. In fact, I knew one of them from a few towns away,” Lomas said.
She said that having support from the school and now from Facebook friends has eased her transition to online student.
GCU associate professor Dr. Crystal McCabe, known at the university as an expert in online teaching practices, got to know Lomas and her story as part of her University Success class, one of the first classes students take at the university.
“What stuck out to me was (Lomas’) commitment to go after her dreams,” McCabe said. “Morgan said that it’s all been a blessing for her.”
Lomas would find a future in faith.
“There were many times in my life that I could not understand why God would let something happen,” she said, looking down again. “I was totally faithless for a long time in the midst of my addiction.”
She decided to stop drinking, and life shifted.
“This couple helped me, and they still help me. They practically gave me the single-wide and 100 acres for my kids and me,” she said. “They were Christians, and I realized that faith was more than church. They were doing this out of kindness and their commitment.”
Lomas thought the act of kindness was the first time she recognized that God was returning to her life.
“He was there, even for all the wrong people that were in (my life) at the time,” she reflected. “There were those good people that never stopped.”
It’s a quest that has not ended for her.
“I'm still learning how to find that relationship,” she said.
In life, a kinder, better relationship has come. She is getting married for the first time in the fall.
“It’s a blessing,” she said. “He puts me first in his life.”
Phoenix-based Eric Jay Toll is an award-winning freelance journalist and photographer covering business, the economy and travel. His work has appeared in such publications as the Phoenix Business Journal and USA Today.
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