High school seniors always hear the same questions in their final year: “What college are you going to?” and “What do you plan to do after high school?” Adults rarely ask these students how they plan to change the world or better themselves and their communities once school ends.

Grace Gray already asked and answered this question for herself. The senior’s plan to take a gap year is a path other students follow for a variety of reasons. However, how Gray uses her year and why she chose to do so makes all the difference, especially since it will lead her to India.

In September, Gray plans to travel to Australia to attend schooling with the mission organization ‘Youth with a Mission’ to learn how to help citizens in undeveloped countries.

“I’ll complete a three month discipleship training school and then be sent to a country located in a window of European and Asian countries 10 to 40 degrees North of the equator for three months,” Gray said. “After I complete that, I plan to return and attend Colorado Christian University and then go to law school to get a degree in international law. My dream is to practice law in India and work with women for free who have been abused and deserve justice.”

Gray, a Christian who regularly attends and works at Riverside Community Church in Bulverde, chose to pursue this path because of her strong faith.

“God says ‘what you do to the least of these, you do to me,’” Gray said. “I want to help the hurt and bring love into desolate places because ‘where there is love, there is God’ as Mother Teresa would say.”

The plan first crossed Gray’s mind in seventh grade after she watched a documentary about the oppression of women in India. 

“I knew I could not sit idly by and not try to help,” Gray said. “People are not aware of the oppression women and young girls face there compared to other third world countries.”

Gray plans to dedicate her life to creating a sustainable community for the women and children she wants to help.

“I eventually want to open a campus with a safe house, an orphanage, a hospital, churches, schools and apartments for women to be able to raise their families in a safe space at prices they can afford,” Gray said.