As a child, Sara Gasca couldn’t imagine where she is now and the future opportunities ahead. Her concerns were more basic — finding food, avoiding abuse, survival.
Her mother used streetwalking to pay for her habit, she said. Gasca’s family was racked by drugs and abuse. She was shuttled around to grandparents, a father who was barely able to keep a family together. Her siblings were in and out of jail, and the family was regularly visited by Child Protective Services.
The 30-year-old first-generation college sophomore at Santiago Canyon College said she doesn’t want to “trauma dump,” but in her youth “college was not on the table.”
Although Gasca has reconciled with her mom, who is about 20 years sober and shares her story with church groups, her early life was roiled by turmoil.
Today, Gasca is a mother of twin 3-year-old girls, sports a 3.89 GPA and is considering pursuing bachelor and possible master of science degrees in geology at either Cal. State Fullerton or UCLA.
Her future could even reach out to the cosmos, as after several internships with NASA, one of her growing interests is in space geology
Keen intellect and an unshakable spirit helped carry Gasca through, but she doesn’t necessarily see, or at least accept, that her exceptionalism is unique.
Gasca said she has met many students at SCC who come from similar backgrounds and survived immense challenges.
And “they are so capable,” she said.
If she has advice, Gasca said, “Don’t count yourself out. Don’t let your environment or your past dictate your future. It’s easier not to care. You have to get out of your comfort zone. I’m all about breaking cycles.”
Escape through academics
To break her cycle, Gasca had to shatter the shackles.
To avoid the mayhem that swirled through her world, Gasca found refuge in school work, libraries and anywhere that wasn’t “home.” She ensconced herself in documentaries about stars and earth sciences.
Although her dad didn’t provide much, she remembers when he gave her something that endures.
The two were out poking around outdoors, where Gasca loved to collect rocks, when they came across several petrified bones.
“My dad told me they were dinosaur bones,” she said, although now she suspects he knew they were likely rabbit bones.
The gift was the idea, the thought of dinosaur bones, which spurred her to imagine and wonder about all sorts of alternatives.
Since then, she has done whatever she can to maintain that sense of awe, a thirst to learn.
It was a quality she didn’t often get at home.
“I looked at my family and thought, ‘I want to be the opposite of them,’” she recalled.
Gasca tried college immediately after graduating from high school in rural Ohio.
It didn’t work out.
“I was homeless, living in my car, working 60-hour weeks and dealing with PTSD (from my childhood),” she said.
However, she persevered and joined law enforcement as a 911 dispatcher and records specialist. A gaming enthusiast, she met her husband, Bryan, online and the couple moved to his home area in Orange County. She was able to gain part-time work as a records specialist at the Westminster Police Department. In 2021, she gave birth to the twins.
Although her life was better by magnitudes than what she grew up around, Gasca still ached for something more.
Two breakthroughs
One day, while out driving, she saw a billboard advertising free tuition at Santiago Canyon College. For months, she mulled the idea, alternately considering and dismissing the chance for a second try at college academics.
Eventually, however, she asked herself, “How can I pass up the opportunity of a free education?”
She made an appointment to visit the school.
the core sample with deionized water,
in preparation for grain size analysis and
examination for microfossils. (Courtesy of Sara Gasca)
It was then that she experienced her second epiphany.
Counselor Maria Chaidez asked what Gasca wanted to study, and she half-heartedly answered, “Criminal justice, because that’s what I knew.” But it wasn’t her passion.
Chaidez asked her what she wanted and enjoyed, and Gasca said she enjoyed collecting rocks.
Chaidez suggested geology.
“I said, ‘Don’t you have to be smart to do that?’” Gasca recalled.
It wasn’t easy, but again, Gasca persevered because she knew how to do that.
“I was lost and felt out of place,” she said. “Again, that was my mentality.”
However, she stuck it out and eventually, “I found a community.”
Actually, a number of communities, including more than a half-dozen student groups and clubs that opened doors to opportunities. These included NASA internships, one in which Gasca was one of 500 selected from more than 6,000 applicants. She later became a mentor for fellow students with another NASA program.
This summer, through another partnership with New Mexico Tech, Gasca was part of a group studying how severe climate patterns affect stream flows, information that may be used to help avert tragedies such as the recent Texas floods.
Earth sciences hold vast wonder for Gasca.
“I love looking at “the stories the Earth has to tell.”
It is more than just rocks, she said; it also is about conservation.
“I want to make sure my daughters have a green earth to walk on,” she said.
Fitting it all in
With the two toddlers, as well as a husband who is also a student at SCC with his own online businesses, time is a precious commodity.
“I have a calendar that would hurt most people’s eyes,” Gasca joked.
After she lost both her dad and a brother, Gasca says she reframed her ideas of time and how limited and precious it is.
Now, “every moment is scheduled,” she said, ranging from study and family time to weekly hikes — all fit around five hours of sleep if she’s lucky.
Although Gasca has interest in paleoclimatology, her NASA experiences may change that. Not to mention new studies of Mars rocks and the strongest evidence yet that life once existed there.
“My co-workers and I have been talking about that all the time,” Gasca said.
She is also intrigued to learn about scientists who study the Martian climate.
“A weatherwoman on Mars,” she said with a laugh. “How cool is that?”