She presses her tongue against a keypad on her retainer to maneuver the wheel chair up a ramp of the local coffee shop in Davis.

Sara Granda, a Sacramento State alumna, said she looks forward to graduate school after recently receiving her bachelor’s degree in social work with a GPA of 3.6.

Granda’s graduation is unique as she suffers from the same physical condition Christopher Reeve, the actor popularly known as Superman, suffered from before he passed away last year.

Granda’s application to graduate school came after many years of frustration, tears and hardship, she said.

July 24, 1997, marked a fateful day for Granda, when her car skidded sideways off the road and rolled, paralyzing her from the neck down.

She had just graduated from high school and was looking forward to college, she said, but her plans were changed in just a split second.

After the crash, Granda was hospitalized at UC Davis Medical Center, where her father Jose Granda, a mechanical engineering professor at Sac State, said the doctors had asked him and his wife whether they wanted to turn off the machines that kept their daughter alive.

Jose Granda said he held onto hope.

“Miracles happen,” he said.

And a miracle did happen.

After five weeks of hospitalization, Sara Granda was flown to Seattle, where she underwent rehabilitation at a vocational center at the University of Washington.

Her rehabilitation marked the beginning of a long journey in and out of hospitals, nursing care and school.

“I was in denial about not being able to walk again, and I thought that I would start college the next semester,” Granda said.

Instead, she found herself having her 18th, 19th and 20th birthdays in a hospital bed.”It was like watching your life go by,” she said, and she also missed holidays like New Year’s Day, Christmas and Easter.

“All of my friends were off at college and I wasn’t getting better,” Granda said.

She said her will to resume life and achieve her goals grew stronger as each day passed.That will was tested as she faced more obstacles with her decision to take classes while still in the hospital.

Her needs for 24 hour nursing care and a special van to accommodate her wheelchair would be hard to come by.

Eventually Granda received money from a court settlement against Bergen Tires and Anderson Glass Company.

The settlement bought her a new van and an opportunity to attend college.Her father has also helped her get through school.

He said he forced himself to continue teaching at Sac State while his daughter was in the hospital so that his insurance could pay the high nursing care bills.

Dale Mentink, an attorney who works for a local disability rights group called Protection and Advocacy Incorporated, said he knows how much of an obstacle nursing care has been for Granda and her family.

“She is incredibly strong and determined,” Mentink said.

Mentink has helped Granda with legal issues regarding her access to nursing care in Davis and Yolo County, trying to keep her care as stable as possible.

“She has been having to advertise, recruit and employ nurses on her own for her needs,” Mentink said.

Granda needs several nurses who can work two days per week on 12 hour shifts, which costs $30-$35 per hour, or up to $25,000 per month.

Despite the high costs, legal issues and her physical disability, Granda still made it into Sac State’s social work program, which she began during the spring semester of 2003.

Robin Kennedy, who teaches in the social work program, said she was amazed with Granda’s determination to go to college.

“There’s not many people that have the resources to continue on with education (after being paralyzed),” she said.

Granda earned her bachelor’s degree by taking two classes at a time and enrolling in summer school and winter intercession.

She searched for work, which she found at Sutter West, a Neurological Pain Management Center, where she helped patients cope with chronic pain.

She said the job proved she could achieve her goals no matter how much her life had changed.

Granda has also volunteered to work with the elderly at various senior centers, helped with adult day care and also worked with mentally disabled children.

“The biggest thing I’ve learned is that people’s worth and value aren’t deciphered just because they walk,” Granda said.

Sarah Pollo can be reached at [email protected]