A Second Chance : Man Who Saw Co-Worker Slain Finds New Direction in Education

Like so many other students at the county’s new Cal State campus, Scott Groeneveld showed up for his first day of class ready to make good on a second chance.

He’s just sorry that it grew out of such tragedy.

The former finance officer returned to college because he could not face another day at the Thousand Oaks bank where his friend and co-worker Monica Leech was fatally shot during a takeover robbery in April 1997.

Forced inside the bank vault by two gunmen, Groeneveld knelt next to Leech thinking that the robbers would kill him if anyone. He was the only man in the office. But a robber shot Leech instead, pumping a single round into the back of the 39-year-old mother’s head.

He has spent every day since struggling with guilt for making it through alive.

The gunmen who robbed Western Financial Bank, who fled the building with $9,000 and have never been caught, stole more than money that day. They robbed Groeneveld of his peace of mind and left him with emotional wounds that are only beginning to heal.

He never went back to work. And, to this day, he breaks into a cold sweat if he even drives by a bank.

“My life kind of went into a tailspin; I knew I needed a change one way or another,” said Groeneveld, 35, a Ventura father of two who sings tenor in a local choral group and leads youth activities at his church.

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The seeds for change emerged during intensive counseling sessions in the months afterward. He decided to go back to school and pursue a longtime goal of becoming a teacher.

“I kind of always had this dream that I wanted to be an educator, to teach and to teach young children,” Groeneveld said. “I truly believe Monica is watching over this whole situation. The day I have my degree, the day I have been given the keys to my own classroom, I know she will be right there with me.”

It’s only about 10 miles from the Thousand Oaks bank to the emerging Cal State Channel Islands university, which opened last week as the new home for the satellite campus of Cal State Northridge. But for Groeneveld, the journey has covered more ground than that.

It is a journey spurred by the worst thing ever to happen to him, one that has lifted him from his lowest point to where he now has direction and purpose.

There has been much talk about what a public four-year university will mean to Ventura County, about the opportunities that will open up as the campus evolves into a full-fledged, degree-granting institution in 2002.

But when it comes down to it, university boosters say, its most fundamental mission is to transform the lives of people like Groeneveld, those who are searching for something better.

“It’s going to make lives change all over this region,” said Ventura rancher and business leader Carolyn Leavens, a friend of Groeneveld’s and longtime backer of the new campus.

“I am just so proud of Scott and what he has set out to accomplish,” she added. “It’s comforting to know that something very fine is coming out of this tragedy. He’s now going to be doing exactly what he loves the most.”

On the opening day of classes, Groeneveld said he felt like a schoolkid again.

He had tossed and turned the night before and woke up before his alarm clock sounded. He was at the campus well before his first class started, so early in fact that he wondered whether he had shown up on the wrong day because few people were around.

His first class was sociology, a 9 a.m. course that was the first to be offered at the new campus. It made him feel like a pioneer of sorts.

“It’s kind of exciting knowing that we are the first students at the new campus and that we are going to see it grow from a satellite campus into a full university,” Groeneveld said. “There’s a providence there, I think. It just tells me that this decision of mine is the right decision and that the powers that be are going to see that it happens.”

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That decision was not easy. He knew that he could never return to banking, despite a 14-year investment in that field. But he had no idea what else he wanted to do until the teaching idea shook loose during a therapy session about six months after the shooting.

In the fall of 1997, he re-enrolled at Ventura College, where he had taken some courses after leaving Ventura High in 1981. He graduated this summer with an associate of arts degree in liberal studies. It didn’t take him long to decide to continue his education at CSUN’s local campus.

“I’ve got a family, so I really just couldn’t pack up and go live in the dorm,” he said.

In that way, Groeneveld is a typical student. At the satellite center, the average age of students is 35 and most are working parents. While the student body is expected to get younger when Channel Islands starts enrolling freshmen in 2002, university officials believe that the new campus will continue to draw a significant number of working adults.

Groeneveld actually hasn’t worked at any job since the robbery. But he has been supported financially and emotionally by his wife, Sharon, in his pursuit of a new career.

“It has been tough at times, but we have family and friends who help us out,” said Sharon Groeneveld, who works part-time as an engraver at a Ventura trophy shop. “But since he has found a direction and decided this is what he wants to do, it has helped so much. If he hadn’t done that, it could have devastated everything.”

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Scott Groeneveld said there’s no doubt that returning to college has helped him regain direction in a life cut adrift by tragedy.

But he said becoming a teacher pays tribute to Leech, alongside whom he worked most of his banking career.

Groeneveld recruited Leech to the bank and recommended her for the job. He said it has taken a long time to realize that he is not responsible for her death. Now he wants to do something to honor her life.

“I am pursuing something she and I talked about, knowing full well she is right there with me.”