When Samantha Leonard enrolled in the University of Delaware in 2015, she found a community of mentors and fellow survivors who were eager to support her, which proved life-changing.

One in 10 children in America will experience some form of sexual abuse, and Leonard counts herself among those survivors. As an adolescent, she didn’t understand that she’d become trapped in an abusive relationship. But as Leonard grew older and realized what had happened, she struggled to cope.

“I didn't have hope for the future,” said Leonard. “I felt like no one else had ever been through what I had just been through. How could I possibly move on?”

As an incoming freshman, Leonard volunteered to be a crisis advocate with UD’s Sexual Offense Support (S.O.S.) network, which provides guidance and resources for individuals who've experienced sexual assault. There, she received S.O.S. training from Angela Seguin, assistant director of victim advocacy, who gave Leonard a glimpse of what a career in social work might look like.

“S.O.S. really empowered me to feel like I had the right to share my experiences and to feel the way I was feeling,” said Leonard, who declared a human services major with a minor in psychology due to Seguin’s influence and the impact that the S.O.S. team had on survivors. “Learning how to provide that support for others helped me be able to be more self-compassionate. Being able to come together with other survivors, and seeing the commonalities among our experiences, gave me hope for the future.”

While pursuing her degree, Leonard’s interest in social work continued to grow. She took classes on families and communities with Bahira Trask, professor of human development and family sciences and a frequent advocate for gender equality at the United Nations. Leonard was also moved to help others through doctoral candidate Kendell Daughtry’s course on counseling in human services.

“These two courses, in particular, were practical and hands-on. I was challenged but also supported,” said Leonard. “These professors had confidence in their students and that was felt by students. It pushed me out of my comfort zone and into new spaces where I could grow personally and professionally.”

As Leonard approached her senior year, she finally felt she had the courage, and obligation, to speak out about her experiences and expose the manipulative tactics, known as “grooming,” used by predators to isolate and abuse their victims. Leonard chronicles her experiences, and those of other survivors, in Groomed: Shining a Light on the Unheard Narrative of Childhood Sexual Assault.

In her debut book — written mostly while she was still enrolled in classes at UD — Leonard illustrates the grooming process using fictional depictions inspired by the true stories of sexual assault survivors. 

Citing research by Michael Welner, forensic psychiatrist and associate professor of psychiatry at New York University School of Medicine, grooming is a six-step process that can last for months or years before the first instance of sexual assault occurs.

"It's a long road to sexual assault," said Leonard. "That's why I wanted to write this book: to describe the stages of the grooming process and educate parents about the steps they can take to prevent sexual assault before it happens."

Leonard hopes that her book will help others to recognize the warning signs of grooming and take action to protect children in vulnerable situations.

“I was very much on a search for justice when I started the book, and I think along the journey the book really turned into me wanting to help people empathize with survivors and to react in a more compassionate and trauma-informed way,” said Leonard.

Leonard graduated in the spring and was the 2019 recipient of the Catherine Bieber Scholarship for Academic Achievement and Leadership in Human Development and Family Studies. 

She is currently pursuing a graduate degree in social work and hopes to one day work in a rape recovery center. “It is my way of making meaning out of tragedy,” she said.