Local student receives scholarship to Siena Heights University

Alyssa Davila will be attending Siena Heights University next fall thanks to generous academic, sports, and music scholarships.

Hard work and determination, plus lots of extracurricular involvement, has helped Alyssa Davila to earn scholarships to the school of her choice.

Siena Heights University has granted Davila three scholarships for academic achievement, cheerleading, and choir, which combine to about $16,000 total. The Manchester senior will be attending SHU next fall and plans to major in psychology.

“She interviewed with the dean of the school of psychology, and also auditioned in front of the cheer coach and choir director,” said her mom, Lori Davila. “She ended up getting scholarships for all three. That is a huge, significant help and will make it doable for us to get her there.”

Lori Davila said that SHU offered to do a signing ceremony for Alyssa at the high school, but her daughter modestly declined the opportunity.

At Manchester High School, which Alyssa has attended for the past three years after moving here from Garden City, she has been a sideline cheerleader, participated in the fall plays and spring musicals, and also been in choir, National Honor Society, the Key Club, and has been on the fair queen court for her junior and senior years. Last fall she was also named Homecoming Queen. With a GPA of 4.3, Alyssa has also been notified that she will graduate with honors (cum laude).

It’s been amazing (in Manchester),” added Lori Davila. “We felt really good about the schools when we moved here; the kids had always attended parochial schools in Garden City so this was a big change for them, but they’ve had a huge, warm welcome and they’re loving it here.”

According to her mother, Alyssa is open to working in clinical psychology where she can help people in stressful situations, but also has expressed an interest in criminal profiling and a possible career with the FBI.

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by Marsha Chartrand

Marsha Johnson Chartrand, a founder, writer, and copy editor with the Manchester Mirror, is a 50-year resident of Manchester. She has a long history of volunteer and community involvement.