Alyssa Stefanese, SUNY Geneseo

Alyssa is a junior at SUNY Geneseo, majoring in English Literature with a GPA of 3.77. Though she is a conscientious and successful student academically, what distinguishes her is her dedication to civic leadership. For the past three years Alyssa has been involved with Livingston County CARES, a nonprofit organization that focuses on helping communities with humanitarian projects. Currently, she serves on their Board of Directors. She has volunteered in Biloxi, Mississippi to assist with Hurricane Katrina recovery effects and helped to organize the first Hurricane Sandy Disaster Relief trip to Staten Island, N.Y. Since then she has been a trip leader on two Staten Island trips. Alyssa’s goal is to lessen the burden of those families impacted by natural disasters and to increase services/opportunities for lower socioeconomic individuals. In an attempt to combat the root cause of the socioeconomic gap in these communities Alyssa works to improve education. She has been a Higher Education Resources in Our Schools (HEROS) mentor for two years in Livingston County and is also involved in helping her peers through her work as a GOLD Leadership Program mentor. Alyssa hopes to continue her work by perusing a career in Student Affairs to work with student volunteer initiatives.