PALMETTO -- When she was a home-schooler playing for the Manatee Heat, Bradenton’s Alyssa Anderson was a fierce volleyball, basketball and tennis player.
She grew up to be a fierce student with a 3.62 grade point average at the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee.
“She’s always been quiet and driven,” said Anderson’s mother, Marina. “She knows what she wants to do.”
That drive translated Sunday into Anderson winning a pair of academic and personal leadership honors during her graduation from USF Sarasota-Manatee.
With 246 of her fellow graduates watching at the Manatee Convention Center, Anderson, 24, received the Outstanding Graduate Award for USF Sarasota-Manatee’s Fall 2010 Commencement.
The Outstanding Graduate Award goes to a senior who has excelled in leadership, community service, work experience and school spirit.
She also got the Golden Bull Award, presented to a student who has shown excellence in leadership activities, university and community involvement and academic success.
Remarkably, Anderson graduated Sunday with two Bachelor of Science degrees from two separate USF Sarasota-Manatee colleges, one in business management and the other in elementary education.
She also was president of the USF Sarasota-Manatee Student Government Association.
Kirt Anderson credited his daughter’s faith for allowing her to do so much.
“She’s living her life for God,” Anderson said.
Alyssa Anderson, who would like to work for a corporation in some capacity, was driven to do more than just excel in the classroom.
During high school, she took a trip to a children’s orphanage in Honduras called “Children of the Light” and that inspired her to try to get supplies for it.
She motivated her fellow students from USF Sarasota-Manatee to sell football tickets to buy supplies for the orphanage.
For fun, Anderson takes pictures to use in scrapbooks and listens to the band Audio Adrenaline -- as if she needs it.
Graduation at a glance
Number of Graduates: 247
Speakers: USF President Judy Genshaft, USF alum Anne Weintraub (keynote speaker), Regional Chancellor Arthur Guilford, Student Government President Brittany Gleitsman.
Shining Moment: Bradenton’s Lynn Pierce, 50, decided she couldn’t preach the importance of finishing college to her daughter, 15-year-old Lauren, unless she did it herself. So, after getting two-year degrees in 1982 in science and again in 1985 in the arts, both from then-Manatee Community College, Pierce finally got her four-year bachelor’s in applied sciences on Sunday. In a reversal similar to the movie “Freaky Friday,” Lauren, a sophomore at Manatee School for the Arts, was the one who nagged her mother to stay home and do her homework.
Best quote: “USF Sarasota-Manatee has a lot to be proud of. We continue to grow our enrollment, we are moving full speed ahead with independent accreditation, and continue to be an unstoppable force in higher education. Nearly 19 percent of our students are graduating today with the highest academic honors.” -- Regional Chancellor Arthur Guilford
Interesting sight: USF 2001 graduate and 2010 keynote speaker Anne Weintraub’s grades were so poor in college that she thought she wouldn’t graduate. She scored so low on the law school admissions test that she thought she would never get into law school. Even after the first semester at law school she had a 1.5 grade point average. But she never quit. Now, nine years later, she is the youngest partner practicing in a Sarasota law firm. The moral to her story? “Remember, everyone stumbles,” Weintraub said. “What’s important is moving past that stumbling block.”
