Stephanie Grillo, an education minor who just earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology, was the recipient of the 2015 Alyce Marita Whitted Memorial Award. One of the campus’s highest student honors, the Alyce Marita Whitted Memorial Award recognizes a nontraditional student’s endurance, persistence and courage in the face of extraordinary challenges while pursuing an academic degree.
Grillo, a first-generation transfer student, has demonstrated remarkable perseverance as she overcame one challenge after another to achieve her goal of attending UCSB. Raised in an underprivileged home, while still in high school she assumed the role of parental guardian for her two younger siblings. Financially independent since the age of 19, she continues to provide emotional and financial support to her siblings.
Described as passionate, motivated and hardworking, Grillo used her strength as a leader and volunteer coordinator to inspire her peers to share her vision for Life of the Party (LOTP), a student-run intern program organized under the auspices of the UCSB Alcohol and Drug Program. LOTP seeks to create an environment in which responsible partying is normalized. As an intern and volunteer coordinator for the program, she has tripled the number of students regularly attending volunteer meetings, and nine volunteers have interviewed for next year’s internship (up from the handful of students and one internship applicant two years ago).
In other work with the Gevirtz School, Grillo has served as clinician and inclusion aid at UCSB’s Koegel Autism Center for children with special needs and an instructional assistant for Education 122, part of the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education’s Pre-Professional Education Program.
After graduating from UCSB, Grillo plans to work as a clinician at the Koegel Autism Center as well as a bilingual para-educator for the Santa Barbara Unified School District. With some experience under her belt, she hopes to return to UCSB to earn her teaching credential and complete a Master of Arts degree in Education.