Alyssa Davila, University of St. Thomas, Women's Tennis

ALYSSA DAVILA OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ST. THOMAS, a freshman on the women's tennis team from Spring, Texas, has been selected the SCAC Character & Community Female Student-Athlete of the Week for the week beginning January 20.

The SCAC Character & Community award honors the efforts of student-athletes who excel in the field of athletics, and also serve their campus and community.



For University of St. Thomas women’s tennis player Alyssa Davila, “service” is more than just a term from her chosen sport.

A freshman political science major from Houston, Davila is just as active away from the court as she is on it. She has regularly worked with Bonding Against Adversity, a non-profit organization which helps people as they apply for United States citizenship.

“What I’ve learned is that there are a lot more people in our area than we really know about who are looking to get their citizenship,” Davila said of her volunteer work with Bonding Against Adversity. “With the organization, we help them answer their questions and give them a little bit of peace (of mind) so they can start the citizenship process.”

Over the Christmas break, Davila spent most days with the organization. She also assisted at Saturday workshops to help people begin the citizenship process. The experience has been a valuable learning opportunity for someone whose career goal is to be an immigration attorney.

“It’s given me a background on the forms I need to start learning once I get into law school,” Davila said of the experience. “My mentors helped me during the whole process; they taught me new forms even when I was not experienced and they trusted me to help other people with their supervision.”

As with any volunteer work that one is passionate about, Davila has been affected by the people she has helped.

“The people I’ve come in contact with are very, very kind,” Davila said. “What they’ve taught me is that we need to be patient with people who are not from this country. It can be easy to judge someone because they might not know the language or be (familiar) with the customs of our country, they’ve taught me that with patience, we can start understanding one another very easily.”

Patience and understanding are two virtues that will serve Davila well in her sporting life, as she is one of six women – all freshmen – who will help launch UST’s tennis program in its inaugural 2020 season.

“Working with people has helped me in school because I need to learn to be patient when working in a group environment,” she said. “Since it’s our first year as a UST tennis team … just bringing everyone together and being patient with one another will help us understand each other better.”