Alyssa Andreno, attends UT and is the 2019-20 honorary recipient of the Dr. Sharon B. Lord Women’s Athletic Leadership Scholarship.
Growing up in Stafford, Virginia, senior Alyssa Andreno says, “I never had a dream school until I visited UT. I fell absolutely in love with it—the coaches, the university, the girls on the team—everything about it. I thought to myself, this is the only place where I could see myself going to school.”
As a volleyball player, Andreno attends UT and is the 2019-20 honorary recipient of the Dr. Sharon B. Lord Women’s Athletic Leadership Scholarship. “To have had the opportunity to attend a fantastic state university and wear the orange and white on my chest and on my back has meant the world to me and my family,” she says. “I am really grateful.”
With her sport management and recreation major and business minor, Andreno hopes to become a Division I athletic director. “I have been a sports fanatic my entire life,” she says, and being a college athlete has only grown my passion.” Last summer she got a taste of working in the UT Athletic Department as an intern for the Tennessee Fund.
To have had the opportunity to attend a fantastic state university and wear the orange and white on my chest and on my back has meant the world to me and my family.
– Alyssa Andreno, honorary recipient of the Dr. Sharon B. Lord Women’s Athletic Leadership Scholarship
Using her platform as an athlete, Andreno regularly visits the East Tennessee Children’s Hospital. “When I go in,” she says, “I talk to the kids, we play games, watch movies—nothing too extravagant or anything. But being able to help take their minds off of what they are going through and to give them an escape from the hospital rooms and the doctors is really important to me.”
As a member of the VOLeaders Academy, she went on an outreach trip to Ecuador. “That was life changing,” says Andreno. “Being able to go to a country where they don’t have the facilities that we have here really just puts things into perspective. We went and visited one of their Olympic training facilities, and they weren’t nearly as flashy or extravagant as some of the places we have here, yet the love and the dedication people have there is something that we can really learn from.”
“VOLeaders is one of the things that I cherish the most about my college experience,” says Andreno. “The relationships I’ve formed are unbelievable. I’ve done so much learning about myself and growing. I feel blessed to be a part of a program that gives me invaluable tools to be able to lead others in the best way that I can.”
Photos courtesy of Tennessee Athletics