Meet the 2012 Point Scholars

Alyssa Mandula

DePaul University
Peace, Justice & Conflict Studies and Philosophy

Alyssa Mandula is majoring in peace, justice and conflict studies and philosophy DePaul University in Chicago while minoring in LGBT studies. Mandula was born and raised in the conservative town of Bloomington, Illinois, where she started her high school's gay‐straight alliance and ran The Central Illinois Safe School Alliance. She has worked as a national ambassador for The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, on the Youth Advisory Council for the The Trevor Project, and as a peer educator for Planned Parenthood. At DePaul, Mandula is deeply wrapped up in the LGBT community and the university’s queer group, Spectrum. In her short career as an activist, Mandula said she's met incredible people, but nothing motivates her more than her older sister, Holly, who has been a mentor, a sister and her best friend. Mandula plans to make a career out of fighting for educational equality for trans and genderqueer youth. She envisions a world where the gender binary is not the only way society knows how to look at and accept gender, and she is making that happen by educating her peers and challenging gender norms.