Alyssa Corazzini
Director of Youth Programs, Friendly House, Inc.
Class of 2025
How did QCC impact your journey?
In 2020, I was part of a program called Bonner Scholars at my previous college in Pennsylvania. For spring break, we did a volunteer service trip in Jamaica. While we were there, COVID broke out. They quarantined us at the camp, and it was there we found out we'd be going home to a shut-down campus. When I got back to Worcester, I needed to get my own place, build my resume, and figure out life fast. I got a full-time job at a hospital call center, and by the time I had an apartment and a car, going back to school in Pennsylvania didn't make sense anymore.
I was juggling a lot while trying to establish myself back home. It took me a couple of months being back home but eventually I enrolled in three courses at QCC. I took a job in Framingham, and now I had to commute. Between working, commuting, and class, I had taken on too much without a plan. In my personal life, my mother had health issues. I was supporting her recovery and it all became too much and without the right support I failed two classes. I quickly learned I needed a plan and I needed support.
When I made the decision to come back, I had to pay $2,000 in failed classes before I could re-enroll. Did I have that money sitting around? No. Did I pay it off? Yes. It was a real sacrifice, but one of the most important lessons I ever learned. Once I paid it off, I was determined to finish school as fast as possible, and someone pointed me toward Gabe Santer from TRIO to help me figure out a plan. He sat me down and kept it completely real with me. He asked earnestly, “Do you actually think you can balance working full-time as a director and going to school full-time?” I said yes, but only because I wanted him to register me. On the inside I was unsure but I made a plan with my boss and got started.
I struggled. I would be running late and start questioning if I should even go. And then I would go in anyway. I worked 10 to 12-hour days when I wasn't in class and set up little rewards just to get through: a coffee, a matcha, an arepa from the cafeteria. I showed up to tutoring, office hours, and sought out my astronomy professor directly to go through all my questions before class. She later told me she had nominated me for the STEM Student of the Semester award. I was completely shocked. She saw someone who was hardworking — and I hadn't seen it in myself yet.
What made QCC matter wasn't just the degree. It was Gabe from TRIO, who kept meeting with me when I didn't believe in myself yet. It was my astronomy professor who came in early so I wouldn't miss work. It was my humanities professor who let me come in late without making me feel like I didn't belong. And it was my classmates, nurses, firefighters, a mom of two, who attended my program, all of them balancing life but showing up anyway. I needed to see that it was possible before I could believe it was possible for me.
Real failure is not taking the step at all. You don't say no to yourself before anyone else even gets the chance. I put a graduation cap on my vision board, not even believing I could make it happen, and I graduated while walking with my twin sister. This coming December, I will have completed my bachelor's degree. You are on your own path. The timeline you had in your head is not the only one that counts. You can start whenever. Start now.
What are you currently doing?
I am the director of youth programs at Friendly House, Inc. in Worcester, where I oversee after-school programs, a teen leadership program, basketball programming, and summer programming. At the core of everything I do is making sure young people in Worcester have safe, enriching spaces to grow academically, socially, and culturally. Outside of work, I am finishing my bachelor's in Urban Studies at Worcester State, maintaining a 4.0 GPA, and was recently inducted into Upsilon Sigma, the national Urban Studies honor society.
What advice would you give to current students and fellow alumni?
Surround yourself with people who make you feel like growing. People who are ambitious, working, building, the kind of people who say let's go and mean it. That energy is contagious and it will completely change how you experience your everyday life. Those relationships carried me when I couldn't carry myself. And tell someone your goal out loud, because once you do, they are going to hold you to it.
How can we connect with you and support you?
I'd love to stay connected. Find me on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/alyssa-c-36837a257
If you want to support the work we're doing at Friendly House, you can donate or sponsor our upcoming block party. Every bit goes directly toward creating safe, enriching spaces for youth right here in Worcester.