Meet Alyssa Tucker: Chef, Athlete, Future Nurse
If you’re hungry and crave a home-cooked meal, Alyssa is your go-to person. She loves to cook and lives just five minutes away from campus. From asparagus to roasted lamb chops, to cakes and pies, Alyssa cooks it all! And it’s no surprise, since cooking skills run in her family. It was food that brought her half-Italian, half-Polish grandmother and her German grandfather together. But, Alyssa is the only person in her family who can bake!
Originally from Laguna Beach, California, Alyssa came to New York for college, while her parents moved Utah. What made her leave the sunny coast and move to Staten Island? “I wanted to go as far away from California as possible without leaving the country,” she said, revealing how much it matters to her to experience new things, meet new people and make connections in different places.
Name: Alyssa Tucker
Year: Senior
Major: Biopsychology
Hometown: Laguna Beach, California
Extracurriculars: Biology research, softball, photography, FaceTiming her dogs
Fun fact: Her favorite place in NYC is Brooklyn’s Industry City. She loves going there to take photos and eat.
Fun fact: She has driven across the country five times, from California to New York, making her now very familiar with all the different routes that connect the coasts. Again, not a surprise: Alyssa loves driving! Whether it’s between the coasts or the 5-minute drive from her house to campus – Alyssa and Maggie (her Ford Escape) are inseparable.
And, of course, the iconic question, “Why Wagner?” Alyssa came here on a softball scholarship, but she suffered some injuries that prevented her from playing, so she is now the student assistant coach.
Alyssa also greatly values the education she gets at Wagner. “If you want to be educated, you need to put in the effort to be educated,” she said, explaining how important it is for her to focus on growing not only athletically, but also academically.
Alyssa is majoring in biopsychology. She is planning on enrolling in a second-degree nursing program upon graduation from Wagner, as she has come to realize she would like to pursue a nursing career.
As a landscape photography lover, Alyssa is very excited to travel to Italy in December and see the beautiful European sceneries for the first time in her life. She will be shadowing the doctors in a hospital in Milan and exploring the city (and maybe some other cities too!) in her free time. She can’t wait to try the authentic Italian coffee and risotto.
Alyssa is also passionate about writing, which is one of the reasons she joined our HawkTalk team. “I just wanted a break from all of the science,” she said. “I like to write in my free time, but I want to see what it’s like to write for an audience.”
One of the things Alyssa would like to write about is the chronicle of a student-athlete, one who is focused on their education. She will write it from her own experience with juggling academics, athletics, and personal problems over the years, and the insights she gets from her many friends on campus.