Get to know Trevecca’s 2025 homecoming queen finalists

By Michelle Loria Alvarado

Executive Editor

One Trevecca female will represent Trevecca at all official homecoming events as the 2025 Trevecca Homecoming Queen. 

After two rounds of voting, three finalists remain. The last round for homecoming voting was released on Friday, October 24, in the afternoon and will close tonight, Tuesday, October 28, at 11:59 p.m.

Executive Editor, Michelle Loria Alvarado, interviewed the three homecoming queen finalists. 

Photo provided by Briley Daniels

Loria Alvarado: Who or what has had the biggest impact on your journey at Trevecca, and why?

Daniels: I would probably say, Melinda Bartling and Anita Shepperd, just because I never had mentors growing up, and they’ve really become my second moms and just some of my closest friends and I’ve been able to talk to them, and they’ve been able to pour in me and invest in me and just help me to become a godly woman. 

Loria Alvarado: What does being part of the Trevecca community mean to you, and how have you contributed to it? 

Daniels: I just think more than anything, it’s being invited into this family that I know will be carried out through my lifetime. I know so many of the friendships that have been formed and just the relationships and even just the life concepts that I’ve learned have made such a lasting impact on me that I know that in my time at Trevecca, I’ve been discipled and I’m walking out with a sense of confidence because of the Trevecca community. So it’s just brought family and a sense of confidence and definitely a sense of pride that I get to carry with me. And I’ve contributed in a lot of really unique different ways. Some of them are more conventional, some not conventional. I traveled with PR for 2 years, so I was the singer and guitarist on the worship band. I have also been a peer mentor for 2 years, this year I got to lead TREK. I am the graduate assistant for Jen. Showalter, as well as I’m the intern for university engagement events. I facilitated gotcha, gotcha’s basically my baby. And that’s our all wide student fundraising event for giving day. So we doubled in size this past year, which is really exciting. I worked at kid power for 2 years as a teacher and a mentor. Then I lead two different Bible study groups. I lead one on Sunday nights with Tyler Fuller where we just really deep dive into different books of the Bible, and then I also lead a pickleball Bible study on Friday mornings where we play pickleball, and do a devotional, so those are just a few things that I’ve gotten to be a part of. 

Loria Alvarado: If you could give one piece of advice to incoming students, what would it be?

Daniels: I would say that the advice that has probably gotten me so much at college is a 100% get involved. And I feel like a lot of people say, get involved, but my piece of advice was be an initiator. There were lots of really uncomfortable times for me as an underclassman, and just stepping into this new season of independence and everything that it’s easy to kind of isolate yourself and just confine yourself, because of just the anxieties of being in your early 20s or late teenage years, and you kind of just feel on your own. But I feel like being an initiator not only does it include everyone else, but it kind of like gives you a sense of purpose on campus of ‘oh, yeah, like I do belong here’ and it gives you a sense of leadership too. And that would probably be my advice. It’s just kind of take uncomfortable steps and be an initiator. 

Loria Alvarado: What legacy or message do you hope to leave behind when you graduate? 

Daniels: I definitely want people when they think of me to know that they always had a place, they that they always had a seat at my table. I’ve really tried working hard of that, and even times when I say it being an initiator it’s been hard for me too, but I just hope people always know, that I was their friend, and I had their back, and I really cared about them. And I hope that the legacy that I would leave is just creating this really inclusive environment, and I hope that that picks up, and when I’m out of Trevecca that there’ll be other people who take my place throw the Halloween party or a random game night and just invite everyone. 

Loria Alvarado: Lastly, if you were a dessert, what would you be? 

Daniels: Probably like a chocolate lava cake, cuz, it’s like warm on the outside and full of surprises on the inside. 

Photo provided by Faith Brooks

Loria Alvarado: Who or what has had the biggest impact on your journey at Trevecca, and why?

Brooks: I would say my psychology professors that give me opportunities to be a student leader to help my peers with their coursework, through being a teaching assistant and a research assistant for psychology classes, and all of the support that they offer through grad school applications and figuring out my future. They have helped me a lot as a first-generation student to be able to navigate what college looks like, and then also what after college looks like, too.

Loria Alvarado: What does being part of the Trevecca community mean to you, and how have you contributed to it? 

Brooks: Trevecca is a really small school, which some people might see as a downside, but for me, it was the greatest aspect of coming here, because I knew I wouldn’t be seen as a number, I knew that Trevecca would see me as me, and that’s been really helpful for me to form close relationships with my professors, and I work on campus, so even with my peers, who come into my job or work at financial services and my bosses and co-workers there as well. 

I do the first-generation club mentoring, and I mentor college students, specifically freshmen, who come in as first Gen. and help them to go about their college life, and answer any questions they have, and we teach them about financial aid options, and we teach them how to set app their classes and help them to make their way through college, because first Gen. students don’t have parents or any other people in their family who are able to help them with college, and kind of be mentors, so I help out with that. 

Loria Alvarado: If you could give one piece of advice to incoming students, what would it be?

Brooks: Take every single opportunity that you have, whether that’s doing a tag trip, Trevecca around the globe. I’ve been to Alaska, and I’m going to Iceland for spring break. Do all the clubs that you can. Be involved in classes. If you talk to your professors, they will be able to know you better as well as students, and they can give you opportunities to careers. I’ve gotten internship opportunities from Trevecca that are going to help prepare me for the future. So I would just say get as involved as you can, and take every opportunity that Trevecca has because there’s a lot. And it’s a small school, which means it’s really easy to make yourself known. 

Loria Alvarado: What legacy or message do you hope to leave behind when you graduate?

Brooks: The effort you put in pays off. Whether that’s paying attention in classes, doing your homework, doing your homework on time, or hanging out with friends, making time for people in your community, that kind of effort that you put in pays off, and I think that I’m really seeing that, especially in my senior year. 

Loria Alvarado: If you were a dessert, what would you be? 

Brooks: Apple pie. I’d say apple pie, because there’s a lot of layers to it, and it’s delicious.

Photo provided by Valeria Avila

Loria Alvarado: Who or what has had the biggest impact on your journey at Trevecca, and why?

Avila: I feel like there’s a lot of people that have helped me here in my journey. First of all, I feel like my advisor has shaped a lot of what I’ve accomplished here at Trevecca. Also in my position as an RA, all the RD’s here giving me the opportunity of trusting my job. For example, in RA position, they gave me their full trust that I would do a good job on it. And they just helped me build my confidence in my position as well as like my advisor, as I said. She always kept me pushing forward in my major and she never let me back down. So those are the 2 people that whenever I think back on my college journey, I would be really grateful, because I am where I am because of all the encouragement and all of the nice words, and just helping me to keep pushing forward to my main goals. 

Loria Alvarado: What does being part of the Trevecca community mean to you, and how have you contributed to it? 

Avila: I feel like being part of a Trevecca community. It’s just a way where we can be vulnerable enough with other people and just help each other build our strength and our weaknesses towards [being] a better person, if that makes sense. It’s just like a journey of getting closer to the Lord and getting to experience things that you could have never thought that you would accomplish in other lives. I’m just really grateful for this community of vulnerability and coming closer to the path that God wants for us to accomplish in our life. And I feel like I have contributed and my leadership positions as an RA and as a student worker here at Trevecca. Trying to put myself out there for people and letting them know that I’m here for them. Whenever they need something either if it’s just like by talking to me or just hanging out, or just saying hi on the hallway and helping them feel seen, has been something that I’ve been looking forward ever since I got here. 

Loria Alvarado: If you could give one piece of advice to incoming students, what would it be?

Avila: Don’t be scared of the journey and just go for it. I feel like whenever you come here, you feel a lot of fear of what if I don’t fit to this friend group, what if I’m not good enough for my major, and it’s just a lot of self-doubt. If God puts puts you in this position of being here, it’s because he knows he has great plans for your life. And it’s just a journey of like trusting him, and knowing that you’re gonna be ok. And once you look back to your freshman year, you see how much you grow and how many opportunities you would have lost, because of the fear of not being able to do it, and the fear of someone rejecting you or saying, ‘no, you’re not good enough for this position,’ or ‘no, you’re not good enough for this major.’

Loria Alvarado: What legacy or message do you hope to leave behind when you graduate? 

Avila: I hope that people can feel encouraged of doing what they love and just giving their all for what they’re working forward to. It’s just a fact of, if you have faith in God and just trust that his goals are bigger than what yours are, no one is going to take that joy from your life. And It’s just a fact of trusting in him and knowing that everything’s going to be okay and you’re gonna do great. 

Loria Alvarado: If you were a dessert, what would you be? 

Avila: I would be a Strawberry Shortcake, just because that’s my favorite dessert.

To vote for this year’s homecoming queen, you can click here.