A Tinley Park teen who has a history of helping the homeless was named a Saint Xavier University Cuneo Scholar.
Ashley Galassini, 18, a graduate of Andrew High School, is a freshman at the university studying nursing. The scholarship is worth $25,000.
“College is one of the most expensive things we can do in life,” she said. “It really gives me a sense I can focus on what matters because of this scholarship.”
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Galassini has worked with the homeless for several years, including volunteering with PADS homeless shelters.
“I spent a few Thanksgiving and Christmas Eves with them,” she said.
She has also helped at Daybreak soup kitchen, and made mats for the homeless and assembled kits filled with items for them, she said.
Her dream is to be a nurse at Advocate Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn. She said she has several family members who are nurses, and Christ has a good reputation.
“It’s a great place to start a career,” she said.
Galassini has volunteered in many other capacities. With the non-profit Convey of Hope, she staffed a breast cancer awareness tent in some of Chicago’s poorest neighborhoods, teaching women how to detect breast cancer and how to self-check as well as the importance of annual exams. Using medical anatomy models, she explained “what a cancer lump look like and feels like,” she said.
“I lot of women did not have that information,” she said.
For the past seven years, she has coached a baseball team, the Tinley Park Bobcat Challengers, comprised of people with special needs. She said she got involved because she has a family friend on the team.
She and a friend went to New York’s Coney Island after Hurricane Sandy to help hurricane victims there, she said.
Galassini was awarded one of two Cuneo Scholarships for the year, according to a Saint Xavier release. The other recipient was Peter Para, of Willow Springs.
Erin Gallagher is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.