“According to my mom, I started singing before I even learned to talk. Writing music has always been a major passion of mine,” said Alissa DeWilde, who performed at Cabaret Night this year.

One of her acts was the singing of a song called “I Spy,” which she wrote in March of this year. Last year at Cabaret Night she sang “I Won’t Give Up” with Emily Walczyk, Madison Remington, Elijah Dercks, Brenda Aguilar, Tony Guerrero and David Torres. Her other performance this year was the singing of “Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen with freshman Ben Boucher.

“I came up with my song “I Spy” because I know that a lot of students deal with anxiety, and I believe that it is important that they know that they are beautiful, even if their peers disagree. Like many people, I was bullied a lot when I was younger, so this topic has always been really important to me,” said DeWilde.

Some of the sophomore songwriter’s other hobbies include writing poetry, volunteering for the less fortunate and acting. She has been in ten official plays, the last one being “The Snow Queen.”

Aside from “I Spy,” Dewilde has written several other songs. Among them are “Mountains,” Redeemed,” “Your Grace is More” and “I Believe.”

She said that two of her favorite songs are “Closer” by Bethel Live and “Oceans” by Hillsong. Her favorite singers are Francesca Battistelli and Jamie Grace.

After she graduates, she hopes to become a missionary, a psychologist, and eventually a youth pastor and worship leader. She also plans to serve in Myanmar, a country in Asia.

DeWilde said that her favorite book of the Bible is Romans, and her favorite book not found in the Bible is “The Giver” because “it illustrates individuality as being a key factor in excelling at life.”

“My two favorite verses are Romans 5:8, ‘but God demonstrates His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us,’ and Romans 3:23, ‘for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God,’ ” she said.