Marcella Di Piero is an amazing Ridgewood alumna and college Student-Athlete who is dancing her way through life.
Di Piero’s dance career started when she was three. At this age, her mother decided to enroll her in dance lessons. Going up to age twenty-two, dance has still been a major part of Di Piero’s life.
Marcella graduated from Ridgewood High School in 2017 and then went on to attend University Illinois of Chicago.
While Marcella was attending RHS she was actively involved in athletics, she was a member of the soccer team as well as the Poms team. Looking back at her time at RHS, she noted her favorite memories were the practices and competitions in both soccer and dance.
Now, Di Piero is getting ready to graduate from UIC this spring. She will be graduating with a degree in Criminal Law and Justice. After graduation, her goal is to start off as a paralegal and to continue dancing, as dance has always been her escape.
“I decided on this major because I’ve always loved to learn about what happens in the real world,” said Di Piero.
During her time at UIC, she has always been on the dance team. She actually committed to UIC as soon as she made the dance team. Due to the ongoing pandemic, the 2020-2021 season has been a different experience than seasons past.
“This season has been different than previous seasons, because we are not able to dance half-time at any of the basketball games, travel to tournaments with the boys basketball team and we are not able to go to Florida for Nationals. We actually had to send in our competition video and compete virtually for Nationals,” said Di Piero.
Although, this year has been different in many ways, some things have been the same. Marcella explained how the season has been the same.
“We still have practiced very hard as though we were in person for every event. We also have a personal trainer this year, so we are in the weight room 2 out of the 7 days a week,” said Di Piero. She’s also been able to still spend her senior season with her teammates, who she now considers to be close friends.
When reflecting on her dance career at UIC, Di Piero noted that her favorite memories were always competing, whether that be in Vegas or Florida.
Di Piero had one last piece of advice for the graduating RHS class, as they go off into the world.
“My advice is to take every opportunity to get out and meet new people, because college goes by faster than high school,” advised Marcella.