Alicea Davis is a true Cheerleader at East Chapel Hill
Alicea Davis has never been afraid to use her voice.
"My mom says since I could talk I've been singing," the East Chapel Hill High School senior said. "I guess I've gotten better over the years, I hope I've gotten better over the years."
At East Chapel Hill sporting events you'll often hear her sing the national anthem before the game. During it shes uses her vocal chords to inspire the team and the crowd.
"Smooth and easy, that's how we do, we take it smooth and easy!" Davis chants in unison with the rest of the East Chapel Hill cheerleading squad during a girls basketball game.
"It's just so fun," Davis said about being a cheerleader. "It's not like a job where you have to come everyday and it's boring and blah, blah, blah...it's fun."
Davis serves as the team's co-captain during the football season and enjoys the leadership opportunity.
"I'm a natural born leader," Davis said. "I always take charge and I try to sit back more, but it's kind of hard because my mom is a leader. We're just a family of leaders."
"She's one of those that takes charge," Alicea's mother, Monica Davis said. "She knows what she wants and she goes after it."
Using her voice to cheer is fun, but using it to create change is fulfilling. Alicea is at the forefront of groups like the NAACP Youth Council and the Leadership Council for Students of Color dedicated to creating racial quality at East Chapel Hill.
"I'm African-American, my mother, my family," Alicea said. "Just the fact that my kids will have to grow up in a world where they aren't equal. Just that they'll have to grow up in a world where there's hate because of what you look like is not going to work for me."
Alicea lives her young adult life with a wisdom and passion that comes from almost having it all taken away.
"It was surreal, it's amazing how it all happened," Monica remembered.
When Alicea was four years old her family noticed a bulge on her stomach. Tests revealed the worst. There was a cancerous Wilms tumor on her kidney.
"First thing I was saying was Lord why not me," Monica said. "Can it just be me not her, it didn't make sense she was four years old."
To remove the cancer, Doctors had to take out Alicea's entire kidney. She'd undergo twenty weeks of chemo which took away her hair, but never her spirit. The experience has helped mold her into the positive person you see today.
"I want to live a full life," Alicea said. "I want to live a life just like my parents did, just like their parents lived, I want to have kids one day. So that means I have to take care of myself as much as possible."
Alicea's ability to get the most out of life as a student, athlete and activist has earned her WRAL's Tom Suiter Extra Effort Award.
"The fact that somebody is recognizing me for my character is absolutely amazing," Alicea said. "That's bigger than money or anything else. The fact that somebody cares enough about who I am as a person is amazing to me."
