Davenport West's Olivia Pizano surprised with Dooley Scholarship
Olivia Pizano of Davenport West is this year's winner of the Dooley Scholarship.
The award is in the amount of $20,000 payable at the rate of up to $5,000 per year over a four-year period of undergraduate schoolwork. It can be used at any accredited college or university.
Pizano plans to attended the University of Iowa, where she'll major in human physiology and biology, with plans to become a diagnostic radiologist.
'I'm gonna be doing biology and human anatomy and physiology as a double major, and then a minor in computer science,' Pizano said.
Pizano said she works hard to ensure a better life for herself after some tough times growing up.
'I grew up in Bettendorf, and in that area, we were known as kind of like a poor, more poor family,' Pizano said. 'We lived in and out of motels. We got evicted from our apartment in Iowa City, which left us moving to Bettendorf, and most of the motels that we lived in have been demolished because they were not up to code, up to standard.'
She ended up living in a car for a while.
'We lived in a 1999 car,' Pizano said. 'It was an old 1999 Oldsmobile. We lived there for like a week. We were surviving off of like bread and water, and it was in the midst of summer — July — so it was really hot and there was no AC in the car since it was so old. And I just knew I didn't want that life for myself. And so I constantly started working hard and I got multiple jobs, and I'd work and I'd save my money. And just seeing my mom go through that and us having to be homeless and getting bullied because of what I wore, and the fact that I didn't have the best hygiene, it really made me, reflect on that life and want to do better for my own life.'
Pizano is 'an outstanding leader, actively involved in the National Honor Society, Leo Club, and Mentors in Violence Prevention. Congratulations Oliva, we can't wait to see the impact you make,' the Davenport Community School District posted on social media.
The scholarship is awarded annually by the Davenport Community School District Scholarship Selection Committee and the Quad Cities Community Foundation.
It was started in 1965 by the late Dr. Walter Neiswanger, who named it after Dr. Thomas Dooley, a physician who ran medical clinics in the mountains of Vietnam and Laos.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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