Since she was in second grade, Gili has served her parish and local community in countless capacities, always being at the ready when something needed to be done, and stepping in to lend a helping hand.

And her service and dedication has led to the fulfillment of a personal dream – being able to attend Georgian Court University, Lakewood.

Gili was selected as the latest recipient of the Bishop John Smith Full Tuition Scholarship to attend Georgian Court University, an award renewable for each of her four years as long as she maintains a 3.0 grade point average. She is looking forward to attending the Mercy institution, where she plans to study physical therapy and is considering a career in serving people of poor nations with the much-needed craft.

“I almost started crying,” she said when recalling the moment she was told about the award. “It was such a blessing…I could not believe it!”

Gili recently graduated from Monsignor Donovan High School, Toms River, after transferring there at the start of her junior year from Lacey Township High School, Lanoka Harbor. The decision to transfer schools midway, she said, was the best thing she could have done.

“I just kind of felt like my Catholic faith was lacking,” she said when discussing her time in the public high school during her freshman and sophomore years. “I could not really talk about God without everyone looking at (me) like I was weird. But at Monsignor Donovan, you could.”

She said the friends she made at the Catholic high school, and the powerful religious development she experienced through faith teaching there, made the struggle of changing schools worthwhile, and made it possible for her to strengthen her faith.

“I have always had a strong family faith in the Catholic Church,” she said. “My parents were a big influence in guiding me in major life decisions.”

Gili’s involvement in her parish and community began before she even began to contemplate her high school choice, however.

Her pastor, Father Richard Basznianin of St. Pius X Parish, Forked River, said that she began serving as an altar server almost immediately after making her first Holy Communion in the second grade. She continues in this capacity to this day.

“Christina is a role model of faith and is looked up to by many children in the parish,” Father Basznianin wrote in a letter of recommendation for the scholarship award. “…The elderly community (also) looks forward to sharing in her smile and warm personality when she visits the nursing home.”

He continued, “I could think of no other young person who more exemplifies compassion, service, and dedication to the Catholic faith…she has been a blessing to our parish.”

Since her freshman year in high school, Gili has been an active member of the parish youth group, an involvement that former youth group leader Karin Winnie could not be more excited about.

“Christina has always shown an intense interest in her religion,” Winnie wrote in a letter supporting Gili for the award. “She continuously asked questions that would further her understanding of the material being discussed during our meetings.”

Gili has participated in a variety of service projects, including a “Sleep Out for the Homeless,” a parish fish fry and wreath sale, and a number of area retreats. Aside from being an altar server, she serves as a teacher’s assistant in the CCD program and has participated in the Right to Life March in Washington for two straight years.

She has also been involved in her parish Vacation Bible School, and this summer she will participate in her third mission trip through the Catholic Heart Work Camp, through which she has served already in Boston, Mass., and Pittsburgh, Pa., and will soon volunteer in Kearny.

Throughout her high school career, Gili has served on student government and has volunteered to support the troops serving in Iraq and a fundraiser benefiting the Special Olympics. She has also enjoyed playing soccer, which was her first connection to Georgian Court.

After her father introduced her to the head soccer coach at the university, she began to practice there and met many of the girls on the team. She also played there on several occasions, and slowly fell in love with the campus and community.

“I always wanted to go there, probably since I was a sophomore in high school,” she said. “That was always my number one.”