Rose Float Princesses: Alisa Unell

One of the first things one notices within minutes of talking to Rose Float princess Alisa Unell is that she's usually in charge.

Among the 17-year-old Alverno High School student's duties, when she's not working with the Rose Float Association, is chief justice of the school's Supreme Court, founder and captain of the swim team, head of the worship band and president of the choirs. She's also part of several groups giving aid to children and the homeless, and is also the sergeant-at-arms for her school's ambassador corp. 

"I've taken a long journey in learning about myself ... what I do best, what I don't do best, where my strengths lie. I think (leadership) is being able to put those talents to use," she said. "One thing I think makes a good leader is someone who is willing to sacrifice their own goals for the goals of the group. In the end, if you're leading a group, then it's not about you. There needs to be some self-sacrifice. I've definitely learned that this year.

"It also has to be a lot of patience and listening," she added. If you don't know what the other people in the group want, you can't fully deliver ... I maybe can't do all the fancy artwork or all of the intricate details, but I can lead and manage a group if you tell me what needs to get done."

The ability to get things done is part of the requirements to represent Sierra Madre as a princess, she said. Not only does one have to live in the city and be between 15-18 years of age, but all candidates must have a 3.0 GPA. Then there's an interview process focusing on a resume that lists all of a candidate's activities in both school and the community. The four young ladies picked as princess were picked from a pool of roughly 20 candidates.

When she does deliver, Alisa wants to do it in Sierra Madre, a place that she and her family call their true home after moving to the city about four years ago from Burbank. Before Burbank, Alisa lived in La Crescenta.

"It's the quintessential small town," she said when asked to describe her home. "There are cops who stop by my house. When i first moved here about four years ago, the fire chief was a couple of doors down and said hi, and let me know about the volunteer fire department. It was so sweet. I love living here."

What she also loves is singing. Part of her sacrifice for the sake of her princesshood is having less time to help out and sing with the worship band. But one of her fondest personal accomplishments has been her first music demo, which came out in August and recently got added to iTunes.

"I was proud of that because it took years and years to accomplish, sitting in a room and listening to it over and over," she said. However, that doesn't mean she'll be angling for a spot on American Idol or The Voice anytime soon.

"I love music, but I want to do it as a hobby," she said. "There are people out there who want it a lot more than I do."

What she wants as far as college goes is to major in sociology or social psychology, since she "really likes to watch people interact, see why they interact in certain ways. Seeing what evokes certain emotions is really interesting."

She's looking at a trio of schools so far: University of San Diego, Westmont College in Santa Barbara, and Saint Michael's College in Vermont.

"It's exciting because I've never lived on my own, and it's scary because I've never lived on my own," she said. "I think if i move to Vermont, I'd have to come back a lot. I'm not sure if I'll be OK in college, but we'll wait and see what happens."