A girl smiling ear to ear raised her arms in the air in front of the Walt Disney World Cinderella Castle at Magic Kingdom.
She was wearing Mickey Mouse ears with her blonde hair tucked behind her face. She looked happy in the framed photograph.
The picture was placed at the bottom of a tree that was wrapped in yarn at her vigil Wednesday night. Friends and family walked up to the tree as tears streamed down their faces to hang pictures of Sophia Visent onto clothes pins.
Visent, a Uruguayan first-generation 22-year-old UF environmental management senior, died by suicide last week in Miami. More than 100 people gathered at the Plaza of the Americas to celebrate her life.
Candles lit the way as 16 of Visent’s closest friends and family members walked to the front of the crowd to read letters they wrote to her about their favorite memories.
Nicole Visent, one of her older sisters and a 23-year-old UF business administration junior, said she wanted Visent to be remembered by her joy, persistence and patience.
“She was a person that was just so filled with this tenacity,” Nicole Visent said. “This spark that only she could carry.”
Sara Hoffen, a 22-year-old UF international business master’s student and Visent’s friend, said she remembers the day she went tailgating with Visent at fraternity row. Visent wore heart-shaped glasses as they snuck into a DJ Pauly D concert by pretending to be in a sorority.
“When they played a Spanish song, she went crazy,” Hoffen said. “She laughed at me when I tried to sing the lyrics in Spanish.”
Bianca Sanchez, a 22-year-old UF microbiology senior, spoke about how Visent’s bubbly personality helped her get a picture with the drummer at an Andy Grammer concert at UF.
They later stopped at Gator Corner Dining Center and had root beer floats, she said.
But Sanchez said she also remembers Visent’s struggle with mental health.
She said she hopes Visent’s passing motivates UF to increase funding for the Counseling and Wellness Center, which offers mental health services to students, to hire more counselors.
“We as students put so much pressure on ourselves,” Sanchez said. “Organizations on campus are trying to break down the stigma against mental health, but I don’t think UF helps them enough.”
During the vigil, attendees signed a pledge to show their support for mental health awareness which they will present to the Dean of Students Heather White on Thursday at Peabody Hall.
White stood toward the back of the crowd. She could not be reached for comment after the vigil.
Aimee Wasserman, a 22-year-old UF philosophy senior, said she drove five hours down to Miami the night she heard Visent was in the hospital. Visent was in a coma for four days before the neurologist pronounced her brain dead.
“I kept wondering ‘How could this happen?’” Wasserman said.
Students wrote what they wished to say to Visent on post-it notes to include in a scrapbook that will be sent to Visent’s family in Miami. The vigil ended with a minute of silence.
“I will always have a place in my heart for you,” Wasserman said.
Lina Ruiz contributed to this report.
Pictures of Sophia Visent, a 22-year-old environmental management fourth year, are pinned on a tree Wednesday night as friends and family mourn her death with a candlelight vigil.
