Giselle Ayala remembered at Cal Poly

It was an emotional Monday night at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo as students and faculty celebrated the life of first-year student Giselle Ayala.

The young woman’s body was found near Campus Point at UCSB earlier this month.

Friends, faculty and family members described 18-year-old Ayala as someone who could brighten your day with her smile at Monday night’s candlelight vigil.

The sociology major went to Santa Barbara for the Deltopia party. Her friends reported her missing Saturday night.

“On our way there she asked me if I felt I had changed any in college and we both agreed that we both had changed but in the best ways. We’d grown up,” said one of Ayala’s friends.

Students lit candles in remembrance of their fellow Mustang. The young woman’s family also had a message for her friends.

“We always knew that she was a positive life force on earth and your messages and thoughts just remind us how far her love, her friendship and her caring nature have extended,” said the university’s student body president.

The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department is still investigating Ayala’s death.