With delicate origami flowers, rainbow crepe paper and dozens of tearful stories, friends, family and classmates of Alena Rey Gretencord remembered the Cal State Long Beach industrial design student at a memorial Wednesday afternoon.

Gretencord was killed by a hit-and-run driver early Sunday in Naples, and the department has been reeling at the loss of one of their brightest students.

She would’ve turned 23 on Thursday, Nov. 1.

“I keep expecting to see her walk down the halls,” said Martin Herman, chair of the industrial design department.

The same department at CSULB also suffered the loss of another of its brightest students three years ago. Nohemi Gonzalez, an industrial design student, was studying in France when she was killed in the Paris terrorist attacks on Nov. 13, 2015.

Police said Gretencord was walking on a center median along Second Street near Tivoli Drive when she fell into the eastbound lanes of Second Street around 1:30 a.m. Sunday. Police are still looking for the white Ford F-150 that hit her.

Some students in the department stayed up late last night folding dozens of the origami flowers to decorate Gretencord’s memorial inside a gallery in the design building on campus.

Gretencord was well loved, even almost considered a staff member, Herman said.

Friends and family shared personal stories about Gretencord with those who filled the large gallery space.

An “incredibly hard worker,” Gretencord would work on projects through the night, just to make sure the project was perfect, said Chris Sagui, a senior industrial design student and friend.

She was a leader in the department and helped struggling students, studying with them in the library nearly every day.

And she would whistle while she worked, trilling like a bird while making it look like she wasn’t whistling at all, he said.

“It took the stress off,” Sagui said. “It got me through a lot of nights.”

While she worked hard, Gretencord knew how to have fun. When she and her friends were going to go out, she would often wear a gold chain.

“I used to think that the gold chain stood for: ‘We’re about to have fun,’ but now I see that it wasn’t the gold chain that meant we’re going to have fun, it was Alena,” Sagui said.

On a screen, dozens of photos of Gretencord flashed in a slideshow of her making funny faces, hanging out with friends, in class and on a spontaneous trip to San Francisco. She was clumsy and open-minded and liked trying new things—even trying lime juice on vanilla ice cream on a whim.

She advocated for the LGBTQ community and taught others about acceptance and inclusion, her friend Roman Wiant said.

“Alena was queer and that defined so much of who she was, her heart,” Wiant said. “Alena lived her life her way.”

Gretencord’s roommate and best friend, Brooke Harrington, described to the room full of design students and faculty how much they actually meant to Gretencord.

In a conversation about the future, Harrington asked her who she thought she might still be in contact with from the department in 10 years.

“She looked at me and without hesitation said, ‘Every single person,'” Harrington said. “I just wanted you guys to know that because she just loved this place so much.”

Gretencord’s father, Scott, asked the crowd not to let the day be such a solemn one and to continue sharing the funny and happy memories of his daughter’s life, even offering to help put on her birthday party that had been planned for later in the week.

“She wanted to go out not so sad,” Scott Gretencord said.

Instead of goodbye, he asked the crowd to say what Alena would always say: “Peace out.”