While his story is unlike any other Four Diamonds child, Kionne Abrams took the Bryce Jordan Center by storm and won the hearts of many at THON 2025.

Abrams grew up in foster care in Philadelphia, where he missed 148 days of school over five years before he moved to State College while still in foster care.

With a hopeful legal guardian lined up, Abrams came to Happy Valley in September 2021, when he began working with school psychologist Alyssa Abrams at Park Forest Elementary, as she evaluated Kionne and provided the school with suggestions to best support him.

In the process of helping Kionne in school, Alyssa also went through a months-long process of tracking down his medical records, and after finally doing so, she passed them along to then-school nurse Gwynne Decker.

Decker discovered in the 107 pages of medical records that Kionne had been treated at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia from June 2015 to January 2016 for Burkitt’s Leukemia. He has since been in remission after receiving his last treatment at 4 years old.

Alyssa’s work wasn’t over yet, however. When she found out in February 2022 that Kionne’s foster care placement was no longer seeking permanent legal custody, Alyssa immediately knew what she had to do, and quickly called her husband, Dylan.

That June, Kionne moved in with the Abrams family, and for over two years, social workers visited them weekly to conduct check-ins. However, those stopped in July 2024, when Alyssa and Dylan adopted Kionne and he officially became a part of the family.

“Kionne will say he’s really happy he doesn’t have to do those social worker visits anymore, but I think I can see a sense of stability we have,” Alyssa Abrams said. “He’s not worried about, ‘Where am I going to live next?’ It’s like, ‘Do I have to put my socks in the laundry?'”

The process of going from Kionne’s school psychologist to his adopted mother didn’t come without its challenges for Alyssa, though, as she described it as “really strange.”

While working with Kionne at Park Forest Elementary, Alyssa was studying to attain her PhD in school psychology from Penn State, where she also received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees.

“He met me as Mrs. Abrams. In that process, I became Dr. Abrams, so then I kept correcting him. I was like, ‘First of all, it’s not Mrs., it’s Doctor, but also it’s Alyssa.’ At first, he called me Auntie Alyssa, and he called Dylan, Uncle Dylan,” Alyssa said. “We didn’t want him to call me Mom because he does have his [birth] mom in Philly, and so we decided on ‘Mamasan.’ Now, it’s become a thing, so he’ll say, ‘I love you, Mamasan,’ and it’s just the cutest thing ever. And he just calls Dylan, Dylan.”

Before Kionne was officially their son and the name “Mamasan” was coined at his adoption, Alyssa and Dylan were doing everything they could to ensure a happy, healthy life for the once-stranger.

In November 2022, about five months after Kionne moved in, he and Dylan took a road trip to Penn State’s Hershey Medical Center for survivorship care that would ensure he was still in remission, which was the case.

After receiving care in Hershey, Four Diamonds contacted the Abrams family, asking if they’d like to become a Four Diamonds family and eventually be paired with an organization that participates in THON.

As a former Penn State student, Alyssa, who is 29, knew exactly what being paired with an organization meant, so she agreed but never knew how much that decision would pay off.

The Abrams family was matched with Zeta Beta Tau (ZBT), a fraternity that has changed Kionne’s life in a number of ways, so much so that Kionne himself hopes to one day attend Penn State and be a part of ZBT.

“[Kionne] goes there and he can just be. He doesn’t have to worry about being awkward or being weird or whatever because they just are celebrating him. It’s all about him,” Alyssa Abrams said. “They are just so much like family. I tell them all, ‘Thank you for loving Kionne as much as I do.'”

The connection between the Abrams family and ZBT hasn’t only benefitted Kionne, though.

ZBT family relations chair Spencer Cohen, a senior studying telecommunications, said the relationship has had the biggest positive impact on his time at Penn State while helping the fraternity see a deeper meaning of THON.

“[Being paired with] Kionne was one of the best things that has happened to our organization,” Cohen said. “THON without a family is obviously important, but you don’t really know what you’re fighting for. Getting Kionne and the Abrams as a family really helped us have a purpose for raising money and allowed us to become a lot more involved. Kionne as a person is great.”

Outside of THON, experiences the fraternity and the Abrams family have shared include pumpkin painting, a holiday gift exchange, an annual carnival, and even the brothers attending Kionne’s adoption hearing on Zoom and watching his gymnastics meets in person.

While Alyssa said events hosted by ZBT involving the family alleviate some of the stress involved in forming a teenager’s extracurricular schedule, she and the fraternity brothers all feel they’ve become closer through the various activities.

Despite Kionne and the Abrams family holding onto a tight connection with ZBT year-round, it truly comes to fruition each February during THON Weekend, and 2025 was more special than any other year for them.

Alyssa said it became “Kionne’s big goal for the entire year” to stay overnight at the Bryce Jordan Center at THON this year, and not only did he and his family accomplish that, but they were there for 38 of the dance marathon’s 46 hours.

The many hours spent at the BJC, which Alyssa described as “super special,” were made up of Kionne participating in the Kids’ Talent Show, him leading the men’s gymnastics team onto the floor for its Pep Rally performance, and Alyssa giving a speech during Family Hour.

As THON 2025 began to wind down and Family Hour commenced, Alyssa took the stage to give a speech about Kionne’s story, their partnership with ZBT, and THON’s impact.

It wasn’t the first time Alyssa shared her speech with an audience, as she first gave it at a ZBT gala two years ago. However, with Kionne by her side and Dylan looking on from a few steps back, it was particularly memorable in front of a full THON crowd.

The speech ended with Alyssa looking at Kionne and saying, “I love you, buddy. Thank you for letting me tell your story,” and the two embraced for a minutes-long hug while the crowd roared.

“I blacked out when I looked at myself on the big screen and did not come back into my body until that moment. I basically mic dropped, but didn’t want to drop the actual mic. You could see me take this deep breath, and after that, I went and hugged my husband, and I was like, ‘It went so well,'” she said. “I started crying, but I held it together until then. I don’t know how.”

While the Abrams family held each other on stage, many people looked on in tears and reflected on the reasons they participated in THON.

“The speech at the end was just the cherry on top. It was unreal. For all of us, it was a feeling of gratefulness, because Alyssa was speaking so highly about us on that stage,” Cohen, who heard the speech from the stands, said. “That speech really stuck with me, because this kid went from really nothing to having this gigantic, loving, caring family. I’m just honored to be a part of it.”

The speech at THON put a further emphasis on the improbable story of Kionne Abrams, and how a school psychologist in her 20s and her husband made a life-changing impact on him.

Whether it be the family he found through his adoption or through his Four Diamonds partnership, Kionne is grateful to be a part of them. Kionne, now 13, is excelling in school more than ever and is competing in level-six gymnastics.

“I just did what any person should do for this kid. He deserves it,” Alyssa said. “He’s so amazing.”