She attended Signal Academy from age 14, and her teachers universally praised her work ethic, and she quickly carved out a perch at the top of her sparring class. She never told anyone that her obsessive training was in an effort to strengthen her Aura enough, and control her Semblance enough, to be able to use it in battle. She has only attained limited success. She also attracted many admirers during her time at Signal, one of whom also caught her eye: Sentius Tarascon. For three years, Alice and Sentius (or "Dom" and "Sin" as they called each other) were inseparable. She was the perfect girl, he was the perfect guy, it was a perfect match.
Having almost given up on becoming a Huntress due to her self-proclaimed "useless-in-battle" semblance, Sin narrowly convinced Alice to follow him to Beacon, where they became part of Team DUST. DUST were the best of friends, and, though not the strongest, they were probably the most popular all throughout their first year... until their first field mission. Alice and Sin were both convinced that the best way to train as a team was to push themselves as hard as possible, and take the hardest mission. After much cajoling, they finally managed to convince a professor to vouch for them and allow them to go on a mission whose difficulty rating put it in the higher tiers of what was allowed for second years.
The mission involved tracking and defeating a large Nevermore that had been intermittently blocking trade between Vale and Vacuo for weeks - not enough to warrant a full investigation, but enough that it made its way to the Beacon mission board. The mission should have been simple, if difficult, for a Huntsman and 4 in training. However, the Nevermore turned out to be enormous, much more so that reports had indicated. Not only that, a pack of Beowulves had moved into the area as well, and ambushed the trainees during the fight with the Nevermore.
One of the team was felled by their claws while they were distracted by the gigantic Grimm.
While the Huntsman fended off the Nevermore, the remaining trainees took the pack to task, defeating them one by one. When only three remained, two attacking Sin and one attacking the remaining team member, Alice rushed to Sin's aid. As they slew one of the two easily, Alice heard the cry of their last team member and knew she had chosen wrong.
Leaving Sin to defeat his remaining Beowulf himself, she dashed to attack the other before it could finish off her teammate - but she didn't dare power her rush with too much Aura, as the Nevermore still had to be dealt with. She arrived and pierced the Grimm's heart from behind... but as it faded away, she knew she had chosen wrong again: the Beowulf had already struck the final blow.
Behind her, Sin had finished off the last of the pack, and had moved to engage the Nevermore with the Huntsman. Shaking her grief away, she tightened her grip on Chain of Command and moved to support Sin, but his Aura, depleted from the fight against the Beowulves, could not save him from the Nevermore's beak.
In her despair, the last of her team, she let out a shriek and fell to her knees... and in her rage, reached out with her Semblance and forced a lash of vines to grip the Nevermore's wings and feet, holding it long enough for the Huntsman to kill it.