Campus & Community

Syracuse University announces 2011-12 Remembrance Scholars

Monday, May 2, 2011, By Kelly Homan Rodoski

Syracuse University’s Remembrance Scholar Committee has chosen the 35 students who will be the 2011-12 Remembrance Scholars.

The scholarships were founded as a tribute to—and means of remembering—the 35 students who were killed in the Dec. 21, 1988, bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. The students, who were returning from a semester of study in London and Florence, were among 270 people who perished in the bombing.

The scholarships are funded through an endowment supported by gifts from alumni, friends, parents and corporations. Significant support for the Remembrance Scholarships has been provided by C. Jean Thompson ’66 and Richard L. Thompson G’67 in memory of Jean Taylor Phelan Terry ’43 and John F. Phelan, Jean Thompson’s parents; and by the Fred L. Emerson Foundation.

Remembrance Scholars are chosen in their junior year through a rigorous and competitive process. Applicants write three essays as part of a comprehensive application and finalists and are interviewed by members of the selection committee, composed of University faculty, staff and students. The $5,000 scholarships are awarded on the basis of distinguished academic achievement, citizenship and service to the community.

“It has been my privilege to get to know the many impressive students who have been candidates for these scholarships, and especially to work alongside current Remembrance Scholars in selecting the next year’s class,” says Suzanne Thorin, University Librarian, dean of libraries and chair of the Remembrance Scholar Selection Committee. “Despite the tragic circumstances of its inauguration, this award has become an important vehicle for recognizing our most accomplished students and to honor those we have lost.”

The 2011-12 Remembrance Scholars will be recognized during a convocation in Hendricks Chapel on Nov. 11.

Additionally, the 2011-12 Lockerbie Scholars, Fergus Barrie and Jessica Liddon, were recently selected. Each year, two students from Lockerbie come to Syracuse for a year of study through the Syracuse-Lockerbie Scholarships, jointly funded by Syracuse and the Lockerbie Trust.

The 2011-12 Remembrance Scholars (and their hometowns and colleges/schools) are:

  • Firdaus Arastu of New Hartford, N.Y., The College of Arts and Sciences (A&S);
  • Forrest Ball of Naperville, Ill., A&S and the Martin J. Whitman School of Management;
  • Stephen Barton of Southbury, Conn., A&S;
  • Kelly Baug of Hamlin, N.Y., A&S;
  • Laura Beachy of Somerset, Pa., A&S and the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications;
  • Erin Corbett of Rome, N.Y., A&S and the Newhouse School;
  • Kelly D’Angelo of Rochester, N.Y., A&S and the Newhouse School;
  • Catherine DiVita of Oswego, N.Y., A&S and the Newhouse School;
  • Yonathan Eyob of New York, N.Y., A&S;
  • Oriana Fuentes of Lima, Peru, A&S and the Whitman School;
  • Calvin Iverson of Lexington, Mass., A&S and the Newhouse School;
  • Christopher Jennison of Silver Spring, Md., A&S and the Newhouse School;
  • Kadiah Kamara of Jacksonville, Fla., A&S;
  • Sean Kenney of Martinez, Calif., L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science (LCS) and the College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA);
  • In Gun Kim of Kyunggi-do, South Korea, A&S;
  • Megan Kinney of Syracuse, N.Y., the Whitman School and LCS;
  • Jordan LaPlante of Syracuse, N.Y., A&S;
  • Hunt Lau of Brooklyn, N.Y., the Whitman School;
  • Junjie Li of Brooklyn, N.Y., the Whitman School;
  • Margot Manasevit of Fairfield, Conn., A&S;
  • Christine Oh of Huntington Station, N.Y.; A&S and the Newhouse School;
  • Whitney Mercer of Shaker Heights, Ohio, A&S and the Newhouse School;
  • Vera Osafo of Bronx, N.Y., A&S;
  • Scott Pepperman of Liverpool, N.Y., College of Human Ecology;
  • Olivia Rhinehart of Manlius, N.Y., A&S and the School of Education;
  • Kathleen Ronayne of Gansevoort, N.Y., Newhouse School;
  • Jessica Smith of Pompton Lakes, N.J., School of Information Studies and the Newhouse School;
  • Margaret Spinosa of Baldwinsville, N.Y., A&S;
  • Kathleen Walpole of McLean, N.Y., A&S;
  • Melissa Weston of Fairfield, N.J.; A&S and the Newhouse School;
  • Evan Wichman of East Stroudsburg, Pa., School of Education and VPA;
  • Vivian Yu of Brooklyn, N.Y., A&S;
  • Yifeng Yuan of Syracuse, N.Y., LCS;
  •  Ariana Yuen of Ma On Shan, Hong Kong, A&S, the Whitman School and the Newhouse School; and
  • Robert Zaccaria of Cicero, N.Y., the Whitman School.