Campus & Community

Syracuse University announces 2010-11 Remembrance Scholars

Wednesday, May 5, 2010, By Kelly Homan Rodoski

Syracuse University’s Remembrance Scholar Committee has chosen the 35 students who will be the 2010-11 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 for the $5,000 scholarship were asked to highlight their University activities, including community service. Each applicant also wrote an essay and was interviewed by members of the selection committee, composed of University faculty, staff and students.

“It was a privilege to review the accomplishments of these young scholars, who will now be a part of a history so close to the hearts and minds of the Syracuse University community,” says Suzanne Thorin, dean of libraries and University librarian, and chair of the Remembrance Scholar Selection Committee. “Each one will take on a special responsibility to live the dreams of one of the young people we lost in the tragedy of Pan Am 103.”

The 2010-11 Remembrance Scholars will be recognized during a convocation in Hendricks Chapel on Oct. 22.

Additionally, the 2010-11 Lockerbie Scholars, Allison Donaldson and Duncan McNab, were recently selected. Each year, two students from Lockerbie, Scotland, come to Syracuse for a year of study through the Syracuse-Lockerbie Scholarships, jointly funded by Syracuse and the Lockerbie Trust.

The 2010-11 Remembrance Scholars (and their hometowns and colleges/schools) are:

  • Emily Allen of Smithfield, R.I., The College of Arts and Sciences (A&S);
  • Ahmed Al-Salem of Niskayuna, N.Y., the School of Information Studies and the Martin J. Whitman School of Management;
  • Ryan Balton of Milford, Pa., A&S and the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications;
  • Alonna Berry of Magnolia, Del., A&S;
  • Timothy Biba of Hanover, Pa., A&S and the Newhouse School;
  • Kelsie Bouchard of Fort Kent, Me., A&S and the Whitman School;
  • Jonathan Chan of San Francisco, the Whitman School and the Newhouse School;
  • Amanda Cohen of Penn Valley, Pa., the Whitman School and the Newhouse School;
  • Caitlin Cronin of The Woodlands, Texas, A&S;
  • Janae DeRusso of Irvine, Calif., the Newhouse School;
  • Joseph Galea of Blue Bell, Pa., A&S and the L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science;
  • John Giammatteo of Southbury, Conn., A&S and the Newhouse School;
  • Teffera Girma of Silver Spring, Md., A&S;
  • Maggie Gleason of Nicollet, Minn., A&S, the Whitman School and the Newhouse School;
  • Kevin Hirst of Erie, Pa., the Whitman School and the Newhouse School; 
  • Michael Jiang of Sharon, Mass., the Whitman School and the Newhouse School;
  • Katherine Lewinski of Cumberland, R.I., A&S;
  • Qi Li of Brooklyn, N.Y., A&S;
  • Nicole Loring of Barrington, N.H., A&S and the Newhouse School; 
  • Marlei-Krizelle Martinez of Kathleen, Ga., the Newhouse School;
  • Carolyn McChesney of Inverness, Ill, A&S and the Newhouse School;
  • Gregory Miller of Orange, Va., the Newhouse School;
  • Jennifer Monti of Florence, Italy, A&S;
  • Kimberly Ndombe of Manchester, N.H., A&S and the Newhouse School;
  • Lyuba Polinkovsky of Fayetteville, N.Y., A&S;
  • Ashley Robbins of Leominster, Mass., the Newhouse School and the College of Human Ecology;
  • Jessica Santana of Brooklyn, N.Y., the Whitman School;
  • Teresa Soldner of Marquette, Mich., A&S;
  • Paul Stanley of Niskayuna, N.Y., the Whitman School and the Newhouse School;
  • Arkie Tassew of Carrizo Springs, Texas, A&S; 
  • Julia Terruso of Wynnewood, Pa., A&S and the Newhouse School;
  • Na’Tasha Webb-Prather of East Cleveland, Ohio, A&S;
  • Sarah Wendel of Vienna, Va., A&S;
  • Andrew Woodbury of Somerville, N.J., A&S and the Newhouse School; and
  • Marina Zarya of Brooklyn, N.Y., the Newhouse School.