Jessica Santana was 13 years old and living in Manhattan when the Twin Towers were attacked on Sept. 11. Covered in ash and forced to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge in a massive, pushing and shoving crowd, she experienced a turning point in her life.

‘I was one of the people directly affected by that day,’ she said. ‘Being there and seeing it — instead of watching it on TV — changed my whole way of thinking. Terrorism doesn’t just occur, and we move on. There are people who remain affected for the rest of their lives.’ 

As a newly named Remembrance Scholar, Santana’s experience on Sept. 11 will help her educate others about the effects of terrorism at home and abroad. Syracuse University named 35 juniors, including Santana, as the 2010-11 recipients of the Remembrance Scholarship on May 5.

The scholars were selected from a pool of 200 candidates to pay tribute to the 35 SU students killed in the Dec. 21, 1988, terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.  The SU students were returning from a semester of study in London and Florence, and were among 270 people who died in the attack.

A selection committee of 12 faculty and staff members and 12 current Remembrance Scholars review all of the applications and complete the interviews in a highly competitive process, said Judith O’Rourke, the director of undergraduate studies at SU and a member of the Remembrance Scholar Selection Committee. Outstanding scholarship and community service are the main selection criteria, she said.

Remembrance Scholars choose and represent one of the students killed in the Lockerbie bombing, as well as plan, host and implement Remembrance Week, O’Rourke said. They are also awarded a $5,000 scholarship for their senior year.

‘The Remembrance Scholars select for themselves the student they choose to represent,’ she said. ‘People tend to represent those who are similar to them. Either it’s the same major, same family background or where they’re from — anything that strikes them as similar and relatable.’

Although commemorating the lives of the Lockerbie victims is a significant part of the scholarship, the overarching goal is to use Lockerbie as a lens to educate the Syracuse community about the devastating effects of terrorism in all parts of the world, O’Rourke said.

Throughout the next year, the scholars will explore and exchange ideas to educate themselves and the campus about tragedies like Pan Am and Sept. 11, as well as brainstorm ideas on how to promote peace on a global scale.

Sarah Wendell, a junior biology major, said she feels a special connection to the victims of Pan Am 103 as a resident of Washington, D.C.

‘After 9/11, I’ve become aware of how easily a terrorist attack could happen right in my hometown,’ she said. ‘If something were to happen in D.C., my whole life would be turned upside down.’

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Published on May 11, 2010 at 12:00 pm