Syracuse University has announced the selection of 35 students as the 2025-26 Remembrance Scholars, continuing a tradition in its 36th year. The scholarships honor the memory of students who perished in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. This event claimed 270 lives, including those of Syracuse students studying abroad in London and Florence.
These scholarships are sustained by donations from Syracuse alumni, friends, parents, and corporations. Significant contributors include Jean Thompson ’66 and Life Trustee Richard L. Thompson G’67, Steven Barnes ’82 and Deborah Barnes, The Syracuse Association of Zeta Psi, and the Fred L. Emerson Foundation.
The Remembrance Scholars are juniors selected through a competitive process involving essays and multimedia submissions. Academic performance, community impact, leadership, and creativity are key criteria for selection. Each receives a $5,000 scholarship. Vice Chancellor Lois Agnew highlighted that “Remembrance Scholars, through their academic achievements, leadership and contributions to the campus and local communities, exemplify what a Syracuse University education has to offer and represent the promise of the students for whom these scholarships are named.”
The scholars organize annual Remembrance activities at the university and will be honored during a fall convocation.
The 2025-26 Remembrance Scholars include:
– Ellie Allen from Newton, Massachusetts, studying citizenship and civic engagement, and policy studies in the Maxwell School and College of Arts and Sciences (A&S), and a member of the Renée Crown University Honors Program.
– Jacqueline Arbogast from Warwick, New York, majoring in television, radio, and film in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.
– Rohan Bangalore from Sterling, Virginia, pursuing policy studies and law, society, and policy in the Maxwell School and A&S.
– Caiyan Bass, located in Aurora, Colorado, focusing on communication sciences and disorders in A&S.
The list continues with students from various regions with majors spanning numerous fields across Syracuse University’s schools and colleges. The full cohort will contribute to the legacy of remembrance at the university while pursuing their academic and community-oriented goals.
