As part of Remembrance Week, 35 former Syracuse University students will be honored today with roses and words from this year's Remembrance Scholars.
The rose laying ceremony to commemorate the Pan Am Flight 103 terrorist attack will be held at the Wall of Remembrance in front of the Hall of Languages at 2:03 p.m., marking the time of the tragedy.
Every year, 35 seniors are selected as Remembrance Scholars. Each scholar prepares for the ceremony by researching one of the 35 SU victims as a way of preserving the memory of the students while promoting education about terrorism.
"Since each of us is representing one of the students, we've been able to really get to know them. We've researched their background by going through the archives and speaking with people who knew them," Lindberg said.
According to Lindberg, Thomas Wolfe, dean of Hendricks Chapel, will speak, followed by each Remembrance Scholar, who will describe the student he or she represents and place a rose for him or her on the Wall of Remembrance. The 35 scholars will then sing "Amazing Grace."
"It's a small gesture that can speak volumes, and I'm sure it does to people who can make it back to see it," said Remembrance scholar Darryl Patteson, a newspaper and math major. "Each year they come through, they get to see the spirit of their son or daughter sort of embodied by the current students."
A convocation honoring this year's Remembrance Scholars and Lockerbie Scholars, exchange students from Lockerbie, Scotland, will follow at 3:30 p.m. in Hendricks.
Judith O'Rourke, director of the Office of Undergraduate Studies, said that Newhouse Dean David Rubin, who is also the chair of the Remembrance Scholar selection committee, will preside over the convocation.
Key speakers will include Chancellor Nancy Cantor, Remembrance Scholar Patteson and Suzanne E. Thorin, dean of libraries.
A ribbon ceremony will immediately follow the convocation. Everyone is invited to write some thoughts on blue and white ribbons, which will then be tied to trees in the Orange Grove.
The Remembrance Scholars program is considered very important in keeping people aware of the tragedy that occurred nearly 19 years ago.
"As we get further and further away from the actual event, we're getting to a point where more students may come in knowing less about Pan Am Flight 103," Lindberg said. "However, I think the way that this week is set up every year, it really gives everyone a chance to reflect and to remember these students in a good way."
Kara Weipz, president and political chair of the Victims of Pan Am Flight 103, a group that helps fund the university's archives, said Remembrance Week is special for all of the victims' families.
"Thirty-five of the victims were from Syracuse, but there's a much larger population that wasn't and the last few years, they have been coming to Remembrance Week activities as well," Weipz said. "It still is very special to them because of the way the Syracuse community remembers all and includes all of the victims."
Students interested in becoming a Remembrance Scholar should apply by mid-January of their junior year. Those selected receive $5,000.
Mary O'Brien, SU assistant archivist, encourages everyone to apply. "Just the process alone is a wonderful learning experience," she said. "But it's a wonderful honor as well."
"Being a Remembrance Scholar, you're a Remembrance Scholar at Syracuse forever now," Patteson said. "So there's always a certain responsibility to live your life for the lives of the people who died and spread the word and make sure the event never gets trivialized and never gets forgotten."
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