Late last June, Erin McLaughlin was chasing a mailman through the streets of the Bronx in pursuit of one thing: her green card.

She had received text and email updates in the days prior, each stating her application was being processed. But because she had also applied for an extension to her visa, she was unsure if these messages were for that or the card.

So McLaughlin tracked down the mailman and asked if he had something for her. He didn’t, but the two exchanged phone numbers and a few days later, McLaughlin finally received a call.

It was not until the card was in her hands that McLaughlin felt relief. Last summer, after what had been almost 12 years since arriving at Syracuse University as a 17-year-old Lockerbie Scholar, she was granted permanent residency in the United States.

“It was just a lot of work, a big pressure, so finally to get it, I was so happy that my work had paid off,” said McLaughlin. “I was just so grateful to receive it.”

Before McLaughlin, no Lockerbie Scholar stayed all four years and received a diploma from SU, let alone a green card. The typical Lockerbie Scholar would attend SU for a year, participate in Remembrance Week to honor the 270 victims who died in the Pan Am Flight 103 crash — including 35 SU students and 11 from Lockerbie, Scotland — and finish his or her degree back in Europe.

But McLaughlin just couldn’t leave Syracuse. In the spring of 2007, she became the first former Lockerbie Scholar to also become a Remembrance Scholar and SU graduate.

McLaughlin remembered saying, “’I can’t imagine going home, I can’t imagine leaving.’”

The year before she arrived at SU, McLaughlin began exchanging emails with Andrew McClune, a Lockerbie Scholar the year before her. He wrote telling her what a great time he was having, which made her even more excited to become a scholar.

On the morning of Dec. 13, 2002, tragedy struck when McClune died after falling from Sadler Hall’s seventh floor. It was then that Erin felt an even greater connection to the scholarship.

“When he passed away, I felt like it got even more personal for me because the disaster happened when I was so young,” she said. “For me, it was incredibly important to get to apply, and then to be chosen and just kind of instill positivity.”

While at SU, McLaughlin immersed herself in campus life. She took an honors course load, did hours of volunteer work at the VA Medical Center and served as a Lockerbie and Remembrance Scholar.

Now, as Assistant Director of Experiential Engagement at Fordham University, McLaughlin uses her experience as she engages with students.

McLaughlin’s friend Michael Nordman, also a Remembrance Scholar and 2007 graduate of SU, said helping others has been her life’s work.

“She really takes an interest in students, their stories, helping them and sort of guiding them,” Nordman said. “She understands what it’s like to be foreign and adjusting.”

Judy O’Rourke, former director of undergraduate studies and mentor of the Lockerbie Scholars, frequently talked with McLaughlin while she was an undergraduate. O’Rourke said McLaughlin almost immediately sought ways to contribute to the community.

“She just got involved with everything and really worked at it,” O’Rourke said. “Erin was just interested in people, and that came through.”

Today, she sports orange and blue all year, calling herself “the biggest SU fan” around. She carries an SU tote bag to work — across the Fordham campus, to boot — and wipes her shoes on an SU doormat every evening.

McLaughlin didn’t always fit in on the SU campus. Her friend, Lindsay Truesdell, also a 2007 graduate, said when she first met McLaughlin she had to ask her to repeat herself because of her accent, but they soon became close friends.

“I couldn’t understand a word she said,” Truesdell said.

But McLaughlin’s friends say she only has a hint of the distinct Scottish brogue now.

“I’ve been here almost 13 years,” McLaughlin said. “I had to blend in at some point.”

Mguti100@syr.edu

Published on February 2, 2016 at 9:47 pm

Contact Matthew: mguti100@syr.edu | @MatthewGut21