Remembrance Scholars convey program’s importance despite virtual events
Corey Henry | Senior Staff Photographer
Because of the pandemic, Remembrance Scholars have shifted their expectations of what this year's events will look like.
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Miranda Nemeth came to Syracuse University to be a Remembrance Scholar.
She first learned about the program in her senior year of high school, when a campus tour guide showed her the Remembrance Wall.
“That’s actually one of the reasons I chose to come to Syracuse,” Nemeth said. “I liked the program a lot and wanted to learn more about it and be a part of it.”
The Remembrance Program commemorates the 35 SU students who were killed in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland.
Every year, a selection committee chooses 35 seniors to represent the 35 SU students who died in the bombing. The Remembrance program typically hosts an annual Remembrance Week filled with events reflecting on the tragedy and honoring the victims.
Like Nemeth, many of this year’s scholars have participated in Remembrance Week events throughout their time at SU and were looking forward to the time they could finally become Remembrance Scholars themselves. This year’s changes, though, have posed challenges to the scholars as they strive to create events that convey the week’s gravity while adhering to coronavirus guidelines.
Nemeth, who is an international relations and citizenship and civic engagement major, said she knew how Remembrance events looked each year and went into the program with that tradition in mind. But the pandemic forced her and other scholars to shift their expectations.
“This year, with everything switched, you don’t have that precedent anymore,” Nemeth said. “You kind of have to recreate certain things that in the past were set up the same way.”
Linzy Dineen, a Remembrance Scholar and forensic science, biology and psychology major, said the scholars had difficulties forging relationships with one another because their meetings have been held over Zoom.
She also said it’s been difficult to connect with her assigned student through SU’s archives. While it is a traditional responsibility for each scholar to learn about the student they represent through letters and other artifacts, COVID-19 has restricted scholars’ access to those records, she said.
AJ Seymour, a scholar studying public relations and sociology, said participating in Remembrance Week during his time as an underclassman helped him grieve the loss of a family member during his sophomore year. By going to Remembrance events, Seymour connected his own loss to the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing and learned to grieve through storytelling.
This year, he wants to offer that same experience to other SU students, even if it’s in a different format.
“Whenever a community faces a loss, it is the responsibility of the community to carry on the legacy and never let those people be forgotten,” Seymour said. “There are little moments of connection you can find in the stories of these students, and I think that is something incredibly important to keep alive.”
Scholars said it has been difficult to create virtual formats for events usually held in person.
Dineen knew she wanted to be a Remembrance Scholar freshman year when she attended the candlelight vigil, a fixture of Remembrance Week. There, she realized how important the tradition of Remembrance Week is to both the SU and Lockerbie communities.
“It’s a weird thing to experience just feeling so immensely sad about the deaths of students you never even knew, but it’s also something really beautiful,” Dineen said. “I remember just feeling honored to be there.”
This year’s candlelight vigil, like most Remembrance events, will take place virtually. But Nemeth said the scholars are hoping restrictions on in-person gatherings will lessen in the spring so they can hold some traditional events, such as the rose-laying ceremony at the Remembrance Wall.
Despite the pandemic, Remembrance scholars said they’ve found a silver lining in some of the changes.
Kelly Rodoski, a communications manager at SU and adviser in the Remembrance program, was a freshman when the bombing occurred.
As someone who witnessed firsthand the impact the tragedy had on the community, Rodoski said that the Remembrance program is something very personal to her. The changes to this year’s programming will in no way lessen its significance, she said.
“We’re living in a world where we have to take each day as it comes, and we have to find the best way of dealing with our circumstances and still continuing our traditions, which is our challenge this year,” Rodoski said.
MORE COVERAGE:
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- Seating display humanizes Pan Am Flight 103 victims
- Pan Am Flight 103 remembrance service held on 30th anniversary of bombing
Scholars said that holding events virtually has allowed them to better involve residents of Lockerbie. The chair display — a yearly exhibition that recreates where each SU student sat on Pan Am Flight 103 — is typically held only on SU’s campus. The university livestreamed the event this year, allowing people in Lockerbie to watch.
The scholars planned to take turns sitting at the display in the spots of their assigned student but switched plans when the university experienced a rise in COVID-19 cases.
Annelise Hackett, another Remembrance Scholar studying public relations, said she’s proud of how this year’s group of scholars have adapted to the new circumstances. There has been a lot of engagement on the Remembrance Program’s social media, which shows that the campus is still paying attention, she said.
“It was definitely disheartening at first. We had a vision in mind of what the experience was going to look like,” Hackett said. “We’re still trying to do everything we can to give our all to the program and still make it as successful as possible even though it does look so different this year.”
Hackett said she hopes that staggering events throughout the year and holding some virtually will provide more opportunities for the wider SU community to be involved in the Remembrance Program.
“(Remembrance) is something that’s part of the fabric of our institution,” Rodoski said. “It’s something we promised we’d never forget and we never will. It’s important we always keep this at the forefront of who we are.”
Published on October 28, 2020 at 10:46 pm
Contact Sarah: scalessa@syr.edu | @sarahalessan
