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While a majority of Syracuse University’s Remembrance Scholars have grown up in the United States, current scholar Adya Parida said she believes international students are especially equipped to relate to the themes of the program.

Parida — who grew up in Odisha, India — is one of five international students in the 2024-25 Remembrance Scholar cohort. She said she and her peers hope to bring a global understanding of how communities cope with tragedy to the program.

“With a different culture, I feel like that sort of nuanced understanding is something that I really give kudos to my international background for,” Parida said. “Sometimes it can be difficult to understand, but that sort of exposure really helps you with that.”

Each year, the university chooses 35 incoming seniors to represent the SU students killed in the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing on Dec. 21, 1988, while returning home from study abroad programs. The Remembrance Scholars also work to preserve the memory of all 270 people who died in the terrorist bombing and subsequent plane crash into the town of Lockerbie, Scotland.

This year, the Remembrance cohort’s international students include Parida, Yifan “Ivan” Shen of Shanghai, China; Cheryl Olanga of Nairobi, Kenya; Zachary Murray of Kingston, Jamaica and Nadia Lyngdoh-Sommer of Singapore.

Since her freshman year, Parida said she has had friends who were involved in the Remembrance program. She said seeing them participate in Remembrance Week, a series of events hosted by the Remembrance and Lockerbie Scholars to spread campus awareness of terrorism and the stories of the victim, was something she felt drawn to.

Parida is representing Peter Peirce, a graduate student who was pursuing a master’s degree in architecture. Peirce was returning from a semester abroad in Florence, Italy.

“I just felt really connected with the goal,” Parida said. “It’s an honor to be a scholar because you’re representing someone, you’re representing their legacy, you’re representing their values and their families that come. You get to know them on a personal level.”

Shen said he has learned a lot about the bombing’s global impact first-hand. Shen, like Parida, started preparing his application to be a scholar years before he actually applied.

Before enrolling at SU, Shen said he visited campus and spoke with former Remembrance Scholars, who encouraged him to spend time abroad in Lockerbie to help him learn about the tragedy. Shen visited Lockerbie and spoke to a resident who witnessed the bombing, who he said cried while retelling the story to Shen.

“It was in a small group of 15 to 20 people in that room, but that person felt safe and felt the necessity to pass on her knowledge, her memory about the event,” Shen said. “I never experienced something like that before, that level of intimacy and trust and vulnerability the witness was able to share with the people in the room.”

Shen said his time in Lockerbie helped him understand the trauma inflicted by the bombing. The empathy and openness of the witness was an adjustment compared to how he was raised in China, where he said there’s a more reserved cultural tone for discussing troubling events.

His conversation with the witness helped him bridge the cultural difference and better explained the implications of the bombing to people in his home country.

“Because I come from China, and some people think you’re just here to get a degree or just to learn, the Remembrance Program … showed me the possibility (that) someone not from here can still be involved and make a difference,” Shen said.

Parida said the program helped her spread awareness about the bombing to her peers overseas, as she made social media posts about its impact that reached her family members and their communities. She said her posts show how international students can bring people together globally, and find a community among students with similar goals.

“I definitely feel like international students share a bond regardless of where we are on campus. Because of our shared experiences, being an international student in any country, not just in the U.S., it takes a lot of extra work, a lot of extra challenges. I feel like that shared experience ties us really well,” Parida said.

Samantha Trumble, the Remembrance Program advisor, said she hopes the scholars use Remembrance Week to help spread awareness and encourage students to apply for the program. The application for next year’s cohort will be available on the Center for Fellowship & Scholarship Advising’s website later this semester.

Parida echoed Trumble’s sentiment, saying that while the program is a lot of work, she encouraged students to apply.

“We try to embody the values of what it means to be a Remembrance Scholar every single day through our actions,” Parida said. “The whole campus community is watching you, and wherever you go, your behavior on campus, or the way you talk to people or do things, it reflects the message you’re carrying. It’s a tremendous honor.”

Published on October 24, 2024 at 1:13 am

Contact Henry: hdaley@syr.edu