VIDEO TRANSCRIPT: Syracuse University reflects during Remembrance Week
Noah Schuler: While it may look like a normal week here on the hill, history runs deep. This week is Remembrance Week, honoring the 270 victims of the bombing of a flight in Lockerbie, Scotland 37 years ago. 35 of the victims were Syracuse students returning from studying abroad. Remembrance Scholar Rohan Bangalore.
Rohan Bangalore: For the last 37 years, 35 students have been selected to be Remembrance Scholars to represent a person, a Syracuse student.
Schuler: For fellow Remembrance Scholar Ava Downey – representing student Amy Shapiro felt right.
Ava Downey: She had a passion for photojournalism, which is really interesting because that is one of my really big passions and hobbies that I’m trying to pursue on the side.
Schuler: Being selected as a Remembrance Scholar is one of the highest honors achieved at SU.
Bangalore: I feel honored to represent the person. I feel gracious to meet all these new wonderful people and it is a great honor.
Schuler: Here at Syracuse University, numerous events take place every year during Remembrance Week. Among them, as seen behind me, chairs set up on the quad. Each of these chairs represents the plane seat of each victim of Pan Am Flight 103. A moment of silence takes place every year in these chairs. Along with that is tonight’s Symposium.
Schuler: Today’s Act Forward Symposium gives remembrance scholars the chance to present plans to benefit community through projects. All 35 scholars – in groups – created podcasts, documentaries and more for the public good.
Downey: I’m really happy to be able to act forward and share other people’s stories and just give back to our community and amplify voices all over the world really.
Schuler: Tonight’s symposium for community outreach is just a small representation of the Remembrance Program’s motto ‘Look back, Act Forward.’
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC NEWS) — Syracuse University students are pausing this week for to honor the 270 victims of the bombing of Pan Am 103 in Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988.
Thirty-five of the victims were Syracuse students returning from studying abroad in London. Every year, 35 seniors are selected by the university to represent each student who died in the tragedy.
“I feel honored to represent the person. I feel grateful to meet all these new wonderful people and it is a great honor,” says Rohan Bangalore, a 2025 Remembrance Scholar studying Policy Studies and Law, Society and Policy.
For fellow Remembrance Scholar Ava Downey, representing student Amy Shapiro felt particularly fitting.
“She had a passion for photojournalism, which is really interesting because that is one of my really big passions and hobbies that I’m trying to pursue on the side,” Downey said.
On Thursday, Oct. 23, the scholars participated in the Act Forward Symposium. In groups, the scholars created and presented projects aimed at benefiting the greater Syracuse and Lockerbie communities.
“I’m really happy to be able to act forward and share other people’s stories and just give back to our community and amplify voices all over the world really,” Downey said.
For more information on Remembrance Week, visit https://remembrance.syr.edu.