Remembrance Scholars close with rose laying ceremony, a message of optimism

Friday marked the final day of Remembrance Week, which honored the 270 lives lost in the Pan Am 103 Bombing, 35 were Syracuse University students. 

The annual Rose Laying Ceremony took place in front of the Hall of Languages, followed by a convocation in Hendricks Chapel.

Remembrance Scholars began a procession out of the Hall of Languages at 2:03 PM, the time that the bombing occurred. The Crouse chimes rang 35 times to represent each student lost.

The ceremony began with a performance from Otto Tunes of “Fire and Rain” by James Taylor. Logan Wagner, one of the Remembrance Scholars and a senior in Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and College of Arts and Sciences, led the vocals for the group.

After this, each Remembrance Scholar gave a brief speech about the student victim they were representing. They shared the students’ hopes, dreams, and aspirations, along with what they were doing to pay their spirit forward. 

Each Remembrance Scholar held a rose, which they then laid atop the memorial monument.

“We explain something that we admire about the person we are representing, or how we’re looking back and acting forward,” one of the Remembrance Scholars, German Nolivos a senior in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, College of Arts and Sciences, and the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, said.

Photo by Joe Zhao

A Remembrance Scholar places a rose on the memorial wall outside the Hall of Languages.

Once the 35 roses were laid, 10 students from the Lockerbie Academy came forward and gave a few words reflecting on the tragedy and its impact on the community and those around them.

“The quiet town of Lockerbie suddenly became known worldwide 37 years ago through an unspeakable act of terrorism, despite that, it still found the courage to rebuild, regroup and offer families from 21 nations the kindness of strangers,” one of the Lockerbie Scholars said.

Other attendees were then able to place flowers on top of the monument, many were brought to tears in remembrance of their lost loved ones.

Being a Remembrance Scholar is one of the highest honors a Syracuse University student can hold. It is an opportunity to give back to the community and spirit of the school, along with promising to make a difference in the world.

“It’s just beautiful to see how we’re keeping the energy and the beauty of this program alive in Syracuse,” Nolivos said.

Along with remembrance week events, the Remembrance Scholars all contribute to a list of “Act Forward Projects”. 

“The projects are intended to deepen the Scholars’ and the campus communities’ understanding of the Pan Am 103 tragedy through research, outreach, discourse, education, and creative engagement,” according to the remembrance website.

Broadcast and Digital Journalism professor Keith Kobland was a local reporter at the time of the tragedy. He said he remembers how awful the aftermath of it was. It took time for the full story and casualty count to be released. It was an unprecedented event that the university was “ill-prepared for.”

Now, as someone who works with the Remembrance Scholars, he hopes that SU will never forget and that people will use the memory of this tragedy as inspiration to make a positive impact.

“I take my hat off to the students who do this, they are really getting into the role of representing someone who died in an awful way almost four decades ago,” Kobland said.

Other than Remembrance Week events, SU teaches all first-year students about the tragedy in the required “First Year Seminar” class. They have held a memorial service every year on December 21st, the date the tragedy occurred in 1988.