Two VPA Students Named 2022-23 Remembrance Scholars

Two College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) students are among the 35 students chosen by Syracuse University’s Remembrance Scholar Selection Committee to be the 2022-23 Remembrance Scholars.

The scholarships, now in their 33rd year, were founded as a tribute to—and means of remembering—the 35 students who were killed in the Dec. 21, 1988, bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. Those students, who were returning from a semester of study in London and Florence, were among the 270 people who perished in the bombing. The scholarships are funded through an endowment supported by gifts from alumni, friends, parents and corporations.

The VPA students selected are Ronald Ditchek of Brooklyn, New York, a music education major in Setnor School of Music and School of Education, and Riley Moore of Gibsonia, Pennsylvania, a communication and rhetorical studies major in the Department of Communication and Rhetorical Studies, a political science major in the Maxwell School and the College of Arts and Sciences and a creative writing major in A&S.

Remembrance Scholars are chosen in their junior year through a rigorous, competitive process. Applicants submitted an essay and a reflective response in multimedia, artistic, musical or written format as part of a comprehensive application, and finalists were interviewed by members of the selection committee, composed of University faculty, staff and current Remembrance Scholars. The $5,000 scholarships are awarded on the basis of scholarship, leadership and service to the community.