Lockerbie Scholars

(click on link above to view list of Scholars)

The Syracuse - Lockerbie Scholarships

     When Pan Am 103 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland on December 21, 1988, 270 people, including 35 Syracuse University students returning from a semester of study abroad, were killed.  The campus was devastated and, then Chancellor, Melvin Eggers declared, “some of our best and brightest” had been lost. 

     In the aftermath of the Pan Am 103 bombing, Syracuse University, as an institution, promised that we would not forget our students and we would hold their memories in our hearts in the best way we knew how – by learning and teaching so that tragedies like Pan Am 103 would not be repeated.  As an institution of higher education, we examine the causes of terrorism.  With the knowledge gained by this examination, this research, we hope to prevent future terrorist acts.

     Each year, 2 students from Lockerbie Scotland study at Syracuse for one year as Syracuse - Lockerbie Scholars. The Syracuse - Lockerbie Scholarships are jointly funded by SU and the Lockerbie Trust.*  Since the first scholars arrived on campus in the fall of 1990, thirty-four (34) scholars have been ambassadors from Scotland to the SU campus, and have returned to their homeland with ties binding them to Syracuse University and Central New York.

     Through these scholarships, the University encourages our students to exchange ideas and to educate themselves and the entire campus community about the devastating effects of terrorism.  These students are future leaders, and their recognition as Syracuse - Lockerbie Scholars provide proof of the close bonds that have formed between our two communities as well as our strong desire to remember and to learn.

( ABOVE  PHOTOGRAPHS  COURTESY  OF  PROFESSOR  LARRY  MASON )

*  The Lockerbie Trust is a Scottish charity, founded in early 1989.  In addition to supporting the Lockerbie Scholarships, it funds various activities in and around the town of Lockerbie.  SU has a strong relationship with the educational arm of the Trust, as well as with the staff at Lockerbie Academy, the high school that all Lockerbie Scholars attend.