Supporting students

This year's 52nd annual Little 500 race will not just be a matter of winning and losing. It will be a matter of honor.\nThis April, the race will help raise enough funds to create three additional scholarships to commemorate the lives that were lost due to the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11. The three new $1000 scholarships will be presented by the IU Student Foundation, which organizes the race, to the chosen recipients on Sept. 11, 2002, according to Abby Quinnette, president of the IUSF.\n"The IU Foundation wanted to leave a mark and memorialize the people that were lost that day," Quinnette said.\nShe said the Little 500 race was chosen to help raise the money because it is such a major event on campus.\n"Forty-thousand dollars is what we approximate (the profits will be) for this year's event and that is the money that will be going into the endowment for the 9-11 scholarships," Quinnette said.\nThe scholarships will be named after three fathers that died at the World Trade Center who have children that currently attend IU.\nSenior Joshua Goldflam, sophomore Jessica Moskal, and freshman Rachel Jacobson will help decide the criteria the foundation will use to determine the recipients for each of their father's scholarships. \n"We talked to them about what they thought the scholarships should include," Quinnette said.\nThe students picked qualities they felt were important to their fathers as the criteria for each scholarship.\n"I know Jesse's dad was really involved with the arts and sports so she wanted someone who was involved to get the scholarship," Quinnette said.\nJessica Moskal's father William David was attending a one-day business meeting on the 100th floor of the north tower of the World Trade Tower on Sept. 11. She looks at the scholarship as a positive thing that came out of a negative situation.\n"In his life, he tried to make positive contributions and this is encouraging people to do the same thing as he would have done if he was still alive," Moskal said.\nRachel Jacobson's father Steven worked on the 110th floor of the northern tower of the World Trade Center as a broadcasting engineer for WPIX-TV and had recently been switched to the day-shift from the night-shift prior to Sept. 11. She picked qualities that her father found important. \n"I wanted someone who normally wouldn't be going to college and who placed a lot of value on family because that is what my dad was all about," Jacobson said.\nJacobson's father was unable to attend college because he had to support his wife and daughter. In the end, Jacobson used her knowledge of her father to determine what qualities the scholarship would promote.\n"When it came down to it, I knew what my dad would have wanted," Jacobson said. "What was important to him is important to me." \nJacobson said she was thrilled when the IU Foundation came to her with the idea of the scholarships.\n"I was really surprised," Jacobson said. "I didn't know what to think at first. I thought it was wonderful that they are allowing me to be involved."\nJacobson said her mother was also excited about it.\n"She is so happy," Jacobson said. "She is really proud that IU is doing such a wonderful thing."\nJacobson hopes the scholarship is a reminder to everyone that the people who died on Sept. 11 are not just names.\n"We hear these names and there are people who are behind these names and they had families and lives," Jacobson said.\nQuinnette also hopes the scholarships serve as a reminder.\n"Hopefully they will remember not only the student foundation and what our goals are, but more importantly, what happened on that day and the people who lost their lives that day," Quinnette said.\nIU Bloomington Chancellor Sharon Stephens Brehm said in a statement that the scholarships are a great example of students helping other students.\n"These scholarships represent our solidarity with and caring about Josh, Jesse, Rachel and the IU family who lost loved ones on Sept. 11," Brehm said. "These scholarships also express our great sympathy for members of the IU family who have lost a loved one in military service and our appreciation to those members of the IU family now serving in the military."\nCurrently, the IU Student Foundation grants 34 working students each a $1000 scholarship. Recipients must be undergraduate students who work more than five hours a week. GPA is also taken into account. \n"This year, we will be giving out our millionth dollar scholarship," Quinnette said.\nShe said when the IU Foundation first thought of adding three more scholarships, they had to make sure they could fund it along with the 34 other scholarships that they award. \n"We needed to make sure that financially we could do it," Quinnette said.\nShe said the foundation was lucky that they had planned ahead and set aside in a "rainy day account."\nTo make sure the Sept. 11 scholarships are established as an annual award, the IU Foundation will need an additional $20,000, Quinnette said.\n"We are definitely looking for alumni and community support," Quinnette said.