Sept. 11 scholarships honor victims

Five years later, some might find it difficult to look at the clock at 8:45 a.m. and not think about what happened Sept. 11 only a half-decade ago.\nFor 2005 IU graduate Rachel Jacobson, it's not just Sept. 11 that it's difficult to cope with the death of her father.\n"It's not so black and white," Jacobson said. "It's a hard time of year for everyone, and I want to remember the good things. I want to treat it as a celebration of his life and not a remembrance of how he died."\nIn 2002, Jacobson did just that by helping establish the IU Student Foundation's 9/11 Scholarship Fund. The fund finances three memorial scholarships each year, and this year's applications will come out in early October.\nJenny Bruffey, director of IUSF, said the fund began because three IU students lost their fathers at the World Trade Center, and so many other IU students were affected.\n"A lot of our scholarships are established by alumni, but this one is just different because of how tragic it was," Bruffey said.\nIUSF began fundraising for the scholarships in 2001 by donating proceeds from Little 500 races and asking for alumni support. According to a 2002 press release, in addition to the $49,616.42 IUSF raised, Lawrence D. Glaubinger, a 1949 IU graduate who lived in New York City at the time of the attacks, matched what IUSF raised.\nFollowing Glaubinger's gift, other Indiana and East Coast residents responded to the news of the scholarship and donated an additional $7,000 to the fund.\nIUSF then met with the three students and their families in order to establish the criteria for the three scholarships to be awarded each year in memory of each of the students' fathers who died in the attacks. Each family had the opportunity to select the criteria based on what aspects were most important to them.\n"I know that when I was contemplating the criteria, the most important thing was that it reflected my father's beliefs and values," Jacobson said. "I was so lucky that I got to play an active role in the scholarship decision for as long as I did."\nBruffey said each scholarship is a little different, and some of the specific criteria include financial need, a 2.7 or higher grade point average, involvement in student or community activities and an essay about the importance of family.\n"I'm really touched that people took such a deep interest and care in making such a positive thing from something so negative," Jacobson said.\nIUSF Student President Elliott Chapman is especially proud of this scholarship because it differs from the other awards available to students.\n"It's a really meaningful way to give away money and help students at the same time," Chapman said. "It makes it more special, and it serves to remind people what happened that day and keep that in our minds."\nChapman said IUSF gives approximately $80,000 in scholarships a year and has given more than a million dollars total since the organization was founded in 1950.\nApplications for this year's 9/11 scholarships come out in early October and will be awarded at the IUSF scholarship banquet, to be scheduled for late November.\nJacobson said it's still difficult to cope on a daily basis and not just on the anniversary of her father's death, but she maintains a positive outlook and her own memorial.\n"He will remain with me in all my endeavors, wherever I go in life," she said. "I will never truly lose him because he is a part of me"