AU student Lorena Gimenez passed away Sept. 25 after being hit by a bus at Huntington metro station in northern Virginia.
The bus struck Gimenez while she was walking along the metro station’s passenger drop off. She died at the scene, according to ABC 7 News.
Gimenez, 41, a School of International Service student and native born Argentine, sought to obtain a degree to set an example for her nine-year-old daughter and live the American dream, SIS Dean Goldgeier said in a letter sent to AU staff.
SIS professor Adam Diamond who taught Gimenez described her as a confident student who always participated in class.
“She was probably one of the most active students in the class,” Diamond said. “I think that maybe being older she had more confidence speaking up.”
Although her time as a student and mother has come to an end, her late nights of studying, raising her daughter, holding a job and attending school full-time fulfilled her dream, Carla Meiner, a commenter on Gimenez’s Facebook memorial page wrote on the page.
“You were happy for the opportunity to go to school,” Meiner wrote. “You never complained, you saw the positive in everything, you found happiness in the journey.”
A memorial service for Gimenez was held on Oct. 4 at the Kay Spiritual Life Center. The memorial service saw Gimenez’s closest family and friends as well as AU faculty.
“It was quite something that the memorial was at AU with all her family as she had not been a student here that long,” Diamond said in an e-mail. “Her family recognized her dedication and commitment to her education and the tremendous joy she got from attending AU.”
