Award honors Chapel Hill shooting victims

UNC and the Dental Foundation of North Carolina will establish the Deah Barakat and Yusor Abu-Salha Memorial Award to honor the lives of the two shooting victims and continue their legacy of humanitarianism.

The endowment given to dentistry students is meant to fund a service project.

Barakat was a second-year student at the School of Dentistry. His wife, Abu-Salha, was set to start there in the fall.

The third victim was Yusor Abu-Salha’s younger sister, Razan Abu-Salha, an N.C. State student.

Paul Gardner, the Dental Foundation’s associate dean for advancement, worked closely with the victims’ families to outline the award’s details.

“I know Deah and Yusor would’ve done a lot of great things for the world, and I hope this award will do just some of the good that they would’ve done,” Gardner said.

Students at the School of Dentistry will be able to apply for the award either individually or in a group by planning a service project that aims to help communities in need. Projects may range in scale from local to international.

“We felt like the community project was the best way to honor Deah and Yusor,” Gardner said, adding that the idea originated from the victims’ families.

While Gardner said that they didn’t want to lock in too many specifics regarding project requirements, recipients will have one academic year to complete their service project.

Once the year is over, they will submit a report detailing the project and share it with the victims’ families.

A committee of faculty and students from the school will choose each year’s recipient. The first round of applications will be accepted in 2016.

Kaushal Gandhi is a dentistry student and was one of Barakat’s classmates.

She reflected on Barakat’s character and what this award does for the victims’ legacies.

A relatively small class size made it easy for Gandhi and her classmates to grow close to Barakat, and she compared the loss to losing a family member.

Above all, Gandhi said she hoped that Barakat’s strength of character will inspire others to act out of benevolence for their communities.

Recent UNC graduate Leslie Pence was president of the pre-dental honor society Delta Delta Sigma this past school year. She said service is an important component of any profession.

“A lot of dental students have this drive to provide aid, especially in other countries where help is needed, but it can be expensive to travel abroad and have the necessary resources,” Pence said.

The Dental Foundation and the University each committed $30,000 to create the endowment.

Anyone who wishes to contribute to the fund can do so through the Dental Foundation’s website.

university@dailytarheel.com