AIRAN SCRUBY &
CHRIS SEGAL
News Editors
Faculty and students are mourning the loss of recent Pepperdine graduate Lauren Avezzie, who died Sunday while vacationing in Dominica, a Caribbean island. She was 22. The cause of death could not be confirmed.
A memorial service for Avezzie is being planned for tomorrow at 7 p.m. in Stauffer Chapel. Everyone is welcome to attend.
Avezzie, who graduated Cum Laude in spring 2005, was employed by the Embassy of Spain in Washington, D.C., according to the Hartford Courant.
Her friend and sorority sister, Asklipiadis, said she remembers Avezzie as a positive person who accomplished many of her goals.
“She just lived life to the fullest,” Athena Asklipiadis said. “She did everything I think she would have wanted to do. She traveled everywhere, and she took advantage of the life she had.”
She was a double major and earned bachelor’s degrees in Spanish and international studies, with an emphasis in intercultural communication, according to the Hartford Courant.
Avezzie was also a member of Kappa Alpha Theta and worked for International Programs, participating in an internship in Argentina and spending a year abroad in Madrid, Spain.
In addition, she was a member of honor societies for international studies and for Spanish.
Avezzie also participated in many adventurous sports and activities, including skydiving, water-skiing and backpacking, the Hartford Courant said.
“Lauren was so full of life,” said Dr. Phillip Thomason, a Pepperdine Spanish professor. “She was very vivacious.”
Thomason served as faculty adviser in Madrid when Avezzie studied abroad there. According to Thomason, Avezzie was eager to learn new things and meet new people while abroad.
“Everything she could absorb and experience, she wanted to do that,” Thomason said.
University Chaplain D’Esta Love is helping to plan the memorial service on campus for Avezzie.
“Lauren was a very accomplished student who had a great deal of compassion for others and a heart for service,” Love said. “Since she graduated in 2005, there are still students and faculty on campus who mourn her death.”
University President Andrew K. Benton also commented Avezzie’s death in an e-mail.
“There is something especially tragic about the loss of a young person,” Benton wrote. “I am deeply touched by Lauren’s life and death.”
Benton also said through the e-mail that he would be in prayer for her family and friends.
According to the Hartford Courant, Avezzie is survived by her parents, Cindi and David Avezzie, her grandmothers, Rita Avezzie and Lillian Mentzer, and many other family members.
Anyone who would like to participate in the memorial service may contact Athena Asklipiadis at Athena.
02-02-2006