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LAWRENCE -- The University of Kansas today announced the creation of a scholarship to honor the memory of Shannon Martin, a KU graduate from Topeka who was slain May 13, 2001, while on a brief research trip to Golfito, Costa Rica.
The $1,000 Shannon Lucile Martin Scholarship for Study Abroad will be awarded annually, beginning in the spring 2003 semester, to a female KU student accepted into the KU Study Abroad program at the Institute for Tropical Studies in Golfito.
"The Golfito program has drawn exceptional students, and none more promising than Shannon Martin," said Chancellor Robert Hemenway. "With this scholarship, Shannon's legacy will continue to inspire generations of promising scholars who, like Shannon, pursue an intense desire for an international learning experience and in the extraordinary setting of Costa Rica."
At the time of her death, Martin had just completed requirements for a degree with honors in biodiversity, ecology and evolutionary biology. She had studied at the Tropical Studies Institute the spring semester of 2000, where she fell in love with the people of Golfito and the region's rain forest and other abundant natural resources.
Martin was fluent in Spanish from taking biology courses in Spanish and living with her Golfito host family, to whom she grew very close. She served as a volunteer English teacher to high school students in Golfito and completed a research project there on squirrel monkeys.
An honors student, Martin was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa national honor society in spring 2000. KU's BioHawk publication had named Martin as a "next generation" standout biologist.
Martin had been employed by Sunrise Garden Center in Lawrence. Customers knew her for her adeptness at identifying plants and diagnosing their ailments. An Indian magic crab apple tree, donated by Sunrise, stands next to a memorial plaque outside the Ecumenical Christian Ministries building at 1204 Oread, just north of the KU Lawrence campus. Martin had helped found ECM's weekly Veggie Lunch, which takes place there from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Thursdays.
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