Congratulations to Motolani Oladitan ’24 on being named one of 35 students selected as 2023-24 Syracuse University Remembrance Scholars. The scholarships, now in their 34th year, were founded as a tribute to—and means of remembering—the students studying in London and Florence through Syracuse University who were killed in the Dec. 21, 1988, bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. Those students were among the 270 people who perished in the bombing. The scholarships are a philanthropic gift through an endowment supported by gifts from alumni, friends, parents and corporations.
Significant support for the Remembrance Scholarships has been provided by Jean Thompson ’66 and Syracuse University Life Trustee Richard L. Thompson G’67 in memory of Jean Taylor Phelan Terry ’43 and John F. Phelan, Jean Thompson’s parents; by Board of Trustees Chairman Emeritus Steven Barnes ’82 and Deborah Barnes; by The Syracuse Association of Zeta Psi in memory of Alexander Lowenstein; and by the Fred L. Emerson Foundation.
Born in Lagos, Nigeria, Oladitan is an incoming senior majoring in psychology at the College of Arts and Sciences. She recently engaged the LaunchPad for her venture, Ta, a virtual marketplace connecting African beauty and wellness brands with the diaspora, making it easier for consumers to discover and purchase high-quality, authentic African products.
Oladitan first won the Afropreneurship Challenge, then Raymond von Dran iPrize, Hunter Brooks Watson Spirit of Entrepreneurship award, and second place at the campus wide Panasci Business Plan Competition all this year as an undergraduate.