Senior Tribute Tree

Seven Class of 2015 members who have passed away are being remembered this spring by their peers through a project called the Senior Tribute Tree.

“Members of the senior class wanted to honor our classmates who we have lost during our four years by permanently endowing a tribute tree to remember them,” said Atticus DeProspo ’15.

DeProspo, Alexander Gimenez ’15, Lara Keskinkaya ’15, Teresa Danso-Danqua ’15 and other project members foresee three project phases.

The first part was completed April 17. Witch hazel, red oak, sugar maple, American beech and white oak saplings were planted on campus and in Collegetown.

It was “a day of celebration and creation of new life as we remember those that we lost over the four years,” according to Samuel Coleman CALS ’15.

The next phase, in May, will be planting a memorial tree between Collegetown and Cornell’s central campus in memory of “where students’ academic and personal lives meet,” he said.

“We hope to raise enough money to plant a tree that will stand and grow on our campus for years to come, as a celebration of the lives of members of all senior classes, past, present, and future, who were lost before their graduation days,” Coleman said.

The third part of the project will be a ceremony each spring memorializing any seniors lost from future classes, organizers said.