FARMINGTON – Angela Pelletier was remembered Monday as a bright girl with a wide smile who, in less than an academic year, made a positive impact on her new community.
On Saturday morning, Pelletier, 19, a graduate of Biddeford High School and a University of Maine at Farmington first-year student, was killed when she was thrown from a car that rolled over a steep embankment next to an icy Connecticut highway.
She was pronounced dead at the scene, and inclement weather is believed to be the cause of the crash.
The driver of the car, Vannessa Ochs of Danbury, Conn., was treated for head injuries, but has since been released from a Hartford hospital.
Students and faculty at the Farmington campus were made aware of Pelletier’s passing in a campus-wide e-mail and through a memorandum displayed in the school’s student center.
Many students wrote their reactions to the tragic news on an easel next to the memo. In those short memories, Pelletier’s smile was noted, as was the fact that she will be forever missed.
Student Kelly Leclerc, who responded to a request for comment from the Sun Journal, said that “Angela was a great person. She was always smiling and joking with her friends and classmates. She was willing to give a helping hand whenever called upon. She was a go-getter willing to take risks and chances. Rugby was a sport at which she excelled in, destroying the competition.”
Nancy Prentiss, a UMF science professor, said she didn’t know Pelletier well but that she is still feeling the loss of a “bright young woman who had so much to offer.”
Last week, in the first-year student biology laboratory class, Pelletier had done a solo presentation on the relationship between rain forest deforestation and global warming. She was the only student in the class who volunteered to work alone, Prentiss remembers.
“One thing that makes our UMF community special is that it is small, and thus we feel more connected with each other. When we lose one person, we feel it all the more. Angela was in my biology class, where she was energetic and engaged with her peers. One student recalled how excited she was with the study of live termites in a recent lab. She took pride in doing well and asserted herself, taking an active role in her own work, as well as group assignments,” Prentiss said on Monday.
The reaction to the energetic young student’s presentation was glowing, Prentiss said, highlighting the written peer evaluations as saying, “She was well-organized and knew what she was talking about… good job answering questions… very knowledgeable… very neat, creative PowerPoint slides… seemed to have a lot of confidence – great!”
On Monday, classrooms that Pelletier had once graced seemed quiet. Several of Angela’s classmates stopped by today to talk.
“She was so sweet and so nice… she was so alive,” one student told Prentiss. “She just had this aura of confidence about her.”
Over in the mathematics department, professor Sarah Hardy remembers her student as quiet, but quick with a smile. “Her empty chair in class today left a big hole in our class and in our hearts,” Hardy said on Monday, adding that a class member remembers Pelletier as always happy, never frustrated and always giving life her all.
College administrators, professors and representatives from the Athletic Department and Center for Human Development met on Monday morning to discuss ways to support students who were affected by the campus’ loss.
According to Bill Geller, vice president for student affairs, many students have stepped forward and expressed strong interest in holding an on-campus memorial service and also attending Pelletier’s funeral. Geller said the school will provide transportation to the service and is working with Pelletier’s parents to honor her on campus. “We are doing the best we can here to try and help people,” Geller said, adding that counseling is available on campus for students saddened and confused by their peer’s sudden death.
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