Wahl Awarded Tara Laurie Memorial Scholarship

Lewiston Porter Sentinel, May 19, 2007

Dr. Sharon Watkinson, chair of the Department of Theatre Studies and Fine Arts at Niagara University, recently announced that theater studies student Charles Wahl, a junior from Buffalo, is the third recipient of the Tara Laurie Memorial Scholarship.

The late Tara Laurie’s parents, Janice and Donald Laurie, established the scholarship in 2005 to assist Niagara University theater studies students who apply to the department’s summer theater program at Schiller International University in London, England. Senior Rebecca Spindler, ’07, of Hilton, and Sara Kovacsi, ’06, of Snyder, are the previous award recipients.

Wahl is among a group of NU theater students who will study at Schiller this summer along with several NU students from other disciplines.

“The Tara Laurie Memorial Scholarship is our way of keeping our daughter’s song alive and her spirit of joy and love soaring,” Tara’s parents noted. “It is our hope that her legacy will live on and the recipient of this award will realize all of their dreams, hopes and aspirations through participation in Niagara University Theatre’s study abroad program.”

Tara Laurie, a senior theater studies student from Ransomville, passed away suddenly in October 2004. Her parents accepted a bachelor’s degree in her honor at Niagara University’s undergraduate commencement ceremony on May 22, 2005.