![]() ![]() By the end of my flight, the page had already raised around $25,000. “It was a three-hour flight, and we launched the GoFundMe page while I was in the air. While he was creating the page, Gaffey was also boarding a plane on his way to support Jeter’s family before the funeral. “The GoFundMe was important to us, not only for supporting his family financially, but it also was a place for people to share memories, photos and more,” Gaffey said. Gaffey quickly started work on creating a GoFundMe page and was in communication with Malburg and Bednar. It was alarming, but we wanted to do something,” said Malburg. “The unanimous sentiment among his friends at the time of his passing was, ‘What can we do?’ We were at a loss. Jordan Bednar ’17 and Jordan Jeter ’16, friends since high school, pose for a photo. The news of Jeter’s passing spread quickly, but so did the outpouring of love from his friends from all over the world. “To know Jordan was to love Jordan,” Bednar explained.īednar met Jeter much earlier than his other Elon friends because they both lived in the same neighborhood, and Bednar ended up being instrumental in helping spread the news of the GoFundMe page to Jeter’s high school friends. Those who knew him say that he had a special knack for making others feel like the most important person in the room. Jeter’s love for travel, experiences, and the people he met along the way was contagious. “This always stuck with me and was the reason we ultimately chose to give the funds to Black students with financial need to fund Elon Experiences.” ![]() “He mentioned to me once how few Black students study abroad in college because of the lack of financing,” Bergeron said. Jordan Jeter ’16 and Dan Gaffey ’16 on vacation in Martha’s Vineyard the summer before flying to London to study abroad in 2014. Prior to his passing, he had just returned from India and he also had plans to go to Japan. He loved working at ezCater because of the people, but also because of the opportunity a sabbatical each year for travel. He worked hard to achieve his job as manager of business recruiting for ezCater. “The study abroad program had such an impact on him that once he graduated, he visited Ireland, Mexico, France, Italy, India, Canada and Jamaica,” Bergeron said. “He loved to try new cuisines and he had such an ability to connect with people.”įollowing graduation, Jeter was always traveling to new places. He was always authentically himself,” Gaffney said. “There was no better person to spend a semester abroad with. He was extremely smart, knew everybody and always made every person he met feel special because he really listened to you.” Jordan Jeter ’16 and Rachel Rudd ’16 in Munich at Oktoberfest in 2014.ĭuring a semester abroad as an Elon student, Jeter traveled to Amsterdam, Scotland, Munich, Frankfort and Oxford and was joined by his friend, Dan Gaffey. “He loved to travel, always wanted to try new things, and was never idle,” said his sister, Morgan Jeter. “His travel bug really started because of his semester abroad,” Bergeron said. Study abroad provided Jeter with experiences that would forever change his perspective on life. He received an Elon Commitment Scholarship as well as a Watson Elon Experience Study Abroad Grant. Jeter studied international business at Elon as a Leon and Lorraine Watson Odyssey Scholar. He said it just always felt like home whenever he was on campus,” explained his mother, Donna Bergeron. “He chose Elon from a recruiting event, and because he had friends that were students there. Jordan Jeter ’16 with his mother, Donna Bergeron, and sister, Morgan Jeter. The scholarship is supported by money raised through a GoFundMe page created by Jeter’s friends including fellow Elon alumni Mark Malburg ’18, Dan Gaffey ’16 and Jordan Bednar ’17 to assist his family. The family decided to give $50,000 left over after Jeter’s funeral to endow this scholarship at Elon in his memory because of how impactful the university was to his life. The scholarship will go specifically to support students as they pursue the Elon Experiences: undergraduate research, study abroad, internships, service-learning, leadership opportunities and student-designed projects. The new Jordan Jeter ’16 Elon Experiences Scholarship will provide Elon students the opportunity to follow in his footsteps with the hope that Black students with financial need will have the opportunities at Elon that they deserve. The family and friends of the late Jordan Jeter ’16, who passed away unexpectedly in 2022, have created a new endowed scholarship to honor his memory and the legacy of achievement at Elon he left behind.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |