Kaylie Hartje’s roommates were getting ready to head out on the town.
Hartje was going to stay behind, after suffering from a concussion from the night before.
Without ever having met before, Brianna Denison stayed with her because she said she didn’t think Hartje should be in pain alone.
“This simply illustrates Bri’s wonderful, beautiful, caring personality,” Hartje said at a memorial service for Denison last month.
More than 200 students, staff and faculty gathered on West Campus Feb. 27 to honor slain Santa Barbara City College student Brianna Denison, many who were wearing Denison’s favorite color, blue.
Know as “Bri” by many, Denison’s body was found Feb. 15 in an outlying field in her hometown of Reno, Nevada after she was abducted from a friend’s house on January 20th. The Reno Sheriff’s Department said that Denison was kidnapped and strangled by a suspected serial rapist. The suspect–who is described as a white male between the ages of 28 to 40 with light to dirty blonde hair–is still at large.
Many said her concern for others was the driving force behind the 19-year-old’s ambition to become a child psychologist.
Julie Smith, chair of the City College Early Childhood Education department, worked with Denison at the Kinko’s Early Learning Center where she spent 135 hours doing activities with children. Smith said she sought out the children who appeared to be more troubled.
“She was drawn to them,” Smith said at the service. “She told me that she could look into their eyes and see they needed support.”
Communication professor Julie Brown, who had Denison in her personal development class, said she saw that desire to help those in need when Denison gave an in-class presentation.
“She said, ‘I want to make a difference. I want to make a difference in the lives of children and in the lives of my own family,” said Brown. “Well, today you are her family…and now you have to make a difference to her too.”
As part of college tradition, the flags in front of the Eli Luria Library were lowered to half-mast in honor of Denison. Dean Keith McLellan, who conducted the service, said that the lowering was a representation of who the second-year student was.
“It is hope, opportunity and purpose,” McLellan said. “It is a sign that hope has been interrupted.”
Dr. Jack Friedlander, executive vice president of Educational Programs, read a letter that Superintendent-President John Romo sent to Denison’s mother, Bridgette Zunino-Denison.
“Along with so many others, we held to the hope that Brianna would survive this ordeal, come home and eventually return to Santa Barbara City College,” Friedlander said. “Her death has hit this campus very hard and we share in your grief.”
A celebration of Denison’s life was held in Reno on Feb. 23. The Reno-Gazette Journal reported that about 3,000 people braved a snowstorm to pay their final respects to Denison.
