Eastern Student Robert Zielinski of Bethany Named Recipient of the ECSU Foundation's Victoria Leigh Soto '08 Memorial Endowed Scholarship

2015 Feb 18

Eastern student Robert Zielinski '17 of Bethany, CT, was named as a recipient of the ECSU Foundation's Victoria Leigh Soto '08 Memorial Endowed Scholarship for the 2014-15 academic year. Zielinski's major is Pre-Secondary Education Certification and Mathematics.

The scholarship was created in honor of Eastern Connecticut State University alumna Victoria Leigh Soto '08, an elementary school teacher, who lost her life protecting her first-grade students at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT, on Dec. 14, 2012.

Soto was a dean's list student while she attended Eastern as an elementary education and history double major. She was also a member of Phi Alpha Theta, the National History Honor Society. Her dream job was to teach and nurture young children in the primary grades.

Eastern started the scholarship in honor of Soto and her heroism and to support students studying to be teachers who have unmet financial need.

Extremely grateful to have received the award, Zielinski said, “I was very honored to be awarded the scholarship. It was unexpected and humbling, and it has furthered my appreciation of what education can provide for individuals. Victoria Soto put others’ needs before her own. Her compassion for others shows the goodness in the world and has inspired me to model her positive attitude.”