Skip to footer

College student from California studying abroad killed in Paris attacks

Nohemi Gonzalez, a student at California State University, Long Beach has been killed in the Paris attacks, a spokesman for the university said on Saturday. Gonzalez was studying for a semester at the Strate College of Design.

|
Yves Herman/Reuters
Flowers and candles are placed near the scene of a shooting the day after a series of deadly attacks in Paris, France, November 14, 2015. Nohemi Gonzalez, a student at California State University, Long Beach has been killed in the Paris attacks, a spokesman for the university said on Saturday.
  • By Staff Reuters

| LOS ANGELES

A student from a university just south of Los Angeles who was studying design in France has been killed in the Paris attacks, a spokesman for the university said on Saturday.

Nohemi Gonzalez, 23, was a junior at California State University, Long Beach, and she was studying for a semester at the Strate College of Design in a suburb of Paris, said CSULB spokesman Michael Uhlenkamp. She was from El Monte in Southern California, he said.

Specific details of her death were not immediately available, but the school will hold a vigil on Sunday at 4 pm local time (2400 GMT) to mourn her passing as well as the death of everyone in the attacks.

"I'm deeply saddened by the news of the passing of Long Beach State University student Nohemi Gonzalez," university President Jane Close Conoley said in a statement. "Our thoughts and prayers are with her family and friends during this sad time."

On Friday, several sites around Paris were targeted by gunmen and bombers in what French authorities have said was a coordinated assault that left at least 129 dead overall. Islamic State on Saturday claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Conoley said the school has nearly 80 foreign exchange students from France and is offering counseling support as they cope with the aftermath. The school said it has 18 students participating in international exchange programs in Paris, but no other were hurt, a spokesman said.

One friend of Gonzalez on Facebook posted messages about the loss. "Rest in paradise my lil Mimi," wrote Miraya Cervantes. "I swear this is a sick joke. Nohemi Gonzalez. I love you sunshine. You always seem to find the bright side of everything."

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis and Ben Klayman; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Diane Craft)

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to College student from California studying abroad killed in Paris attacks
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2015/1114/College-student-from-California-studying-abroad-killed-in-Paris-attacks
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe