Family members of slain student Suzanne Jovin accepted a special Elm and Ivy Award in recognition of the undergraduate's good works in the New Haven community. Jovin's father, Thomas, and her sisters, Rebecca and Ellen, were presented the award by President Richard C. Levin and New Haven Mayor John DeStefano during the annual Elm Ivy Awards Ceremony, held May 6 in the Presidents' Room in Woolsey Hall. Eleven others were also given Elm and Ivy Awards at the event in recognition of their community service. (See related story, above). The Jovins listened intently while Levin described Suzanne Jovin as a "one woman town-gown relationship." She was honored posthumously with the award, Levin said, for "her work to build bridges between Yale and New Haven." "Five months after her death, we continue to grieve the passing of Suzanne Jovin. We also understand, more and more, the profound impact she had on so many -- at Yale and in New Haven -- and beyond," Levin said. In his tribute, Levin recalled that, before she came to Yale, Jovin was already a "world citizen" who was fluent in four languages and had traveled on four continents. An "outstanding student" who was majoring in political science and international relations, she found time to sing in the Freshmen Chorus and Bach Society, was cofounder of the German Club and worked in the Davenport College dining hall for three years, he noted. An active volunteer. Jovin also reached out to the community of Yale's home city as a volunteer in the student-run Tutoring in the Elementary Schools (TIES) Program and as a volunteer for Best Buddies, a national program that links college students with people with mental retardation. In her senior year, she served as the director of the Yale chapter of the program. "Suzanne's world at Yale was wide as well as deep," commented Levin in his tribute. "She understood that kindness and compassion, justice and fairness and friendship were not to be hoarded, but shared. And so she was a friend to many off campus as well as on." Levin noted that one of Jovin's friends described her views as "held together by a common thread -- that a rational, considered, just approach could overcome the most nebulous and bewildering of threats to peace, that nations and populations would behave justly if, in return, they were justly treated. "I would add that she lived this belief," continued Levin. "Suzanne had a way of bringing people together." At her memorial service, he recalled, "members of the Bach Society and the Best Buddies sat together, mourned together and remembered their friend together." Memorial fund. During the ceremony, Levin also announced that money contributed by 135 people to a memorial fund created by Jovin's family will be distributed to four organizations, two based at Yale and two based in the City of New Haven. Representatives from the four organizations receiving funding from the Suzanne N. Jovin Memorial Fund were invited to attend the Elm and Ivy Awards ceremony. The four organizations are: the New Haven Free Public Library, which received $3,000 to buy books on political science and international studies; the Dwight Elementary School (where Suzanne Jovin was a tutor for TIES), which got $3,000 to support a multi-media center for children receiving special education; the Yale Chapter of Best Buddies, which got $3,000 to create an on-campus library and resource center in Jovin's memory and to support Yale's participation in the national organization; and Dwight Hall, which received the balance of the funds for its endowment in support of other students engaged in community service. "Suzanne will be remembered through the work these grants make possible," commented Levin. "But her legacy is still larger. She has given us a shining example of what a Yale student can be, a model of what our best students are -- true citizens of the world who bring people together, build community, and create opportunities for others. We are humbled by her example and honored to perpetuate her work." 'We're all connected.' Mayor DeStefano praised Fenmore R. Seton '38 and his wife, Phyllis, for establishing the Elm and Ivy Awards as a way to honor individuals whose work bridges the Yale and New Haven communities. He said that the only way to put an end to the isolation of different groups in society is to recognize that in spite of fundamental differences, "we are all connected by our basic humanity and our shared set of principles." The shock and grief expressed by the death of Suzanne Jovin, said DeStefano, was felt so keenly by so many people not because she was a Yale student but because of her caring nature. "She arrived at that higher place beyond the haters, beyond the complacent," he said. "She had a fundamental recognition that we are all connected to one another." While in New Haven, Thomas, Rebecca and Ellen Jovin visited each of the four organizations receiving grants from the Suzanne Jovin Memorial Fund. -- By Susan Gonzalez T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S Commencement, 1999 Style Facility to enhance strength in environmental sciences Guide again taps Yale as a 'must-see' attraction 'Under My (Green) Thumb': Rolling Stones sideman talks about life . . . Summertime at Yale Endowed Professorships City-Wide Open Studios celebrates work of Yale and area artists A Conversation About Welfare and the Media Eleven honored for strengthening town-gown ties Special award, Jovin Fund commemorate student's good works From design to construction, program gives architecture students . . . 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 The members of the Jovin family (right) are greeted outside Dwight Elementary School, where Suzanne Jovin once served as a tutor.