Following the deaths of five students in a mass shooting on Feb. 14, 2008, Northern Illinois University worked to find ways to honor the fallen by promoting the best that the NIU campus has to offer.

From such efforts were born the Forward, Together Forward Scholarships. Funded by gifts from more than 1,700 individuals, the scholarships are awarded annually to students who not only excel in the classroom but who also are highly engaged and involved leaders who focus on serving others.

Two regional students — Mitchell Huftalin of Rockford and Zahra Mushin of Dixon — are among five recipients this year.

The criteria reflect the characteristics of the students lost that day (Gayle Dubowski, Catalina Garcia, Julianna Gehant, Ryanne Mace and Dan Parmenter), each of whom exhibited similar characteristics during their time on campus.

This year’s recipients continue the university’s tradition of finding and honoring students who reflect the best to be found in all NIU students.

Mitchell Huftalin, Rockford, Anticipated Graduation Date: May 2019

Mitchell Huftalin wanted to become an NIU Orientation Leader for one simple reason: to show others why they should love NIU as much as he does. However, he wasn’t always so sure that NIU was the place for him.

His high school graduating class had only 120 people, so the thought of coming to a campus with nearly 19,000 students was a bit intimidating. The reality was far more comforting.

“Everywhere I looked, I saw smiling faces and acts of kindness. I honestly thought to myself, ‘Why is everyone so kind here?’ Then it dawned on me that we are all working toward the goal of graduation. We all need support from our fellow students and faculty members to help us reach or goals,” Mitchell says.

Since that revelation, he has worked hard to provide that support to others. As a tour coordinator in Stevenson Tower, he worked to make sure every visiting student had a good experience. As a community advisor, he works hard to stay tuned into the lives of all who live on his floor. For instance, when the hallway garbage cans disappeared one day, he immediately took action to see they were returned – not because he feared an outbreak of littering, but because he knew a student who has a visual impairment depended upon the trashcans as important landmarks to help her navigate.

He applied that same attention to detail to his work as a public relations officer for the Stevenson Hall Residence Hall Association during his freshman year. His efforts earned him the honor of Public Relations Officer of the Year, and later earned him the distinction of winning the First Year Experience Award from the Illinois Residence Hall Association.

A communication major with a dual emphasis in organizational and corporate communications and Spanish business translation, Mitchell maintains a grade point average of 3.74. He hopes to someday become a bilingual public relations representative for a company that is dedicated to improving communication across cultures.

Zahra Mushin, Dixon, Anticipated Graduation Date: December 2017

Some people are just born to teach. Zahra Mushin is one of those people.

She proved that when she accepted the challenge of leading a session of an advanced English class as part of an Honors project. “I have to admit, Zahra upstaged me in my own classroom,” says her adviser, Associate Professor Tim Ryan. “The session she covered was nothing less than a master class in teaching.”

Of course, to be fair, she had a lot of practice before stepping in front of that class. For the last couple of years it seems like she has always been teaching someone.

She serves as a volunteer for the Muslim Association of Greater Rockford, assisting refugees transitioning into the American educational system and providing them with community resources. Locally, she acts as a tutor for three children between the ages of 7 and 11 whose mother does not speak English. Last year, she also spent one day a week tutoring students (many of them recent immigrants) at a local elementary school, and worked for Upward Bound developing study strategies for minority and first-generation high school students.

On campus, she has worked as a coach at the NIU Writing Center, tutored student athletes and mentored the incoming class of Research Rookies.

When she isn’t teaching she can often be found working on award-winning research. At last year’s Undergraduate Research and Artistry Day, her project “Class Block to Cell Block” took first place among all Humanities entries and second place overall.

A 4.0 student majoring in English (with a goal of becoming a high school teacher) and minoring in psychology, Zahra is on track to graduate in December of 2017. Throughout her time on campus, she has won prestigious scholarships, participated in the Research Rookies program, become a fixture on the dean’s list and is on track to earn upper division honors.

Many teachers have those types of accolades on their resumes. What truly sets Zahra apart is that underlying all of those accolades is a great passion for improving the lives of others.

“My goal has always been to help the world in some way. That has driven me to do the most I can to help my family, friends and community,” Zahra says. “When I decided to study education, I felt like I finally found the perfect fit to reach all of my aspirations. I found my place is in a classroom where students and I can connect and challenge one another in order to increase understanding, competence, tolerance and hope for our world.”

Other honorees include Juan Cibrian of Mapleton, Ill., Luis Flores of Oswego and

Tariana Sandkam of Buffalo Grove.