Two years ago Freedom Alliance launched our Scholarship Ambassador project which provides our scholarship recipients an opportunity to spend three-months working at Freedom Alliance headquarters.
This summer we are proud to have Shannon Zangas with us for the summer. She’s working hard helping us to identify ways to further connect with and remind them that their family’s sacrifice hasn’t been forgotten.
Shannon’s father, LtCol Robert Zangas served nine months with the 4th Civil Affairs Group during Operation Iraqi Freedom. After three months stateside, he returned to assist the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) to training Iraqi women in journalism and public relations skills.
On March 9, 2004, he was murdered in an ambush along with Fern Holland and Holland’s Iraqi interpreter and assistant, Salma Oumashi, while returning to base from a women’s center in Karbala. Zangas leaves behind his wife, Brenda, and three children.
 My name is Shannon Zangas and I am a rising junior at Dickinson College: a private, liberal arts school located in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.I am pursuing a degree in Political Science and will be studying abroad in Bologna, Italy this Fall to further enhance my education.At school, I am an active member in Pi Beta Phi, a philanthropic fraternity for women, as well as the coordinator for CARES- a mentoring and tutoring program for elementary aged children who speak English as a second language. I live with my family in Butler, Pennsylvania and have two talented younger brothers. Scott is 16, plays ultimate Frisbee and is the first-chair saxophone player in three different bands, and Jake is 14 and involved with basketball, tennis, and piano. My father, Lieutenant Colonel Robert Zangas, was a devoted Marine who flew CH-46 helicopters, served in Kuwait, the Persian Gulf War, and Operation Iraqi Freedom.On March 9, 2004, I was devastated to find out he had been killed. He was a compassionate, optimistic, and honorable individual, and I am thankful for his guidance during the first ten years of my life.I am proud of the way my dad lived his life, and I use his accomplishments and selfless ideals as a model of how to live my own. |
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