TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) — “She was the sun, and you can’t dim the sun.”
Being compared to the sun is rather high praise, and it is just the beginning of the loving anecdotes Zinyetta Morgan’s loved ones had to share days after her passing in a car crash on April 16.
Morgan, 24, was just weeks shy of graduating from Indiana State University, where she was studying African and African American Studies as well as Elementary Education.
Morgan was a neophyte at the Delta Sigma Theta Zeta Nu Chapter at ISU when Dajanay Monroe, Chapter President, met her and connected with her.
Monroe said her favorite memories of Morgan will be of her late friend and sorority sister being unapologetically herself – stopping her peers at midnight to “say good morning to Jesus” and always having a piece of scripture to accompany a conversation.
“I grew up in the church,” Monroe said. “So, she felt like home to me.”
Two of Morgan’s mentors on campus, Dr. Andrea Arrington-Sirois and Dr. Tiffany Reed, both said Morgan was a natural leader who empowered and uplifted those around her.
“Once you know her you are brought into her orbit and become part of her life,” Dr. Arrington-Sirois, who is a professor in ISU’s Department of History and African and African American Studies Program, said. “She is so good at making people feel like they belong around her and everyone wants to belong around her.”
Dr. Arrington-Sirois said Morgan was the best kind of student to have in the classroom because she exceled at connecting complex aspects of the curriculum together and bringing fresh insight to class discussions.
“She knew so much about everything,” Dr. Arrington-Sirois said. “She had the intellectual ability to really be a scholar.”
Dr. Reed, who is ISU’s Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs and Inclusion, said Morgan was her “mini-me” and was someone who really saw, and valued, others for who they were.
“I like to say I fell in love with her the first time I met her,” Dr. Reed said. “It takes a special type of woman to be bold and courageous not just in your appearance, but she truly takes up space and takes up space in a way where you just felt her energy and felt when she came into a room.”
Dr. Reed was a part of Morgan’s path to becoming a Delta Theta Sigma member, and said she wrote letters on Morgan’s behalf, something she didn’t just do for anyone.
“It was an honor to pin her,” Dr. Reed said. “To watch her become our member, to become our sister. She’s going to be truly missed; you have no idea. It’s a huge loss.”
Dr. Arrington-Sirois said one of the things she is mourning is Morgan’s potential.
“She did hope to go to grad school,” Dr. Arrington-Sirois said. “She would’ve been phenomenal in an elementary ed classroom, but she also would’ve been phenomenal in higher ed as a faculty member or a staff member.”
While they continue to mourn, Morgan’s loved ones are also determined to keep her legacy alive through a potential scholarship, a tribute on a study-abroad trip to Ghana this summer that Morgan took last year, and an overall appreciation for life and the relationships it brings us.
“She never left me without telling me she loved me,” Dr. Reed said. “So I challenge every student, every person, every human being that tomorrow is never promised, and that you love even more, you be kind even more, and be present even more.”
“Recently my brother just passed away; she was only person who made sure she texted me weekly,” Monroe said. “So, I just feel like I have to do that back to her family now because she did it for me.”
She wanted everyone to connect in real terms,” Dr. Arrington-Sirois said. “I think if we connect in real terms with people, that’s a huge memorial to her.”
Indiana State University is planning a celebration of life service for Zinyetta Morgan on Wednesday, April 24 at 5 p.m. at University Hall.
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