Family raises $80k in scholarships to honor UCLA student killed in collision
LOS ANGELES - A family is honoring their daughter by giving back to the community she loved.
20-year-old Sera Aintablian was killed in a car crash in Studio City on March 24. Now 40 days after her passing, her family is honoring her life and accomplishments in a special way.
Her family has helped raise over $80,000 that will help benefit the UCLA community and her local Armenian community.
"She is our one and only daughter who was very kind-hearted, respectful, caring, loving, helping, trustworthy, responsible, loyal and honest. Her smile would light up everywhere she was," said her mother Jenny Yessayan.
According Yessayan, the money will be used to set up a scholarship fund at UCLA as well as support the Armenian community through the creation of the Sera Aintablian Memorial Fund.
Her mom says funds will be going to programs Sera was passionate about.
Aintablian was second year UCLA Pre-Med student majoring in Microbiology and aspired to become a doctor, her family said.
Yessayan told FOX 11 that her daughter wanted to find a cure for cancer, after experiencing her mom's own battle and journey with cancer. Aintablian also lost her grandmother to ALS and wanted to find a cure, her mother said. She volunteered at Shriners Hospital where she worked with children with special needs, Yessayan says her daughter was touched and determined to help.
"In her short 20 years, Sera had accomplished a lot of success and had inspired her friends and was a distinguished role model of the entire Armenian community,"