Parents honor daughter with criminal justice scholarship

Byron and Nicole Honoré recently established the Kirstin E. Honoré Memorial Scholarship Fund to help keep their daughter’s legacy and generous spirit alive.

Kirstin, a native of Baton Rouge, began attending the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in fall 2018 and majored in criminal justice. Nicole said that UL Lafayette was the only Louisiana school Kirstin ever considered attending.

“Once she set foot on the school’s campus, she said it felt like home, which was comforting to us,” Nicole said.

Nicole said Kirstin majored in criminal justice because it was her passion, and she loved every aspect of the field from evaluating justice problems to the policies, programs and solutions. Kirstin worked at the SPRUCE lab with Michelle Jeanis, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Criminal Justice. Through her work in the lab, Kirstin was able to further her passion for the field of criminology by engaging in applied research with the National Institute on Justice's National Missing and Unidentified Persons System.

"Kirstin was a go-getter," Jeanis said. "She got along well with everything in the lab, and she had a lot of ambition."

David Khey, Ph.D., the department head for the Department of Criminal Justice, said scholarships are quite meaningful to the department because they help students going through undergrad. The department plans to award Kristin's scholarship to someone who has a passion for research and who will help the department's brand, just like Kirstin did.

“We are most grateful to UL Lafayette and its outstanding administration and staff for allowing us the opportunity to establish the scholarship in Kirstin’s honor,” Nicole said. “Being able to continue to honor Kirstin and the life she lived by being a blessing to a UL Lafayette student as they pursue their dreams is most rewarding.”