Tributes

2017 DC Run/Walk Hosted by Georgetown CCAS

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By Michael Brill, Foundation Advisor and Georgetown Alum (MAAS '16)

On March 19, 2016, nearly 200 runners came together on Georgetown University’s Copley Lawn for the Nina Brekelmans Memorial Scholarship 5k. It was a special day in which Nina’s spirit was powerfully felt: The race proceeds helped fund an endowed scholarship at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS). Meanwhile, the Nina Brekelmans Running Camp for Girls launched in Amman, Jordan.

April 23, 2017 will provide another opportunity to come together on the Georgetown campus in Nina’s memory. Nina’s professors from CCAS have organized a relaxed run and walk that will shine light on the progress that has been made to carry forward Nina’s vision. We will also be collecting donations for the running camp.

Beginning at 8:30 a.m., friends and colleagues will gather at the main CCAS suite, room 241 of the Bunn Intercultural Center (to reach CCAS, take the stairs or elevator down one floor after entering through the eastward-facing main entrance of the Intercultural Center building). After everyone has gathered in CCAS, there will be a community 5K run/walk starting at 9 a.m., followed by a breakfast and opportunity to share memories of Nina back at CCAS around 10 a.m.


Please RVSP at Eventbrite for this event.  We look forward to seeing you there!

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GRC Announces the First Annual Nina Brekelmans Award Winner

The Nina Brekelmans Award Winner, Dickson Mercer

In recognition of our dear teammate, the Georgetown Running Club has established an annual award in Nina's memory that recognizes a teammate who exhibits Nina's passion for service, drive for excellence, love of running, and humility. We are pleased to announce the first recipient, Dickson Mercer. 

From the GRC announcement: Two of the many wonderful qualities that we will always remember about Nina were her passion for running, and her dedication to public service. Because Dickson shares those qualities, he is a fitting winner of the inaugural award in Nina's honor. Dickson is an experienced and accomplished marathoner who is not known for his speed, yet in 2015, at age 33, Dickson ran his first full track season since college because he wanted to have some fun with the sport he loves. The results were impressive, capped by his huge PR of 8:52 for 3000. Dickson also has a history of public service as demonstrated by his work, along with his wife Emily, in the Peace Corps in Niger, and his demanding stint as a guide for elite visually impaired runner Aaron Scheidies in the 2012 Wilson Bridge Half Marathon. Dickson has also dedicated himself to GRC, and his contributions to the team include sharing his vast expertise in the marathon with his younger teammates.

Dickson Mercer

RunWashington Feature: Bringing Running With Her

RunWashington Feature: Bringing Running With Her

Ibrahim Abu Asbeh was driving on a sunny day in Amman, Jordan, when he first saw Nina Brekelmans running.

“Wow, she is really good,” the running coach thought to himself. “I need to know her.”

Seeing a female runner in that country was rare, something Nina hoped to change.

She was in Jordan through the Center for Arabic Study Abroad while a graduate student at Georgetown and Abu Asbeh just happened to see her during one of her training runs along Amman’s Sport City trails. After picking up running at the insistence of a friend, she had competed for Dartmouth and kept it up after moving on to grad school.

Bicycles, Yoga, and Nina: BicycleSPACE Yoga Fundraiser

Nina moved quickly. If she wasn't running somewhere, Nina was likely darting off around town on a bright pink road bike. It's no surprise then that she would be drawn to a series of free evening yoga classes at BicycleSPACE, a community-oriented bicycle shop in downtown Washington, DC. The classes, hosted inside BicycleSPACE's shop function on a give-what-you-can model whereby all proceeds are donated to local non-profits. 

Upon hearing of Nina’s passing, BicycleSPACE yoga instructor Claire Hamp decided to dedicate classes throughout the summer of 2015 to Nina and the scholarship endowment at Georgetown University. On September 28, 2015, a special yoga class and reception was held at BicycleSPACE’s Adams Morgan shop to award over $900 in donations to the representatives of the Nina Brekelmans Memorial Scholarship Fund at Georgetown University. Photos from that event are below. 

Eulogy by Elizabeth Harmon

Nina and I met at Middlebury’s summer Arabic language school in 2010. Everyone had to take a placement test, and I tested into a class that was too advanced. I got to the class early and everyone was already chatting in Arabic about their far more accomplished backgrounds. None of the kids looked to be my age, some had graduate degrees, and many had clearly already studied or lived in the Middle East.  Lucky for me, there was Nina. She and I both had just finished our sophomore years of college. I can still picture her sitting at the table on the first day, looking cheerful and eager to begin class, but most importantly to me, she was the only friendly face in the crowd. We sat together, getting to know one another. Nina never put on airs, she is one of the most modest people I have met, especially given her many many accomplishments.

The Middlebury program required everyone to speak only in Arabic for 10 weeks, so we had numerous hours for small talk and chit chat with that limitation. With Nina, the chit chat could run for hours, because even though she was younger than most students, she had great stories about her worldly life, passions, and interests and could convey them very well in the language. She was so easy to talk to.

Within a week of the program beginning, I realized the class with Nina was too advanced for me, and so I dropped down to a lower level. Nina stuck it out as the youngest girl in her class with the fewest number of courses of formal Arabic instruction. She was so determined to challenge herself and disciplined enough to reach her goals. While we were in the same class, we worked together on the homework. When I dropped down a level, Nina continued to help me with my homework and answer my questions throughout the program. Nina was incredibly generous with her time in helping others, no matter how busy she was. This is what she loved to do. And she loved the study of Arabic and how it brought her to interact with others.

Nina talked about how she was happiest when she was studying abroad in the Middle East, because Arabic was her favorite subject, and being there was a chance to study that subject at all hours of the day, in every situation. Whether it was sitting in class, giving directions to a cab driver, hanging out with her local language exchange partner, or running past the vendors on the Corniche in Alexandria, Egypt, she was soaking up the language just being in the Middle East.

Two weeks ago we went for lunch and when talking about her future, she said that she was interested in translating fiction from Arabic into English. She loved the idea of entertaining two of her passions. On top of her rigorous course load in her final semester of her Arab Studies program at Georgetown, she took a creative writing class in the English department and really enjoyed it.

I asked her to lunch because I was hoping to get her advice and feedback on a creative writing project of my own. One of the last things she said to me was, “Lizzie, you just tell me what you need me to do to help you, and I’ll do it.”

Eulogy by Michael Brill

Nina Brekelmans was an amazing colleague and fellow student.  She was an even more amazing person and friend.  Nina and I met in the Center for Arabic Study Abroad program in Amman, Jordan in August 2013.  In getting to know Nina during the following months, I was struck most by the remarkable combination of austerity and discipline with which she conducted herself and regimented her life on the one hand, and the heartfelt happiness and gentleness of spirit with which she interacted with others and the world around her on the other.  Many a weaker person, having subjected him or herself to such a rigorous lifestyle and exacting standards in every endeavor, would have been negatively affected and undergone a hardening of their heart; but not Nina.   Nina’s smile and friendliness were contagious and although we did not share any of the same classes that year in Jordan, our meet-ups for lunch or tea, along with chance encounters at the Arabic institute or around Amman, always predictably resulted in a distinct sense of optimism and positivity.  Never before had I met someone possessing the grace of balancing the highest level of personal devotion with the authentic humility of accepting the world she encountered and the people in it she met as they were.  Nina radiated the joy that comes not only from living, but living well with kindness towards all.  

Nina and my academic and personal friendships developed in an environment heavily influenced by her characteristic dedication and genuineness of purpose.  At a dinner party over Alice Gissinger’s apartment 2-3 months into the program, Nina and I realized that we had not spoken to each other in English, highlighting the seriousness with which she took the pledge to speak in Arabic.  Nina also took a sincere interest in my own plans for the future and was elated that I had deferred acceptance to the Arab Studies program at Georgetown University.  Nina made it crystal clear that she expected me to come back with her to Georgetown and when I officially accepted in April 2014, she greeted me that morning by screaming and jumping up to give me a giant hug, the warmth of which will never grow cold.  In word, spirit, and action, Nina’s loyalty to and pride in this university were boundless.  

The experience of actually having class with and studying alongside Nina this past year at Georgetown is something I will always be grateful for.  Mr. and Mrs. Brekelmans, as I told you when we crossed paths at DuPont Circle just a few weeks ago, “It was an honor spending the past two years with Nina in CASA and at Georgetown, although she set the academic bar so high that it was basically impossible to reach.” However, the difficulty of keeping pace with Nina, whether in school or in life, is not an excuse to avoid trying, to not giving it our very best. We will recall the elegance and poise with which Nina ran marathons and the race of life while finding inspiration in how she ran both.  Nina would expect and accept nothing less.  And despite the pain, sadness, and darkness of the irreparable void created by Nina’s loss, to quote novelist Stephen Crane, I hope that time will bring a measure of solemn comfort in the knowledge that even “the unutterable midnights of the universe will have no power to daunt the color of this soul.”

Eulogy by Alice Gissinger

Dearest Gail, Nico, Rob, friends,

I feel blessed to know that I was one of Nina's very close friends. We got to know each other by spending a year abroad together, studying Arabic in Jordan.

She and I were different in a number of ways, but something about her beauty, her energy, her intelligence, her friendliness instantly attracted me to her, and over the course of the year, we became very close friends.

One of the things I liked most about Nina is that I never had any doubts about the way she felt about people or things. She always made herself very clear.

I'm not saying that Nina wasn't complex or indecisive ­­ she was, we all know that. Nina took forever to make decisions. They dragged on and on. But at least, she never pretended to be sure of herself if she wasn’t.

When Nina wasn't happy about something, or didn't adore someone, she made it very easy to find out. She was wonderfully simple to be around.

If Nina didn't really want to go to your party, she would tell you.

If she didn't want to eat your food, she would tell you.

If you were giving her too much homework ­­-- or too little homework, for that matter -- she would tell you.

It wasn't always pleasant, but at the very least, you never had to worry, or try to guess how she was feeling, or walk on eggshells around Nina. She spared you that effort. Said. Done.

And of all the people I have loved this fully, I think I had to worry about Nina the least. I could always trust she was doing her thing and she'd take care of herself.

Which is why this particular tragedy, which brought us here together today, is so haunting.

Nina forced people to be honest with each other. And if she told you she loved you, and she did that a lot, because she cared for people, she would do it without reserve, without a shred of ambiguity. There was never a question that she meant every word. She would write things like "lots of giant hugs." Who writes things like that?

Gail and Nico, thank you for raising such a genuine gal. She was always right there with us.

Rob, thank you for all the times you teased and annoyed your sister growing up -- it’s how she learned to stand up for herself.

Nina my darling, lots of giant hugs. I will miss you very much.

Video: Nina's Memorial Race in Amman, Jordan on June 11, 2015

Translation into English: 

Toya Hasab Allah: This is for Nina’s memory, she loved running very much. She used to be very happy with the races done in Amman. She is a hero, and has a great place in our hearts. Our love for her cannot be quantified and will always remember her. As long as I run, she will always be with me. 

Ibrahem Abu Asbeh:  Nina was a dear friend and colleague. We used always train together.  The tragic news has profoundly impacted and upset all of us. We wanted to commemorate her memory through this Race for Charity in her name. We were happy that all her friends attended the run and even people who did not know her personally participated to honor her. Our prayers go out to her and her family.

Sharifa and Ashwaq: We are Nina’s friends, and her running partners.  We first met Nina here, at Sports City, and we would run together almost daily.  Talking about Nina, she brought us together with her persistent, kind spirit that represents a true sportswoman.  The smile would never leave her face, no matter her score or run time. As a human being, she is irreplaceable and our loss is great.  She is a friend above all else, she would motivate and encourage us. Her voice is still with me, urging us to go on, give it all we’ve got and not care about the challenges.  She will always be with us, her spirit is with us. Everything in Sports City reminds us of her.  We send our condolences to her family as we try to console ourselves with the loss of such a friend. 

Lina Al-Kurd: Today, we as Run Jordan have come together  to support running for charity, which is our motto.  We are doing this today in the name of one of our runners who participated with us in 2014, Nina Brekelmans. Nina is an American citizen who learned Arabic and tried to make an impact in Jordan.  She worked mainly on empowering local women to participate in sports, especially running.  She tried to help them overcome societal stigma and participate in any sport within the Kingdom. She also worked with us. She helped us with the Young Runners program. She volunteered as a trainer in this initiative.  We send her family our deepest condolences. We lost a great runner and volunteer who had an amazing spirit. Her memory will always live with her family and friends. This video is a gift to her loved ones in the US. In memory of Nina Brekelmans.

Run Jordan organizes memorial run for Nina Brekelmans

AMMAN — Run Jordan organised a special run in memory of American runner Nina Brekelmans who passed away in a tragic accident on June 3 in the United States, according to a statement from organisers.

Brekelmans won the 2014 Dead Sea Ultra Marathon 21km race and was one of the first five winners in the 2014 Amman Marathon.

She also volunteered with Run Jordan and helped launch the Junior Runners Programme in 2014. As a tribute to her highly motivated spirit and achievements with the society, Run Jordan’s family, team members and many local runners who participated in these races with Nina, came together to honour her love for running at the Sports City running track.

“We were very saddened with the news of Nina’s death, and to remember her motivated, helpful and giving spirit we decided that the best thing would be to honour her with the one thing that she loved most, running,” said Lina Kurd, Run Jordan general manager.

- See more at: http://www.jordantimes.com/news/sports/run-jordan-organises-memorial-run-nina-brekelmans#sthash.s1qobGTi.dpuf

From Teal Burrell and Miles to the Trials: "Nina"

By Teal Connor Burrell 

Last week, our team suffered another devastating loss: on June 3rd, our teammate Nina was killed in a house fire.

Nina was one of those people that seem to defy the laws of time and the limits of energy. She worked her butt off at absolutely everything she did, and she accomplished a lot in her short 25 years. Last month, she graduated from Georgetown with a Masters in Arab Studies and she was gearing up to head to the Middle East on a Fulbright scholarship. She walked onto the Dartmouth track and cross-country teams in college and joined GRC after graduation. Although she struggled with injuries during her time on GRC, she was an absolute fighter. At practice she would latch onto the pack and not let go. It was sometimes obvious how hard the pace was, but she fought with everything she had to stick to it. Dreaming big doesn’t get you anywhere without a work ethic to match, and Nina had the biggest.

It’s not fair that Nina won’t have a chance to go after her goals—both in running and in her career. Her Fulbright involved studying women’s running in Jordan, hoping to promote the sport as a way to empower women. As part of her Masters studies, she spent a year in the Middle East, originally settling in Egypt in the summer of 2013. When unrest broke out, she was forced to evacuate to Jordan but wrote us that she didn’t want to leave; she felt safe and wanted to stay to continue her studies. I think that attitude sums up Nina – her work ethic, her bravery, her optimism. She always saw the absolute best in people, and she worked incredibly hard to help people however she could.

While in Jordan, she ran—and won—her first half marathon. In her email after the race, she wrote about how she was excited that she ran well, but noted, “The best part of the day was sharing it with the people I love most here in Jordan.”

Isn’t that the best part of all running? Races are celebrations of hard work, and they’re best shared with the friends that have logged those miles with you, that have shared your dreams and aspirations, that have stuck—huffing and puffing—on your tail through every lung-busting interval. Running has given me some of my best friends—people who make the victories seem sweeter and the defeats sting less.

Which makes it devastating to lose one of those friends. Please keep Nina’s family, friends, and teammates all over the world in your thoughts and prayers. 

We’ll miss you, Nina. May we remember you always by trying to live more like you did: bravely, positively, with a heart full of kindness, always willing to help however possible.

 

Dream as big as Nina did,

Teal

Video: Nina's Post-race Interview from the 2014 Dead Sea Ultra Marathon

عدائة محترفة وخلوقة احبت الاردن كثيرا وفرضت احترام الناس لها الله يرحمك يا ( NINA BREKELMANS )

Posted by Lutfi Mohammad Saleh on Saturday, June 6, 2015

GRC Remembers Nina

Our teammate Nina

By Charlie Ban

Posted on the Georgetown Running Club Blog on June 5, 2015

After making her mark in Kentucky, Mexico, New Hampshire, Egypt, Jordan and Washington, D.C., Nina Brekelmans was about to head back to the Middle East, ready to take on the world when a fire in her Dupont Circle rowhouse June 3 claimed her and a neighbor. She was 25.

She had finished her Master’s in Arab Studies at Georgetown less than three weeks earlier and her parents, who are living in China, were on hand for commencement.

She was due to return to Jordan, to work on a Fulbright grant studying women’s athletics as a means of encouraging confidence and self esteem. Her high school friend and GRC teammate Mary Grace Pellegrini said that on the verge of her new life, Nina was primed to change the world with her energy, talent, intellect and raw determination.

“She was at a happy stage of her life,” Mary Grace said. “She had a sincere and deep love for the people of the Middle East. It’s where she felt at home.”

While in Jordan during part of a one-year language and cultural immersion fellowship (she started in Egypt until civil unrest prompted Americans to leave), she won her first attempt at a half marathon at the Dead Sea, taking home some prize money, meeting members of the royal family and generally being treated “like a star,” Mary Grace said.

“She was an absolute dynamo,” she added. “And she was so proud to wear her GRC shirt on the podium.”

About the half marathon, she said, "for once in my life, I am quite pleased with the result, as well!"

That gave some insight into the standards that she set for herself. Despite taking up the sport in earnest only a few years before, and having won the Cross Country on the Farm 5k in 2012 in Derwood, Md., she was only starting to be satisfied with her performances when she won on a competitive stage.

Nina came to competitive running later in life than most of her teammates. While an undergrad at Dartmouth, she rowed on the crew team, but a run at home in Louisville during a semester break with Mary Grace opened a new door for her.

“I told her ‘Nina, you’re running really fast, you’re in great shape,’” Mary Grace said. “I told her she could probably walk on to the team at Dartmouth. She played soccer (and tennis) in high school but would have been one of our best cross country runners.” 

So Nina showed up to the Dartmouth home invitational, cheered on by professors, friends and crew teammates who knew they’d lose her from the team if she ran too fast. She did, and became a harrier for the Big Green. 

“Her career at Dartmouth was limited by injury, but she ran some very solid times in college,” said GRC Coach Jerry Alexander. The highlight of her collegiate career came in Boston, where she ran a 9:56 3000m. “She was essentially a very talented beginner when she joined GRC in the fall of 2012.  She was really committed to continue her development with GRC, and was training extremely well.”

Injuries plagued her throughout her running career, but they only affected her body. She remained determined throughout and committed to her teammates both new and old. She beemed with pride when she had a chance to watch college teammate Alexi Pappas race in Alexandria last fall at the .US National 12k, and even though she loved her experiences in Egypt (before relocating to Jordan during her language fellowship), she regretted missing out on celebrating teammates’ successes.

“It's been really fun to follow your racing results and see massive PR after PR. Wish I were there to enjoy these moments with you!” she wrote to her teammates.

Mary Grace remembered her as a devoted and genuine friend. 

“Nina would remember things about people that they’d just mention in passing,” she said. “She knew I had a great race at the Penn Relays, and she found a poster for the meet while visiting her brother at Penn and gave it to me."

That handoff meant carrying the vintage poster with her across the eastern United  States over a few weeks. 

"That’s the kind of thing she’d do for her friends. She was a wonderful friend and so sincere."

And despite those injuries, she was determined to do something with her running. As she left for Cairo she told her teammates she wasn’t going to let inconveniences keep her from the sport she had grown to love.

“I do plan on training in Cairo,” she wrote at the time. “Through the heat, pollution and traffic, and probably getting shouted at.”

That was typical Nina.

“She was always challenging herself,” Mary Grace said. “To excel at academics, to go after the most competitive scholarships in the country, to learn another language. With Arabic, she was really on another level, truly exceptional.”

That future was going to take her away from D.C., but not before she made an impression on her teammates.

“Nina was very, very proud to be part of GRC,” Jerry said. “She was willing to do whatever it was going to take to hang with the girls, and she was a great teammate in every sense of the word.”

I'd hear her wheezing as she'd push to keep up with her far more seasoned teammates and initially thought it was an indication of some weakness, but I realized quickly that it was indicative of her strength and focus to do what it took to be a better runner, to push herself harder.

We’re left to only imagine where she would have topped out and the impact she would have had in the Middle East and beyond.

“She was ready to go out into the world and make a difference,” Mary Grace said.