If communication is key to global peace and understanding, Deanna Bach is well on her way.

The self-taught pianist composes songs to perform at local cafés and coffee shops, finding in music “an unexplainable power to speak truth to all of us in spite of our differences.” The Spanish Languages and Literature major is enamored with concepts of microfinance and micro-lending – small loans made to would-be entrepreneurs in impoverished parts of the world – and translates Spanish requests into English.

After Feb. 14, Bach learned of another way to connect.

“Our Honors Program reached out to an injured student just to say, ‘We’re thinking of you and we hope you’re doing OK,’ ” said Bach, a junior from Wheaton. “We brought her a teddy bear that every student who had come into the Honors office had hugged. We sent her hugs.”

Bach is a peer adviser for Honors and worked three semesters as a community adviser in the residence halls. She served as an after-school tutor for Conexion Comunidad, volunteered for the American Red Cross and NIU Cares Day and has worked six years at the Wheaton Park District’s Safety City Preschool.

An “A” student, Bach feels privileged to win a scholarship “unlike any other.”

“I was so excited to apply because I knew it was going to be based on character and kindness,” she said. “They were looking for the goodness of someone’s heart to represent these students.”

“Deanna will bring only honor to the memory of the students that were victims of Feb. 14,” said Dennis Barsema, who teaches Bach in a College of Business course. “She embodies the spirit, drive, honesty and integrity that these students represent on our campus and in the world.”