A look at some of the students and faculty killed in the Virginia Tech shootings

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Caitlin Hammaren

Hammaren, 19, of Westtown, N.Y., was a sophomore majoring in international studies and French, according to officials at her former school district.

"She was just one of the most outstanding young individuals that I've had the privilege of working with in my 31 years as an educator," said John P. Latini, principal of Minisink Valley High School, where she graduated in 2005. "Caitlin was a leader among our students."

Minisink Valley students and teachers shared their grief Tuesday at a counseling center set up in the school, Latini said.

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Jeremy Herbstritt

Herbstritt loved to chat, so much so that high school classmates voted him "Most Talkative."

"Talkie, talkie, talkie, everybody likes to talk," read the description in the Bellefonte High School yearbook of the 1998 graduate. Below was a picture of Herbstritt, with a sly grin, talking on a pay phone.

Herbstritt, 27, had two undergraduate degrees from Penn State, one in biochemistry and molecular biology from 2003, and another in civil engineering from 2006.

He grew up on a small farm just outside the central Pennsylvania borough of Bellefonte, where his father, Michael, raised cattle and sheep.

His career goal was to be a civil engineer, and he talked of getting into environmental work after school.

"He liked to work on machinery, take a lot of stuff apart and fixed it," said his grandfather Thomas Herbstritt, 77, of St. Marys. "He was a studious kid."

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Rachael Hill

Hill was a freshman studying biology at Virginia Tech after graduating from Grove Avenue Christian School in Henrico County.

Hill, 18 and an only child, was popular and funny, had a penchant for shoes and was competitive on the volleyball court.

"Rachael was a very bright, articulate, intelligent, beautiful, confident, poised young woman. She had a tremendous future in front of her," said Clay Fogler, administrator for the Grove Avenue school. "Obviously, the Lord had other plans for her."

Her father, Guy Hill, said the family was too distraught to talk about Hill on Tuesday, but relatives were planning to have memorial events later in the week. "We just need some time here," he said tearfully.

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Emily Jane Hilscher

Hilscher, a freshman majoring in animal and poultry sciences, was known around her hometown as an animal lover.

"She worked at a veterinarian's office and cared about them her whole life," said Rappahannock County Administrator John W. McCarthy, a family friend.

Hilscher, 19, of Woodville, was a freshman who lived on the same dorm floor as victim Ryan Clark, McCarthy said.

A friend, Will Nachless, also 19, said Hilscher "was always very friendly. Before I even knew her, I thought she was very outgoing, friendly and helpful, and she was great in chemistry."

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Jarrett Lee Lane

Lane, 22, was a senior civil engineering student who was valedictorian of his high school class in tiny Narrows, Va., just 30 miles from Virginia Tech.

His high school put up a memorial to Lane that included pictures, musical instruments and his athletic jerseys.

Lane played the trombone, ran track and played football and basketball at Narrows High School. "We're just kind of binding together as a family," Principal Robert Stump said.

Lane's brother-in-law Daniel Farrell called Lane fun-loving and "full of spirit."

"He had a caring heart and was a friend to everyone he met," Farrell said. "We are leaning on God's grace in these trying hours."

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Matthew J. La Porte

La Porte, 20, a sophomore from Dumont, N.J., was attending Virginia Tech on an Air Force ROTC scholarship and belonged to the school's Corps of Cadets.

La Porte, who was considering majoring in political science, was a graduate of the Carson Long Military Institute in New Bloomfield, Pa. He credited the academy with turning his life around.

"I know that Carson Long was my second chance," he said during a 2005 graduation speech that was printed in the school yearbook.

On Tuesday, the school posted a memorial photograph of La Porte in his school uniform on its Web site.

"Matthew was an exemplary student at Carson Long whose love of music and fellow cadets were an inspiration to all on campus," the school said in a statement.

According to his profile on a music Web site, La Porte's favorite artists were Meshuggah, Metallica, Soundgarden, Creed and Live.

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Henry J. Lee

Lee, also known as Henh Ly, was the ninth of 10 siblings whose family fled to the United States from Vietnam, arriving in Roanoke in 1994. Friends described the diminutive Lee, a 20-year-old freshman computer engineering major, as a serious student who wasn't necessarily a serious person.

A Virginia Tech classmate who lived in Lee's hall, Nathan Spady, described Lee as "an extremely bubbly guy, always ready to go."

Friends continued to post hundreds of messages and remembrances on Lee's Facebook page since he was shot to death, knowing he would never get to view them.

"Remember how you used to freak out when I hugged you all the time?" one read. "I'm not so sorry for that anymore."

William Fleming High School planned a memorial service for Lee on Sunday. Lee was the school's salutatorian in 2006, and brought many in the audience to tears with his story about his family's journey to America, principal Susan Lawyer Willis said.

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Liviu Librescu

Librescu, an Israeli engineering and math lecturer, was known for his research, but his son said the Holocaust survivor will be remembered as a hero for protecting students as the gunman tried to enter his classroom.

Librescu taught at Virginia Tech for 20 years and had an international reputation for his work in aeronautical engineering.

"His research has enabled better aircraft, superior composite materials, and more robust aerospace structures," said Ishwar K. Puri, the head of the engineering science and mechanics department.

After surviving the Nazi killings, Librescu escaped from Communist Romania and made his way to the United States. Monday's killings coincided with Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Librescu's son, Joe, said his father's students sent e-mails detailing how the professor saved their lives by closing the doorway of his classroom against the approaching gunman.

"My father blocked the doorway with his body and asked the students to flee," Joe Librescu said Tuesday in a telephone interview from his home outside of Tel Aviv. "Students started opening windows and jumping out."

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G.V. Loganathan

Loganathan was born in the southern India city of Chennai and had been a civil and environmental engineering professor at Virginia Tech since 1982.

Loganathan, 51, won several awards for excellence in teaching, had served on the faculty senate and was an adviser to about 75 undergraduate students.

"We all feel like we have had an electric shock. We do not know what to do," his brother G.V. Palanivel told the NDTV news channel from the southern India state of Tamil Nadu. "He has been a driving force for all of us, the guiding force."

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Partahi Lumbantoruan

Lumbantoruan's family in Indonesia said they sold off property and cars to pay his tuition and that his goal was to become a teacher in the United States.

Lumbantoruan, a 34-year-old doctoral student, had been studying civil engineering at Virginia Tech for three years, said his father, Tohom Lumbantoruan, a 66-year-old retired army officer.

"We tried everything to completely finance his studies in the United States," he said. "We only wanted him to succeed in his studies, but ... he met a tragic fate."

His stepmother, Sugiyarti, said he had called almost daily to talk to the family. In their last conversation he had asked for the latest news on Indonesian politics.

"Why can people bring guns to campus?" she asked, weeping. "How is it possible that so many innocent people could be killed? How could it happen?" Like many Indonesians she goes by one name.

An aunt, 53-year-old Christina Panjaitan, said her nephew was hardworking, intelligent and never complained. "He told me he wanted to teach in America," she said.

Family members were planning a public burial in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.

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Lauren McCain

On her MySpace page, McCain listed "the love of my life" as Jesus Christ.

Her family said the 20-year-old international studies major became a Christian some time ago.

"Her life since that time has been filled with His love that continued to overflow to touch everyone who knew her," the family said in a statement.

Her uncle, Jeff Elliott, told The Oklahoman newspaper that she was an avid reader, was learning German and had almost mastered Latin. She was home-schooled, he said, and had worked at a department store for about a year to save money for college.

She spent several years of her childhood in Oklahoma but her father's Navy career also took the family to Florida, Texas and then to Virginia.

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