BLACKSBURG, VA. — Caitlin M. Hammaren was an accomplished violinist. Reema J. Samaha studied French and planned to spend the summer abroad working in a children's camp. Maxine S. Turner started a sorority of engineers to help women in a tough field make friends. Ryan C. Clark had two jobs and his eye on a Ph.D. Daniel P. O'Neil loved the Beatles.
These five and 27 others were gunned down Monday in a violent attack by a fellow student at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Two were slain in a dormitory early in the morning; the rest died more than two hours later, when the gunman chained the doors of a classroom building and started shooting, then killed himself. More than two dozen were wounded.
The victims came from varied cultural backgrounds and economic circumstances. Some had arrived at Virginia Tech last fall; others were preparing for graduation after four years in the quiet town of Blacksburg, Va., tucked away amid the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Turner already had job offers. A 22-year-old senior studying chemical engineering, she had a deep bench of good friends and a variety of interests, from the Tae Kwan Do Club to German. It was in her German class that she died.
With its emphasis on science and mathematics, Virginia Tech is one of the few universities where men outnumber women. Turner never seemed daunted by the gender imbalance, but she was aware of the challenges.
She had recently formed a sorority, as she described on her MySpace.com page, for "females who had never had female friends ... for anyone looking for a support group, since engineering is challenging."
"I don't think she looked at being a woman in science as a handicap; she thought it was unique, uncommon and very special," said Cady Hendershot, a 21-year-old biology junior who met Turner when they lived in the same residence hall.
Turner came from a middle-class family in Vienna, Va., a Washington suburb about five hours from campus. She had a job in high school as a sales associate at Trousseau's, a lingerie shop, and would go back to visit after she left for college.
"She was willing to work her way up from the very bottom," Hendershot said. "She was honest, very candid. She was one of the most amazing people you could know."
That description -- amazing -- could have fit any of the students who died Monday.
Jarrett L. Lane, who was about to graduate with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering, had been valedictorian and a four-sport athlete at his high school in Narrows, Va. Matthew J. La Porte, a freshman from Dumont, N.J., was attending Virginia Tech on an ROTC scholarship and aiming for a career as an officer in the Air Force.
Hammaren, a sophomore international studies and French major from Slate Hill, N.Y., was a standout singer and violinist who always performed with a smile on her face. O'Neil, a graduate student in civil engineering from Lincoln, R.I., worshipped the Beatles and wrote folk songs, which he posted on his MySpace.com page and his website.
On her MySpace.com page, Emily J. Hilscher, a diminutive freshman who was one of the first two students killed, called herself "The Pixie." She was outgoing and outdoorsy in a way that fit right in on the rolling campus.
She was on the school equestrian team, was an avid snowboarder and was pursuing a degree in animal sciences. Her Internet postings were laced with profanity, and she had anxieties any teen might relate to. On her website, she talked of being unlucky in love but of meeting "a wonderful guy who is hopefully going to change all of that."
Family members and friends described Hilscher, from Woodville, Va., as smart and sensitive.
"She has good friends, a perfect relationship with her boyfriend," said her roommate, Heather Haugh. "I'm going to miss her so much. She loved to ride horses and she loved her family -- talked to her mom all the time, every day."
Friends of many of the victims described struggling to come to grips with the contradictions that often accompany catastrophe -- premature deaths of those just starting their lives, and violence visited on people known for their gentle dispositions.
Hilscher "was the sweetest person ever, and I can't imagine anyone wanting to hurt her," Haugh said.
Many of those killed grew up just hours from the Virginia Tech campus. But there were others who had come from overseas and endured long separations from their families.
Minal Panchal, a graduate student from India, often fretted about her decision to move so far from home to go to school. Her father had died last year, said friend Yogesh Gaikwad, and Panchal would lament that her "mother is alone in Bombay."
Gaikwad said they were part of a close circle of friends, mostly Indian students, who held weekly dinners. Panchal was her usual bubbly self at last week's gathering Friday night. "She's like a big sister to me," he said. "She's so pretty. It's hard to imagine she's not with us anymore."
