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University of Pennsylvania track star jumped to death over grades: Family friend
Madison Holleran, 19, was stressed about her 3.5 GPA in the weeks before she jumped from a parking garage in Philadelphia on Friday, the friend said. The freshman’s tragic death stunned friends and family in her hometown of Allendale, N.J.
By Joe Kemp AND Nina Golgowski / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Published: Monday, January 20, 2014, 10:39 AM
Madison Holleran, 19, a star member of University of Pennsylvania’s track team, died after she apparently jumped off a parking garage in Philadelphia on Friday.
A beautiful and brainy University of Pennsylvania track star jumped to her death from a parking garage Friday after stressing out over grades, a family friend revealed Monday.
Madison Holleran — a freshman at the Ivy League school who hails from Bergen County, N.J.— made dinner plans and sent messages to friends without a hint she was feeling suicidal, said family friend Bob Weckworth.
“People talked to her within hours of her act of suicide and there were no red flags, warning signs, nothing,” he told the Daily News from the family’s Allendale home.
The 19-year-old was majoring in philosophy, politics and economics at University of Pennsylvania.
“This kid didn’t have a boyfriend. There were no drug issues. There were no mental health issues in her background. It was just the last two, three weeks where they saw a change in her,” said Weckworth, a friend of Madison’s father, James Holleran. “Something snapped.”
RELATED: PHILANTHROPIST WHO JUMPED TO HIS DEATH LEAVES $2 MILLION TO ASSISTANT
Cops said Madison, 19, jumped from a Philadelphia parking garage at 7 p.m. Friday. It was not clear Monday if she left a suicide note.
Mickey DeLorenzo for New York Daily News
A makeshift memorial at the scene where Holleran died after jumping from a parking garage in Philadelphia on Friday.
The death of the teen — who won numerous athletic awards as a student at Northern Highlands Regional High School in New Jersey — left her friends and family stunned.
She left a flood of photos on her social media accounts showing her smiling with friends. One posted on Instagram just an hour before her death shows a beautiful image of Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Square at sunset.
“She got a 3.5 her first semester, and I think just the high expectations that she put on herself was that that’s just not acceptable,” Weckworth said.
Mickey DeLorenzo for New York Daily News
The Philadelphia parking garage where Holleran jumped to her death Friday.
RELATED: GIRL SLAMS INTO TRAIN TRYING TO COMMIT SUICIDE
When she came home over Christmas break, she was a changed person, he said.
“She was not happy at Penn, but the parents had told her then, ‘Don’t go back. We’ll transfer. We’ll look at other schools. There’s no reason to go back, it’s OK,’ ” he said.
It was not immediately clear what may have prompted the teen — a star athlete in her hometown of Allendale, N.J. — to jump to her death.
University of Pennsylvania President Amy Gutmann said Madison’s death left the campus “deeply saddened.”
“She was bright and well-liked with an incredible future ahead of her,” Gutmann said in a statement.
Holleran posted this picture of Rittenhouse Square to her Instagram account about an hour before she jumped to her death on Friday.
Steve Dolan, Penn’s director of track and field-cross country, said Madison’s teammates were crushed by the news.
“We will always carry her in our hearts,” Dolan said.
The school announced that formal recruitment for sororities would be postponed out of respect for Holleran, who was participating in the events.
Holleran — who was named by the Star-Ledger to the all-state girls soccer and track teams last year — was majoring in philosophy, politics and economics, NJ.com reported.
“As our school community mourns the loss of Madison, we extend our love and prayers to the Holleran family as they grieve, and we respect their privacy during this extremely difficult time,” Joseph Occhino, principal of Northern Highlands High School, said in a statement.
Truly sad. I often wonder what happens to someone that they make such a rash decision at such a young age. I have a 17 year old daughter who is an excellent athlete and gets excellent grades, she is constantly pushing herself. If something like this came to her mind I can only hope and pray she would talk to either my wife or me. We do talk daily and usually have dinner together. I will often do work at home while she is doing homework so that we can be together. I could not imagine what I would do if something this tragic ever befell either of my 2 kids.
Bob.
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Is there video of her jumping, by herself? I’m having trouble believing the story as written. Sounds more like a clever murder.
Exactly sink I’m reminded of dexter season 3 the trinity killer. Sounds like a homicide to me.
Meant to say exactly persnickity I agree w you.
Before Dexter (haven’t seen it but apparently jj3 has), this plot device was used in Lethal Weapon as a way to blackmail the girl’s father into smuggling heroin.
This death doesn’t pass the smell test. I don’t buy it. Maybe the cops can take break from jaywalking patrol and dig a little deeper.
This death doesn’t pass the smell test. I don’t buy it. Maybe the cops can take a break from jaywalking patrol and dig a little deeper.
Logic and reason cannot be applied to explain mental illness and the acts that follow. Suicide rates are on the rise all across this land, look for them to continue on this trajectory.
Wow, she was a knockout! Stressed over grades? It took me 3 semesters added together to make a 3.5. Indeed, something in this story just doesn’t add up.
I call bullshit ,..there’s was something else wrong in her life.They will find out what was really wrong if they look or as NA says ..dig a little deeper
“There were no mental health issues in her background.”
THIS SITE IS FILLED WITH CONSPIRACY THEORISTS. SOMETIMES IT ISN’T A CONSPIRACY.
Holleran said his 19-year-old expressed thoughts of suicide in December and was seeing a therapist.
“My daughter’s stress was self-induced, and although we had started her in therapy to address her issues, she hid the severity of those issues from everyone,” he said. “We knew she needed help. She knew she needed help. She had lost confidence in academics, and she also lost confidence in her track abilities.”
Holleran said he was in contact with his daughter Friday night and instructed her to make an emergency appointment with her therapist for an anti-depressant medication.
“I was worried about her so I texted her that she needed to see the therapist. She said she would,” he said, adding his daughter was considering transferring to a different school.
The Post reported Madison Holleran reportedly left a note and gifts for her family on top of the parking garage. However, her father did not describe the note or the gifts to The Post.
Administrator says: THIS SITE IS FILLED WITH CONSPIRACY THEORISTS. SOMETIMES IT ISN’T
Holleran said his 19-year-old expressed thoughts of suicide in December and was seeing a therapist.
Once again sensetti is spot on, see comment above.
From an early age, we are told by parents, educators, friends that we must be this or we must be that – or – that we are this way or we are that way. We are indoctrinated so much that we lose sight of ourselves, out of touch with who we are (that’s if we ever really knew who we were, or were given the freedom, the time to find out). Most parents don’t allow sitting around, time for reflection. It’s a race to the finish and, “Boy, my kid is going to be something.”
These kids become enmeshed with their peers, and often competition is brutal. She was probably a big wheel at her high school, the best at track, but found out it was much harder once the competition increased. This must have been a tremendous loss to her ego.
I got terribly depressed once. Several things happened, all out of my control. The ego doesn’t like that. I pulled myself out of it, but I have never forgotten how low I got; I couldn’t have imagined much more.
Teach your children to “let go” or “surrender”, that whenever we fail (providing we’ve tried hard), it’s because life is TRYING TO POINT US IN ANOTHER DIRECTION. It’s not a failure; it’s a life-affirming moment because it wasn’t where we wanted to go in the first place.
Help your children discover who they are. If they happen to love doing something – really love it – THAT is where they ought to go. Ask them where their minds go when they are quiet. It’s going somewhere. Point them there.
Too many parents are trying to steer or assist someone who doesn’t know what they want. Help them find out what THEY really want. That is the greatest gift you could give them.
I have a daughter about this age. I cannot imagine the pain of her parents. So sad.
She was obviously bright enough to know there aren’t many decent jobs out there. And there was no mention if she had student loan debt. If kids like her are offing themselves, we’re even more doomed than I thought.
Penn did away with student loans. It’s all grants if your financial situation merits aid.
I wonder how many kids on the 30 blocks of squalor jump off a parking garage because they only got a 3.5 GPA.
A couple things. First, this is tragic, and horrible for her parents. No doubt.
Second, a lot of mental illness first manifests itself in the young adult years. So it’s entirely possible for someone to go from happy and successful high schooler to surprisingly messed up college student in just a year or two, without any criminal or otherwise nasty outside cause.
However, there are two things that leave me suspicious:
1) Women don’t usually kill themselves in violent ways. Men are inclined to use guns and car crashes, but women more often use drugs, gas, wrist cutting, etc. I don’t have statistics for jumping off high buildings, but this is only the second time I’ve heard of a woman killing herself that way.
2) There are usually SOME warning signs, and the quote below makes it sound like there was NO warning sign shortly beforehand. Someone makes routine dinner plans and then decides to jump off a building an hour or two before their scheduled dinner with friends? It just doesn’t sound likely.
“Madison Holleran — a freshman at the Ivy League school who hails from Bergen County, N.J.— made dinner plans and sent messages to friends without a hint she was feeling suicidal, said family friend Bob Weckworth. “People talked to her within hours of her act of suicide and there were no red flags, warning signs, nothing,” he told the Daily News from the family’s Allendale home.”
Finally, having been around several large universities in my time (not Penn), I have seen dozens of times the cover-ups of campus crime of various kinds, from the mundane to the terrible. I don’t know Penn specifically, but in many prestigious universities you should assume the real crime rate is much higher than anything admitted to.
There are many kids on the 30 Blocks of Squalor who have pushed someone else off a parking garage.
Most of the kids on the 30 Blocks of Squalor wouldn’t get a 3.5 if you added up their 3 years in high school. They drop out before graduating.
Maybe she read TBP on a daily basis.
That would do it.
My daughter is pretty, athletic, smart, funny, and straight A’s. She told me that she felt too much pressure in her Grade 11 year. No doubt. It was absolutely insane! Homework? Jesus H. Christ!!!!!
But above all else, she is very creative. She is not going to be a specialist. That’s for the left-brained people, the linear thinkers, the conformist, rote-learners. She would be bored out of her frigging mind. I can see this, and I let her play. Sometimes I help her with research just so she can play at what she really likes doing.
Tell me one new discovery that’s been discovered by a rote-learner. Everything has come from creative thinkers (something school systems seem to like smothering in people). It is in the unusual, the creative where we find the jewels.
I believe everyone is creative. Help your children find that creative spark in themselves.
This girl’s parents mentioned sending her to a “different school”. That wasn’t the problem. They needed to take her out of school and help her. They needed to give her time to discover what she wanted with her life.
The stress in her life must have been tremendous. Why does a freshman in college need to pursue three majors? She had to compete athletically at a more rigorous level than in her high school glory days. She had been experiencing the adjustment process that all college freshman endure. Then she took on the Greek recruitment experience, which for some is a painful exercise.
It’s tragic that her expectations of herself were so out of whack with reality that she felt completely hopeless and life was no longer worth living at age 19.
My conspiracy theory: Shortly after arrival at college, she met a former honors graduate from her program of study when he came to deliver the pizzas. That’s always possible in this economy and it’d be a pretty big “Fuck you very much for trying, better luck next time!” moment for an obviously bright kid.
It doesn’t seem suspicious to me at all. She cracked.
—-Admin
I agree. And young adults can crack for reasons other than academics.
As a 17 year old cadet during my basic summer training, which was brutally physical to say the least, I witnessed one of my classmates commit suicide by jumping to his death as we were double-timing out to the noon (lunch) formation.
We were 5 stories up from ground level and double-timing in single file, and he was three people in front of me. He never broke stride and simply dove over the railing and never uttered a sound. When you see something like that, your brain literally freezes for a few seconds. It simply DOES NOT want to process what you just saw. Then it does, and you freeze, and you stop and look down, hoping you won’t see a body. But it’s there. Not an experience you will ever forget.
Unlike dozens and dozens of others who simply quit, he chose another path. As Admin put it, he cracked.
Every suicide has its own unique story.
But, speaking in a broad sense, I believe most suicides take years to accomplish.
This young lady didn’t suddenly wake up one day and thought, “Shit, I have a 3.5 GPA. I think I’ll kill myself.” Maybe it started as early as 2 years old …. when mommy and daddy worked like hell to get her to memorize the alphabet. “Isn’t out Maddie brilliant? She know the alphabet before she’s two!!”. I’m betting all her life she was told how important good grades are; from mommy, daddy, uncles, aunts, teachers, television. Perhaps she brought home a couple “B’s” when she was in fourth grade, and mom pressed her to “do better”. Maybe she didn’t even want to go the college route, but did so because it was expected or to please someone else.
And then one day we believe she snapped suddenly ….. but there was nothing sudden about it at all.
dammit!!!
I wanted to add that I am NOT blaming the parents, the system, etc. It is what it is.
The pressures on young people today can be enormous. It was in my day also.
But, at least in my day there was the hope of a brighter tomorrow. The future seemed unlimited in its potential. Where is that hope today?
There really is no future for most of the Millennials in the traditional way their parent succeeded. Plenty of students are working jobs, taking out loans, trying to compete double majors, and working free internship to get ahead while their peers are doing the exact same thing. This whole idea of go to school to get a good job is not reality anymore. Deflation and bankruptcy of our economy is knocking at our doors. Most parents do not even know the pressures in currently. I already stated my degree is out of date already. Many are graduates two or three years out of college are finding themselves with the same reality. They worked hard for 4-5 years to purse a degree taught be hacks that hadn’t even been in the field for 20-30 years.
Most students crack at college, but they don’t commit suicide. The shootings at Universities is a warning. It is always young men who go the shooter route, but underneath is desperate young men that were on a suicide mission to begin with. If they didn’t go on a shooting spree they would have committed suicide. And suicide is becoming increasingly common amongst the youth. While I was in high school two classmates killed themselves within 3 months of each other. Numerous friends of mine have had a close friend that committed suicide or intentionally overdosed on drugs. Many others have gone the route of substance abuse, apathy, or adrenaline fueled bad decisions.
There is no conspiracy theory, it is very common for a college student to crack and kill themselves.
Calamity ……… she’s baaaaaaack!
“Most students crack at college, but they don’t commit suicide.” ——— Stepha-clam
” … it is very common for a college student to crack and kill themselves.” ——— Stepha-clam
.
Pick one. Any one. Otherwise my head will explode.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — One person was killed inside a Purdue University classroom Tuesday by a gunman who surrendered to a police officer within minutes of the attack, officials said.
Purdue Police Chief John Cox said the man appeared to have targeted the victim, also a male, around noon in a basement classroom of the Electrical Engineering Building. Cox said he didn’t attack anyone else.
“The individual entered the facility and took the actions that he took, and then immediately left the facility without any other interaction that we’re aware of,” Cox said.
The suspect gave himself up to a West Lafayette police officer outside the building on the 40,000-student campus, he said.
Cox and Purdue Provost Tim Sands told reporters during an afternoon news conference that they had not yet confirmed the identities of either the suspected gunman or the victim.
Cox said the man arrested wasn’t immediately cooperating with investigators.
Purdue officials issued a text alert telling those on the campus about 60 miles northwest of Indianapolis to seek shelter shortly after the shooting was reported. Within two hours, the university said there was no ongoing threat on campus and allowed normal operations to resume in all buildings except the engineering facility.
Purdue officials considered the campus to be secure, said Sands, who in June will become president of Virginia Tech, where an April 2007 campus massacre left 33 dead.
“We’re encouraging students to continue about their usual business on the rest of the campus except for the Electrical Engineering Building,” he said.
Students described a chaotic scene when the first report came in.
Julissa Martinez, a freshman nursing student from Portage, said she was in psychology class on another part of the campus when she received the text message saying the university was on lockdown. She said her professor briefly kept teaching, then stopped lecturing so that students could contact people to let them know they were safe.
“He tried to get everything under control because people were freaking out,” she said.
She said students were nervous because there was a lot of speculation about the severity of the situation.
“It was scary because you hear about it, but you never expect it to happen on your campus,” Martinez said.
Senior Saran Mishra, editor of the Purdue Exponent, the campus newspaper, said some students reported hearing fire alarms and were told to evacuate.
“Right now I’m still in shock,” he said.
Cox, the campus police chief, said authorities responded aggressively after the shooting was reported, with about 20 campus and city police officers at the building within minutes.
Sands said the university will offer assistance to those who need it as the circumstances of the shooting are sorted out.
“We’ll provide whatever services we can to assist our students, our faculty and our staff in coming back to a sense of normality,” he said.
Stucky- Both, most college students who do crack, don’t commit suicide. But it is very common for someone under the age of 30 to either know someone who has committed suicide, or to have a friend who has known someone that committed suicide. On Christmas Eve a friend of a friend committed suicide. He swallowed a bullet and left no note. When I was told it wasn’t a “omg, why did he do that moment”. It was a I understand moment.
During my time in college I remember two suicides, one death from apnea, one murdered, and a lot of overdoses.
This isn’t uncommon among high acheivers in college. I have heard of similar stories for years. My sister could have been one of them. It wasn’t easy following, being two years younger, a straight A, Who’s who of American High School students, who received nothing but honors and accolades for twelve fucking years, until college. I had the same teachers and they expected me to be of the same variety. They quickly learned I was another animal completely, LOL! I remember her crying if she didn’t receive the highest mark possible on every paper and after every exam.
I learned a lot from her. Mostly I learned that I didn’t want to be like her and just did shit my own way. I learned to balance school with fucking off and having fun. I had a slower start in professional life than she did but after a decade or so became more successful and if I had married well and remained childless, like her, I’d be wealthier than her as well.
Even today she is a Type A pain in the ass. I am amazed she has been married only once.
AWD
How many kids in the 30 blocks of squalor would even have a 3.5 GPA.
this is an awful story of course. there’s a trail of bodies in my family who have killed themselves in various ways. one relative of mine in the old days retreated to a room in a fancy hotel and ordered several cases of scotch. a few weeks later she was dead. i know it’s a bit gruesome but i have read a lot about suicide, madness, and death. suicide is especially puzzling as it contradicts a basic rule of nature that is visible in all (or nearly all) creatures, namely the will to live. even a fly instinctually avoids the swatter. yet the phenomenon is there plain to see. the only way to look at it from my experience is to 1) simply notice that the subject sees no other way–living has become simply unbearable. and 2) you will not know exactly what the cause is. you cannot crawl into someone else’s skin. the patchwork guessing and navel-gazing afterwards yields nothing.
when i was teaching, i occasionally got angry students at my desk complaining about their grades. the preponderance of the cases were female and nearly all of them objected that i had given them a B+ instead of an A or A-. a few would quiver, cry. since i don’t have any feelings except for rage i was always startled by this. after all, when i was in school, i was always told i was a fucking moron in so many ways, so when i got a B i was pretty happy. one time my latin teacher, a great guy, handed out our grades one at a time, giving each one of us a mini-lecture. we had to translate part of book 6 of virgil’s aeneid i think. he’d say, “jones, pretty good stuff. you’re going places. miller, i am pretty sure you can do better–not bad. archie, i pray you can do better.” he had a big smile on his face. he may have been giggling a little. i looked at my paper and there was a big red F at the top.
Clammy (thought she promised to never return. Guess I misread that) says:
“During my time in college I remember two suicides, one death from apnea, one murdered, and a lot of overdoses”
Those numbers do not sound too extreme when you spread it out over the fourteen years it took her to get her Associates.
Sometimes you just want it to end. This is a tragedy, not a conspiracy.