ROCHESTER — Rochester resident Sydnee Pires was awarded a $1,500 scholarship to study communications with a concentration in speech, language and hearing science at Rhode Island College, thanks to the Miya D. Brophy-Baermann Memorial Scholarship. 

The scholarship was created by Bryan and Michelle Brophy-Baermann after their 24-year-old daughter Miya Brophy-Baermann was killed in a drive-by shooting in Providence. 

In the days following Miya’s death, a family friend created a GoFundMe campaign which raised over $63,000. This money was transferred to the Rhode Island Foundation to establish a scholarship fund.

Each year, two students will receive a Miya D. Brophy-Baermann Memorial Scholarship to study communicative disorders, one at the University of Rhode Island and the other at Rhode Island College.

Miya, who had just started her clinical fellowship year as a speech-language pathologist at the Lincolnwood Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center in North Providence, had graduated with her Master of Science in Speech-Language Pathology from Northeastern University on Mother’s Day, less than three months before her murder.

Gabriela Zuccolo of North Providence also won a $1,500 scholarship to pursue a M.S. in speech-language pathology at the University of Rhode Island.