While the carjacking attempt that occurred on the York College Campus a few weeks ago was frightening, the heroic actions of one of the College’s students during that incident deserves recognition.
According to Campus Safety, a student was being physically assaulted and pulled out of her car during the attempted carjacking. Grace Nicosia pulled up alongside the student, who was struggling to break free. She took video of the incident and yelled at the suspect to stop. When the suspect gained entry into the victim’s car and attempted to flee, Grace pulled her own vehicle in front of the suspect and prevented her from stealing the car. Grace’s car was damaged in the process. She remained at the scene and provided her video to campus and local police and a valuable witness statement to investigators. Her video aided Campus Safety officers in the search for the suspect and in creating the alert warnings that were communicated across campus.
Grace, a May 2023 graduate and Mathematics major from Chesterfield, N.J., was recently recognized by the Campus Safety Office for her bravery. She was presented with an Award of Merit, which is normally reserved for Campus Safety officers who would receive an award bar to be displayed on their uniform. York College’s Campus Safety policy allows for presenting the award to students, employees, or other citizens in the event they perform an act during an incident that meets the criteria of the award. In this case, the student or citizen does not receive an award bar, but rather is presented with a challenge coin in its place. An American military tradition for a century, challenge coins are meant to instill unit pride, improve esprit de corps, and reward hard work and excellence.
From the citation presented to Grace: “This was truly an act of bravery and compassion for her fellow student. Grace put herself in harm’s way to try and help a fellow student and demonstrated to our campus community she is living by the York College motto, Servire Est Vivere; ‘To serve is to live.’”
