Woman Killed in Boston Marathon Bombing Attended UC Riverside

Lu Lingzi, 23, was a foreign-exchange student from China attending a graduate program at Boston University.

A woman killed in the Boston Marathon bombing had attended University of California, Riverside before transferring to Boston University, officials said Wednesday.

Lu Lingzi, a 23-year-old Chinese foreign-exchange student, took a math and a business class at the Riverside campus in the fall quarter of 2010, university spokeswoman Kris Lovekin told NBC4.

On Monday, Lingzi was on the sidelines near the finish line of the Boston Marathon when a pair of bombs tore through the crowd, killing her and two others and injuring more than 170 people. Also killed were Martin Richard, 8, of Boston and Krystal Campbell, 29, of Medford, Mass.

Authorities on Wednesday were searching for suspects in the bombing.

Lu finished her undergraduate degree in Beijing before she took the classes through an extension program at UC Riverside. It's common for Chinese students to take classes through the program to boost their chances of getting into other graduate programs, Lovekin said.

She was one of several in the program to go on to Boston University, UC Riverside officials said.

“She was among a group of top students from China, and they got into top graduate schools,” said Bronwyn Jenkins-Deas, director of International Education Programs at UCR Extension.

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Lu  was known at the school by her American name, Dorothy, UCR officials said.

"The important thing is she's remembered as her name, not as a Chinese student who was an exchange student. I hope that people will learn about her because she lived such a short life. We want her to have as much impact as possible in terms of remembering things about her and what she did," Jenkins-Deas told NBC4. "It was a real tragedy."

The local family who hosted her did not want to speak to news media on Wednesday, but UCR officials said the family was devastated.

“The loss of a young person is a terrible tragedy,” UCR’s Interim Chancellor Jane Close Conoley said in a written statement. “My understanding from those at Extension is that she was a talented and bright young woman who was going on to great accomplishments. We are sending our condolences to her family.”

Mourners set up a Facebook page for Lu, which stated: “Americans demand justice for Lu! She was tragically killed at the Boston Marathon... R.I.P Lu Lingzi.”

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