TRIGGER WARNING: Death, suicide.
Long before Diego Eduardo Rondón-Capurro became a political science student at Carleton University, he was a Peru-born kid growing up in the U.S. state of Utah with big dreams of changing the world.
He was mostly called Eduardo or Edu and was known for his passion for politics and social issues.
His parents, Eduardo Rondón and Alicia Capurro, said he was a high-achieving child who loved to debate. He won dozens of trophies in debate competitions, even taking his high school team to nationals for the first time.
“I said [to Eduardo], ‘Okay, you’re doing great,’” Rondón recalled with a smile. Eduardo told his father, “‘No, I don’t like that award. I want to be more.’”
Rondón-Capurro’s friends at Carleton also admired his fire. Caleb Raymond, a close friend and Rondón-Capurro’s eventual housemate, said many knew Rondón-Capurro as an advocate for a variety of social justice issues, but that he was much more than just that.
“He was very thoughtful, very analytical … He was someone who appreciated the quirky little things that a lot of people might not have cared about,” Raymond said.
“He was someone that I knew was gonna make it.”
Now, almost a year after his death, his friends and family have immortalized his desire for change through a memorial scholarship.
Raymond, a third-year law student and the president of the Carleton Law Society, was a driving force behind the scholarship, alongside Rondón-Capurro’s other two housemates, Michael Harding and Morgan Armstrong.
Rondón-Capurro’s mark on the world felt “unfinished,” Raymond said. “We felt like his intelligence, his being and his overall understanding of society and the world needed to be amplified.”
With Rondón-Capurro’s funeral taking place in Utah, Armstrong said his Ottawa loved ones didn’t really get a chance to say goodbye.
So, in May of last year, Armstrong, Harding and Raymond hosted a celebration of life at their home, where guests planted seeds in his memory and shared their favourite memories with him. But even after that, Armstrong said it still felt like something was missing.
Then came the idea to memorialize Rondón-Capurro.
“I don’t think Eduardo was one to just stay in the same place for forever,” Harding added. “I feel like he’d want an actual change, an actual step forward, step for progress.”
Raymond came up with the idea to make the scholarship — one that would honour Rondón-Capurro by giving a student like him a better chance to succeed.
Rondón-Capurro’s parents said the scholarship would mean a lot to their son because, being an international student, he was often trying to find scholarships to make his high fees cheaper.
“I know that the idea that [Raymond, Armstrong and Harding] have is going to help a lot to somebody,” Rondón said.
“We also felt the love, like the love that they have for Edu, too,” Capurro added. “Doing that means that he is remembered, that they think about him and that he’s important to them, too.”
“If this is gonna make us remember him a little more than we already do, it means the world,” she said.
Raymond said he wanted the scholarship to reflect who Rondón-Capurro really was. He originally hoped it would be awarded to someone who was an international student, involved in advocacy and had mental health struggles — just like Rondón-Capurro.
However, when talks began in November with Carleton’s Department of University Advancement to create the scholarship, Raymond said Christopher Page, a development officer with the department, told him a scholarship that specific might not be feasible. He also said the additional steps for approval would take extra time.
As Raymond and his housemates wanted the scholarship to be awarded in 2026, changing the award’s eligibility to political science students was “the most practical option,” he said.
The scholarship will be awarded to “an outstanding undergraduate student entering or continuing in a Bachelor of Arts degree program in political science,” according to Carleton’s scholarship website.
Although those who receive the scholarship won’t necessarily share every aspect of Rondón-Capurro’s identity, Harding said he still felt the scholarship itself was reminiscent of his late friend.
“That kind of desire to make the world a better place that I know Eduardo had, kind of transcends all of those categories and can be seen in all different kinds of people,” he said.
“I think what, really, we were hoping for was that another Eduardo would get this scholarship, but there’s never really going to be another Eduardo.”
The group decided to have the award be annually funded, which means they’ll need to raise a minimum of $1,000 each year for it to continue.
As of Jan. 19, they raised $1,167, meaning a political science student will see a portion of their tuition covered come September.
“It’s really nice to kind of see that and to see that other people cared about him as much as we did,” Armstrong said.
In the months after his death, Carleton awarded Rondón-Capurro with a posthumous Certificate of Outstanding Academic Achievement, recognizing his progress in his political science degree.
His parents are still looking for answers on the treatment he received from Carleton Health and Counselling Services. His parents said he was prescribed Paxil, an antidepressant, nine days before his death. The medication carries a black box warning from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its increased risk of suicidal ideation in people younger than 24.
Capurro said they didn’t know Rondón-Capurro had started taking that medication until after his death, when they received his health records from Carleton, adding it was a lengthy battle to get those records in the first place.
She and Rondón said their current priority is spreading awareness to young people to be cautious when starting new medications.
In an emailed statement, Steven Reid, Carleton’s media relations officer, said that the university can’t comment on individual cases due to privacy reasons.
“We take concerns related to student care very seriously and are committed to providing access to confidential services, including counselling, medical care and personalized health and wellness resources,” he said.
For Raymond, Harding and Armstrong, Rondón-Capurro’s name won’t end with the scholarship.
They’re creating the Edu Legacy Foundation, which will promote and fund mental health initiatives and other projects important to Rondón-Capurro’s identity, including advocating for the 2SLGBTQIA+ community and international students.
They plan to host an introductory fundraising gala on May 24.
“We didn’t just lose a friend,” Harding said. “The world lost greatness.”
Featured image by Simon McKeown/the Charlatan
This article, and all of the Charlatan’s work, is brought to you by an independent student newspaper dedicated to informing, uplifting and entertaining the Carleton University community. We are a levy-funded organization which plays a role in the broader, vibrant student culture on campus. By reading this article, you are supporting our efforts.
