American student killed in Paris terror attacks

Martin Herman, Department of Design chair at the university, said he hoped Gonzalez’ “voice, her bright spirit, her playfulness, her idealism, hopes, continue to inspire and illuminate our university family and all those that she touched”. Her mom says she just feels lost.

“She was a lovely person, she would give the shirt off her back to help someone else”, Gonzalez’ aunt, Sandra Felt, told NBC News in a phone interview. Her parents came here from Mexico, and said they knew from the time she was in kindergarten she wanted something big in life – determined to go to college, have a career, make a difference one day. Details of her passing are not available at this time, noted a statement from university president Jane Close Conoley.

University officials said about 80 students from Paris attend various California State University campuses as part of an exchange program. We will extend all support necessary to comfort them. Our hearts are with her close friends and family.

“She had a very buoyant, joyous personality”, LaForte said.

Michael LaForte, a lecturer and one of Gonzalez’s former professors, called her a “shining star” in CSULB’s industrial design department. In a statement, Gov. Jerry Brown expressed his condolences to the Gonzalez family.

In honor of the victims of the attacks, the flags at the Capitol building will be flown at half-staff.

The current death toll in the Paris attacks is 129 with 352 injured, 99 critically, the Paris prosecutor told a news conference Saturday.

On Sunday afternoon, the university will host a candlelight vigil to mourn the passing of Gonzalez and the other victims of the attack.

According to Gonzalez’s Facebook page, she lived in Whittier, California, a city of 87,000 in eastern Los Angeles, before moving to Long Beach.

Beatriz Gonzalez said Nohemi graduated high school early and couldn’t wait to move to the dorms at college.

American colleges and universities rushed to make contact this weekend with their students studying overseas in France after a series of terrorist attacks hit Paris on Friday night.