Sarah Hancock, 20, dreamed of one day becoming a social worker

Helping others — that was Sarah Hancock’s mission.

Friends said she always put others before herself and treated everyone who crossed her path with kindness.

The junior sociology major, 20, was found dead in her Kent Hall dorm May 6.

She dreamed of becoming a social worker and hoped to work with women and children, said Jeanne Novotny, Hancock’s aunt. In middle school, Hancock said she would never let anyone sit alone at lunch, Novotny recalled.

“She’d go up to whoever,” Novotny said. “She was very outgoing, always a smile on her face.”

Shortly before her death, Hancock joined this university’s chapter of Alpha Phi Omega, a coed service fraternity, Novotny said.

Stephen Kostka, a sophomore fire protection engineering major, said he met Hancock through APO, and they quickly became close friends.

“She was just an amazingly nice and kind person, always thought about other people before herself,” he said. “She was always a happy person in any activity she did.”

Hancock did a wide variety of community service, Kostka said, from gardening around campus to tutoring. From strangers to her family, Hancock found ways to help. When Novotny was fighting breast cancer, Hancock made “hope” bracelets and participated in a charity run, she said.

Hancock was born in Bel Air and graduated from Harford County’s C. Milton Wright High School. She went to Harford Community College for two years but always dreamed of attending this university and transferred for her junior year. She knew how much it would cost her parents, so she worked at a ShopRite grocery store to help pay for school, Novotny said.

A positive attitude and love of life were just some of Hancock’s many wonderful qualities, said Victoria Bowcutt, sophomore accounting major and member of APO.

“She was always able to find the good in anything that happened,” Bowcutt said. “If the rest of us were down, she would find a way to pick us back up.”

Hancock improved the lives of everyone who knew her with her quirkiness and good sense of humor. According to Novotny, Hancock never wore matching socks — “Why be boring?” she would say.

Hancock’s friendliness and kindness made it easy for her to connect with others, Novotny said. The night of Hancock’s death, friends held a vigil outside Memorial Chapel, where they shared stories about the young woman they had come to love in her short time at this university.

“She had wonderful friends,” Novotny said. “We were all amazed when a University of Maryland bus pulled up at her funeral. She made so many friends in one year.”

Friends said she will be missed, but they will honor her memory by trying to live positively.

“She always had a smile on her face,” said Aditya Dilip, a junior government and politics major who lived in Kent Hall. “She’s just the greatest friend you could ask for.”

Hancock is survived by her parents, Rick and Barbara, and sisters, Jessica and Christina.