Member Since: 6/29/2011
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'We have to be strong for Madison': Devastated father says goodbye to his track star daughter, 19, at her funeral after she took her life because of the pressures of school
 
More than 600 devastated relatives and friends today paid their respects to a UPenn track star who jumped to her death from a parking garage as she struggled with the pressures of school work.
The death of the 19-year-old sports star rocked the UPenn community and Allendale, where she grew up with four siblings. Her father old the New York Post that she had been struggling with her school workload while a family friend revealed her supportive parents told her she could stay home or transfer at Christmas. But sadly the determined teen insisted on going back.
On Friday evening, she posted an image of a sunset over Rittenhouse Square to her Instagram account - but an hour later, she plunged from the roof of a parking garage to her death. Her father said that she killed herself because she was overwhelmed with schoolwork at UPenn. 'There was a lot more pressure in the classroom at Penn,' Mr Holleran tearfully told the Post. 'She wasn't normal happy Madison. Now she had worries and stress.' Mr Holleran said that she had told her parents in December that she was feeling suicidal and was seeing a therapist.
Mr Holleran said that he did not blame the school for his daughter's suicide but that he wanted to warn other parents. Family friend Bob Weckworth said the high-achiever ultimately couldn't cope with the expectations she'd set herself. 'People talked to her within hours of her act of suicide and there were no red flags, warning signs, nothing,' he told the Daily News. 'There were no mental health issues in her background. It was just the last two, three weeks where they saw a change in her. Something snapped.'
He added that while she had achieved a 3.5 GPA in her first semester, she did not see that as good enough.
'She was not happy at Penn,' he added. 'The parents had told her then, "Don't go back. We'll transfer. We'll look at other schools. There's no reason to go back, it's OK".'
Holleran was a member of the university's varsity track and field team at UPenn.
'The entire Penn community is deeply saddened by the death of Madison Holleran,' Penn president Amy Gutmann said in the statement. 'She was bright and well-liked with an incredible future ahead of her. There are simply no words that can properly convey the sense of heartache that we all feel at such a tragic loss.' Holleran, who was majoring in philosophy, politics and economics, had been a standout track and soccer athlete in her high school.
She had been named to the New Jersey Star-Ledger's all-state girls track team last year, while the Record named her its Spring Athlete of the Season and Girls Indoor Track Athlete of the Year in 2013, the Star Ledger reported. Northern Highlands Girls Varsity Soccer, for which Holleran had played, tweeted: 'RIP Madison. You are our beloved NHGS sister forever and always. You have and always will be such a special person. We love you.'
The tragedy is the third undergraduate death at UPenn since the start of winter break, the Daily Pennsylvanian reported.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz2r9uSMXqu
this poor girl graduated from my High School last year and was attending UPenn this year . She was known throughout the school as the perfect girl who from the outside appeared to have everything - money, beauty, athleticism, intelligence, loving friends and family. She seemed to have an incredibly bright future, but the stress of an Ivy League education seemed to crush her. Rest In Peace Madison, may god take care of you now.
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I went to a school very similar to UPenn and just learned to not give a F when I got the bad grades 
It's why I refused to stress in college 
