TORONTO -- Students at Anderson College in North York gathered on Wednesday to honour recent graduate Fran Falsafi, who died alongside her two children when a plane was shot down by the Iranian military earlier this month.

One by one classmates placed rose petals in a small box at a memorial table set up inside the Yonge Street campus.

“I remember one day, after a speech, she looked me [in the] eyes and said ‘you are special. There is something special in you,” former classmate Lan Shen told CTV News Toronto.

The 46-year-old was visiting her parents over the Christmas holidays with her two children—Daniel, 7 and Dorsa, 15—when Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 went down minutes after taking off from an airport in Tehran.

“I was able to attend a BBQ with Fran. Her son was the same age as my son....just too young die,” instructor Howard Stolovitsky told CTV News Toronto at Wednesday’s memorial service.

Falsafi recently completed the immigration consultant course at Anderson College of Health, Business and Technology. The college said she was too busy to pick up her certificate before the trip to Iran.

At the memorial, it was presented posthumously to her program instructor and fellow classmates.

Ryan Tuazon, who also works at the college, could not hold back the tears when he spoke to the nearly 100 people who gathered on the seventh floor for the service.

“It didn’t hit me until we realized a part of our community was affected...and as much as it is difficult to deal with....there are a lot of people who loved Fran,” he said.

At the same time as she was studying at Anderson College, Falsafi was working as a real estate agent in Richmond Hill. Funerals for Falsafi and her children were held in Tehran last week.