When University of Arizona sophomore Jed Satow took his own life in 1998 he left his family and friends searching for reasons why a student with so much promise would commit suicide.

Satow, a popular and jovial teen from New York, never showed signs of the depression that his mother said ultimately claimed his life.

“But looking back, you could see things,” said Donna Satow, who believes her son’s breakup with his girlfriend triggered an underlying depression that was never manifested in his everyday behavior.

The death of GW sophomore Jennifer Dierdorff from an apparent suicide last week has left those who knew her equally perplexed about a driven woman who never waned in her determination to succeed.

Dierdorff, 19, of Naperville, Ill., was found Friday afternoon in an Arlington, Va., motel room.

Arlington officials, who performed an autopsy on Dierdorff Monday, said there is no evidence to suggest that Dierdorff, a member of the Alpha Phi sorority and the Hatchet’s production manager, was the victim of foul play.”There was nothing wrong,” said Jenny’s father, Jack Dierdorff, in a phone interview from his suburban Chicago home Wednesday. “She was just on the go 30 hours a day.”

“No depression, no. None whatsoever. From what I’m gathering, not too many people … they didn’t see anything,” he continued. “Nobody saw anything. That’s what’s mind-boggling.”

Dierdorff said he is awaiting a cause of death report from the Arlington Medical Examiner’s office, which told The Hatchet that Jennifer’s cause of death will be determined in the next month.

In most cases, college students exhibit erratic conduct that could signal the onset of depression, said Satow, who has set up the Jed Foundation to promote awareness about youth suicide.

Suicide claims about 1,100 students on college campuses every year and is the second leading cause of death among college-age students, according to statistics from the Jed Foundation.

At New York University, two students leapt to their deaths from the school’s Elmer Holmes Bobst Library last semester. A third student died in October after falling from the sixth floor of a Manhattan apartment building.

“It was very devastating for the community,” said Paul Grayson, director of NYU’s Counseling Service.

When a student takes his own life, it tends to aggravate suicidal feelings in people who were already contemplating their own death, said Grayson, who added that NYU increased counseling following the tragedies.

While college students are less prone to suicide than people in their age group who do not seek higher education, transitioning to a new environment can exacerbate feelings of loneliness, said Sherry Molock, a GW psychology professor and member of the American Association of Suicidology.

She said students who “put too much pressure on themselves” and “leave little room for failure” might suffer from depression and sometimes have suicidal tendencies.

Student suicides can also spawn copycat deaths brought about by grief over the loss of a friend. Several months after Jed Satow died, a member of his fraternity killed himself, Donna Satow said.

“It’s more likely to happen if the suicide is sensationalized or the way they do it is highly unusual,” Molock said.

In the wake of Dierdorff’s death, the University’s Counseling Center has made counselors available to the students’ mourning.

In addition to being a Hatchet senior staff member and Alpha Phi’s director of finance, Dierdorff was a staffer in the office of Rep. Jennifer Dunn (R-Wash.) and served as a mentor in GW’s Emerging Leaders Program. She was also a member of the University Honors Program.

The Counseling Center, located at 2033 K St., offers a range of services for students suffering from depression and coping with death. It also has a Web site – www. gwired.gwu.edu/counsel – where students can take online tests to measure their mental health.

During the center’s business hours, students can set up a 50-minute appointment with a counselor free of charge or talk to one of the services’ 12 staff members over the phone.

DePalma said the center sees more than 1,000 students for one-on-one interviews each year and receives hundreds of thousands of hits on its Web site.

While at least two GW students have committed suicide in the last few years, the University has not experienced the tragedies seen at Cornell University, where several students kill themselves each year.

-Rachel Zavala contributed to this report.