The Barometer Online

Issue date: 1/16/09 Section: News

Media Credit: Cory Reed Sonal Bhargava writes in a notebook at a memorial service for Gayatri Shrivastava, an OSU student killed in a car crash over winter break.

Oregon State students and faculty members met in the MU last night to commemorate the life of Gayatri Shrivastava, a 25-year-old graduate student who lost her life in a car accident near Seal Rock over winter break.

A picture of Shrivastava and a clear vase of white and yellow carnations were arranged on a table next to a podium at the center of the room.

Guests were invited by the Indian Student Association to come up and share their thoughts.

"Even though she only stayed here for a three to four months, I can say she made a significant impact on my life," said her roommate, Ani Anna Elias.

"She was always smiling, just like that, every time," she said as she nodded toward the picture.

Friends remember Shrivastava as the girl with a positive attitude who was always smiling and was a humanitarian at heart.

She loved to dance and had a talent for singing. She was a vegetarian with a sweet tooth for chocolate cake and she loved to swim.

"She went crazy when she saw the Dixon pool," said her friend, Anijit Sinha, 27.

Shrivastava was the first in her family to come to the United States.

In Feb. 2008, Professor Mas Subramian of the OSU chemistry department received the first of a series of e-mails from Shrivastava explaining that she had a master's degree and wanted to earn a Ph.D. by studying with him at OSU. Subramiam got those sorts of e-mails everyday and said he didn't pay much attention to the ambitious student from Indore, India.

"She didn't give up. She wrote me again saying, 'You didn't write me back. I'm still waiting for an answer,'" he said. Shrivastava's persistence paid off.

"We decided to offer her a chance to come here because she wanted it so badly," he said.

"Now we're standing here to mourn her death, an untimely death. I still can't believe it."

Shrivastava had only been in Corvallis since September.

"This does hit you harder than you think," Professor Subramiam said. He felt like a father figure to her, he said.

When she arrived, she was eager to begin studying and become immersed in the culture. The professor accompanied the student to Kmart, where she bought her first bike.

Continued...

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