You could ask Srishti Gupta '97 about her term as co-president of the South Asian Association (SAA).

Or you could ask her about the time she spent working on the nearly 300-page ethnic studies report as a member of the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations' Academic Affairs Committee (AAC).

Or about her four years working in a molecular biology laboratory at Harvard Medical School.

Or even about her selection as one of Glamour Magazine's Top Ten College Women of 1996.

But the question that was burning in this writer's mind was:

Did you ever get any sleep?

"I guess I don't really sleep very much," Gupta says with a chuckle. "I guess that's where I get all of my hours from."

Even by Harvard standards, Gupta's four years have been full of activity, both in and out of the classroom.

What is most striking about all of her activities is how all of them are, in some way, devoted to fostering better and stronger communities, whether among her fellow SAA members, among minorities on campus or even among her fellow biology concentrators.

In many ways, Gupta's experience at Harvard has been what outsiders to the University might consider to be the quintessential Harvard experience. Her growth in intellectual breadth and her discovery of new subjects and fields as an undergraduate are as remarkable as her more tangible accomplishments.

She did not come to campus intent on being active in the SAA. Nor did she plan to be a mover-and-shaker in the ethnic studies debate. Her first forays into extracurricular life were in the Mozart Society Orchestra, where she was a violist, and the ATA Taekwondo Club. Both were continuations of activities she pursued in high school.

"I started very differently freshman year, mostly concentrating on musical things," Gupta says. "Around sophomore year, I became more involved in the South Asian community on campus. I realized the importance of culture, and became really in touch with my South Asian culture. I discovered South Asia for myself, and my activities became more culturally-based."

Her involvement with the SAA came directly from her desire to foster a large South Asian community on campus. When she arrived on campus in 1993, the organization was small, consisting of only a few groups of friends.

Gupta started out with a limited involvement in the SAA and rose to the position of SAA liaison to the AAC, where she first tackled the issue of ethnic studies.

But after spending some time working in the organization, Gupta says she began to feel that SAA needed a change.

"I decided that there's a lot that the SAA can offer," Gupta says. "It was really important to me to make it more accessible to everybody, not just a core group of people. There are so many South Asians on the campus. They should all feel like the SAA is equally accessible to them."