Spurred to action, Gupta ran for co-president of SAA at the end of her sophomore year on a ticket with Vikaas S. Sohal '97. The two won and immediately introduced some changes to the SAA.

The group's range of activities expanded to include not only Ghungroo, SAA's yearly dance and cultural show, but also readings, discussion tables, social events, and inter-ethnic events.

Sohal cites Gupta's work on Ghungroo as an example of her devotion to an open, welcoming community. Some of the most important dances in the show are the group dances, in which teams of dancers train together for weeks in preparation for the show. These dances are important for the organization because, Sohal says, students get to know each other in addition to learning about culture.

"[Gupta] went to great lengths to be sure everyone was put in a dance and that every dance had a broad distribution of people both in terms of talent and the class years of the people in the dances," Sohal says. "That's one example of the attitude that she brought to the organization for which I admire her."

Gupta and Sohal's efforts to expand SAA's membership were extremely successful, according to current SAA Secretary Sushant Srinivasan '98.

Part of the reason I ran for secretary was because I felt so comfortable after going to the events for one year," he says. "They had a diverse array of events, and I felt I could go to the ones I was interested in."

Gupta was also instrumental in reaching out to and co-sponsoring events with other minority organizations on campus, such as the Asian American Association, the Philippine Forum, and the Harvard Foundation.

But Gupta didn't just preach openness; she exuded it. When Nikhil Chandra '99 suffered a flood in his room, which destroyed all of his textbooks and notes just before exam period last year, Gupta came to the rescue. She organized a "Help Nick" campaign among SAA members to get him copies of notes and textbooks so that he could study.

"She stopped me in the Science Center and offered to help me out," Chandra says. "I'd never really had a conversation with her before, but she just flagged me down in the Science Center."

It was, quite simply, Srishti being Srishti.

Gupta always emphasized the little things that made people feel welcome. She would help members with problem sets. She would give medical school advice to fellow aspiring doctors among the membership. She took it upon herself to do what it took to make the SAA not just a small cultural organization but a genuine support network and social center for the South Asian community on campus.

Ethnic Studies

Her devotion and passion for cultural activities did not stop at the SAA.

Gupta served as the vice-chair of the AAC during her junior year. Having discovered the importance of culture for herself, she characteristically wanted to share her enthusiasm with others. As a result, she immersed herself in the ethnic studies debate and was instrumental in the production of the AAC's ethnic studies report two years ago.

She and her AAC colleagues worked closely with Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68 and Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles, as well as Professors of Afro-American Studies Cornel R. West '74 and K. Anthony Appiah, to increase the number of ethnic studies courses in the curriculum.