Haley S. Surti ’01, who had just days before received her bachelors’ degree cum laude from the College, died June 12 in a bus crash in Peru. She was 21.

Surti was traveling in Peru as a researcher and writer for one of the Let’s Go travel guides published by the Harvard Student Agencies (HSA). Her death was the first fatality of a Let’s Go writer in the publication’s 40-year history.

“We were extraordinarily saddened by this event,” said Robert B. Rombauer, the general manager of HSA. “Our heartfelt sympathies go out to the family.”

Surti, who came to Harvard from Pittsburgh, was a resident of Mather House and a biochemistry concentrator.

Those that were friends with Surti describe her as a unique individual.

“She was the greatest human being that I’ve ever met,” said her friend Aneesh V. Raman ’01. “She had [an amount of] energy unparalleled in any person that I’ve met. She did more in her 21 years than most of us will do in a lifetime.”

They also describe her as someone who always saw the best in people and was always upbeat.

“I never heard her say anything negative about anything or anybody,” said Sutri’s boyfriend Anand R. Shah ’99-’00. He described her as a “glass half full kind of person.”