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Lecture
Series Honors Student's Ability |
Somewhere between honors classes, working at Denton Hall's desk, and family responsibilities, Camille Rajpat created time to remember friends birthdays and volunteer for campus groups. One of her father's fondest memories is of his daughter's ability to do it all with passion and grace.
Camille Rajpat, a 21-year-old senior at Maryland, died Oct. 8, 1998, five months after being diagnosed with dysgerminoma, a type of ovarian cancer. The actual cause of death was bleomycin lung toxicity from one of the chemotherapy drugs. To honor the political science and government major, her friends in the honors program and resident life created the Rajpat Lecture Series that follows the theme "precious balance."
"The idea is a series of lectures by women focusing on that precious balance that many women keep between their public and private responsibilities," says Maynard "Sandy" Mack, Jr., director of the undergraduate honors program.
The inaugural lecture, April 23 in the Kay Theatre of the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, featured Maryland Lieutenant Governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend. The goal was to invite a distinguished person each year. Other
s
being considered are former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human
Services Donna Shalala and "Today" show host Katie
Couric. Her parents, Guyanese born Aimlall and Norma Rajpat, who live in Sheltonham, appreciate the tribute, though her father isn't sure where his daughter's sense of order came from.
"It certainly didn't come from me," he says with a smile. "She probably picked up some of it from her mom. She was an executive secretary and is very organized."
Mack says the series' main focus is to give students an opportunity to hear from women who, like themselves, are trying to do a lot of things well. Honors students, he notes, often overextend themselves and "crash" when trying to live up to expectations. He regularly counsels students and their parents on decision-making and work loads.
"Ninety-five percent make the best guess on their own, they just need someone to listen to them," says Mack. "It's tough, but that's what becoming one's own person is about. Camille really did think about it."
Her father agrees. "I wasn't quite pleased when she switched from chemical engineering, but it's what she really liked. Later on, I was able to understand."
When asked if she would be able to achieve her new objective in the same time frame as the old, even though she switched majors halfway through her studies, she gave a very Camille answer, her dad says." 'Dad, I'll do it,' she said. She plans in great detail when she decides to do something, that's what I love about her. You didn't have to monitor and check on her. She would tell you how she's doing."
Her open nature and ease with people won Rajpat many friends, her father says. Yet even though she spoke as easily with her friends as with her parents, he was surprised to find a journal she kept under her bed.
"In it she would write every day, 'What are the things I am grateful for today?' And you know those calendars with sayings? She saved some of them. What she saved said a lot about her," her father says. "It helped us understand some of the things that she was going through."
One of his favorites: "My hope still is to leave this world a little better than I came into it."
--Story Source: Outlook Online