Monday, April 8, 1996
Geography student described as ‘shy, genuine, friendly’By Marie
Blanchard
Daily Bruin Contributor
A UCLA geography student was killed two weeks ago when a bus she
was riding in India fell into a ditch and overturned.
Cherese Mari Laulhere, 21, who was visiting India with the
Pittsburgh University Semester at Sea program, was one of four
other American victims of the accident, who were on their way to
visit the Taj Mahal, according to another student on the trip.
Ken Service, the director of communications at the University of
Pittsburgh, said that India was the fifth country Laulhere had
visited in the last two months. The program had already been to
South America and Africa and the next destination was Vietnam.
Laulhere grew up in Long Beach, Calif. with her parents and
older brother. She attended Wilson High School and then Cypress
Junior College before transferring to UCLA in the fall of 1994.
Described by friends as "shy, genuine and friendly," this was
Laulhere’s first trip abroad, according to her father.
"Cherese was so excited about the trip," said Eli Zeserson,
Laulhere’s friend and a UCLA student who had gone on the same
program two years ago.
"She wanted to see the world," agreed Sophia Pen, who said she
was Laulhere’s best friend since high school.
Pen described Laulhere as non-confrontational and shy.
"When you first met her she would be very quiet but once you got
to know her she blossomed, like a rose. She was so much fun with a
great sense of humor, kind of corny but funny," Pen said.
"She had so much more to offer than people thought," said Brian
Birkenstein, Laulhere’s boyfriend who just graduated from UCLA last
quarter. "Your first impression of her was how beautiful she was.
But she was so much more than that.
"No one disliked Cherese. There was no way anyone could not like
her. She was non-judgmental and modest. She accepted anybody," he
continued.
Birkenstein also recalled in Laulhere a determination to do her
part in making the world a better place.
"Cherese did a lot of volunteering when she was younger," he
said. "She said in one of letters from the trip that she wanted to
make a difference in the world no matter how small.
"When she wanted to do something, there was no stopping her," he
continued. "Although people told her that it would be dangerous to
visit the townships in South Africa, she had to go anyway."
In a postcard written to her parents during the Semester trip,
Laulhere expressed a desire to join the peace corps in Venezuela
after graduation so that she could work more with children.
"She loved children and their innocence," Pen said.
In a postcard that Pen received from Laulhere while she was in
Nairobi, Laulhere described an orphanage that she had visited and
how much she had enjoyed seeing the children.
"She had just been on a safari in Africa, but the only thing she
mentioned was the orphanage she had been to afterwards," Pen
said.
Pen, who had her first child seven weeks ago, expresses regret
that Laulhere never got to see her daughter.
"She came with me when I got the ultrasound, but she never got
to see her born. She loved children so much," Pen said.
Although four other students from the program were killed in the
bus accident, the program will continue the trip to the next six
countries. Since the program was established in 1980, there have
been four deaths prior to the accident in India.
"There’s a risk when you enter an undeveloped country," Zeserson
said. "If you do not want to be supervised, you can just take off
for the few days that the ship is in port. All they ask of you is
to come back before the ship takes off."
On March 31, a memorial was held on ship for Laulhere and the
other students killed in the accident. Laulhere’s funeral was held
last Wednesday in Cypress.