Remembering Katie Goldstein
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
Katie Goldstein was welcoming, kind-hearted and committed to others. She was from Providence, a graduate of the Quaker Lincoln School, a Brown alum, and whose vision and reach extended far. Most recently she was a PhD student at MIT, studying architecture. She died while in India, where she was working with the Students' Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh to install solar panels as part of a development project in a village near the Tibetan border.
Katie was resilient, and was my classmate. She had a fundamental driving desire to do good in the world.
Freshman year, we were all in the same dorm, Wayland. I didn't know her well, just friendly smiles in the hall, well wishes on the way to class, and a few good conversations. She was close friends with some of my dorm pals.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTIn the spring of our freshman year she organized a Super Bowl party for the dorm at her family's house. It was kind - and a gentle, simple invitation to bring people in and welcome them into her home. She didn't need to do that - but it was well appreciated, especially by people far from their homes.
I ran into Katie several times sporadically since, most memorably on the train to Boston. This being New England, recently Katie was in a running club with a dynamic friend at work (who herself survived the Marathon bombing last year). Even in our short conversations, Katie brought up projects, ideas, hopes. She was not caught up in negativity, and exuded possibilities that came from a clear habit of hard work and hope.
Katie spoke of new perspectives and somber insights from travel and field work. She was excited about the possibilities to do good through grad school, and clearly loved her family. I didn't know her well, and I don't pretend to. However, from the conversations we had over the last few years, she was a kind, thoughtful, passionate person, who died far too young.
I remember her enthusiasm and her positive seriousness- there was work to be done, and she did it. Our state motto is "Hope", and she lived it well.
