Friends remember Rachel Swett, CC '11

Rachel Swett, CC ’11, had the ability to make even exams fun.

With a memorial service now set for Swett, who died last week due to complications from a skiing accident in New Zealand, friends say they remember her as an unfailingly warm and friendly classmate with a sharp sense of humor.

Swett’s family is planning a service for July 3 at the Church of the Heavenly Rest at 92nd Street and Fifth Avenue at 11 a.m., according to Dean of Community Development and Multicultural Affairs Terry Martinez.

Claire Wu, BC ’13, attended Brearley, an all-girls preparatory school in New York, with Swett, and said that it was Swett in part who inspired her to enroll at Barnard.

“No matter how well she knew you, she always treated you as her friend; somebody she knew she could laugh with,” Claire Wu wrote in an email from China. “I cannot remember a somber moment with Rachel. Even during the miserable exam period at Brearley, Rachel was a sure source of hilarity. It seemed as if nothing could faze or damage her source of humor and wit.”

Swett was an avid traveler who studied abroad at Reid Hall in Paris and participated in a program through the Institute for Study Abroad at Butler University in New Zealand. The French and psychology major was also a photographer and Irving Berlin fan. Swett was an active member of Columbia’s Alpha Chi Omega sorority.

"We quickly became good friends," Javed Basu-Kesselman, CC '11, who met Swett while they were studying abroad at Reid Hall, wrote in an email. "I wasn't alone in being drawn to her energy, enthusiasm and warmth. I'm struck by the number of close friends she made during the relatively short time period she spent in both France and New Zealand."

For Claire Wu’s twin sister, Julia Wu, who also attended Brearley and now goes to Barnard, Swett always seemed to pop up at crucial moments in her life. Julia Wu remembered her sophomore year winter gym class with Swett, who befriended her despite being an older student. Swett, she said, made the class memorable and fun, and Wu unexpectedly found gym to be her favorite class.

“Ever since that gym class, it was a joy to run into her in the hallways at school. She was always happy, fun, and easy to talk to, no matter who you were. In class she often joked about her lack of athletic skills, but she was always cheerful, optimistic and extremely funny. I have never known a person with more heart and spirit than Rachel, and I am deeply saddened by her passing,” she said. Julia Wu added that Swett’s family had always been active in their school, and she was always a very visible presence at Brearley.

“She really gave me a lot of insight about colleges and how to handle the work. My twin and I often happened to see her on campus whenever we visited our older sister at Barnard, and a casual meeting would turn into an hour of continuous laughs,” Claire Wu said.

Morgan Shattuck, a rising senior at Claremont McKenna College, also knew Swett from high school, and recalled Swett's excitement for a yearly Oscar party she would throw with her family, as well as her enthusiasm for Wii Rock Band. Shattuck said she was surprised when Swett took up a recent interest in the outdoors, but that she had never seen her friend happier.

Shattuck also remembered a particularly eventful time spent traveling with Swett in Japan: "Deep down, she was still an eager kid who had no problem with doing what she wanted. When we were in Japan, she got in line with a bunch of 7-year-olds to pound mochi with sumo wrestlers. All the rest of us stood back and watched her up on the stage. She was just as enthusiastic and happy as the rest of them," Shattuck wrote in an email.

Tufts rising senior Sarah Spielman, who knew Swett—or "Babs," her nickname—from the study abroad program at Butler University, said Swett reveled in traveling New Zealand, and at times recreated scenes from "Lord of the Rings." Swett was also a bit gullible, Spielman said: when Swett asked Spielman to catch her up on an early morning class she missed, Spielman told her the professor had brought in a penguin.

"Later that day I saw Rachel with an annoyed look on her face. 'You lied to me!' I started laughing, a lot. She punched my arm. Not only had she believed me, but also convinced two of our friends who were also absent that morning that my story was true. Purely hilarious," Spielman said.

Kimberly VanDeWege, a rising senior at Miami University, studied and traveled with Swett in New Zealand and delivered remarks at her memorial service there. VanDeWege said that while she was nervous to study abroad, she was inspired by Swett's eagerness to travel, her spontaneous nature, and her love for holidays and birthdays.

"Rachel and I are similar in that we love traditions. Rachel made sure Thanksgiving and Halloween were celebrated properly and with appropriate decorations. Rachel was also in our small group of four friends in which we celebrated birthdays. She was always on top of things making sure we not only remembered the dates, but remembered the gifts," VanDeWege said in an email.

Swett also sang Christmas songs on a beach in Frazer Island, Australia—"she loved Christmas!" VanDeWege said—and joked about smuggling a koala back from Australia to New Zealand.

Freshman suite mate Olivia Greene, CC '11, also recalled Swett's love of Christmas. When a member of their close-knit suite on Carmen 5 mentioned that she had never celebrated Christmas because she was Jewish, Swett organized a floor-wide Christmas party, decorated tree and all. She then took her friend down to Macy's department store to sit on Santa's lap for the first time.

"She had her own quirks and she really shared them with everyone," Greene said. "She was a lot of fun."

Swett also inherited an eye for the lens from her father, a photographer, Greene said. While Greene didn't recall Swett taking any photography classes at Columbia, "She was always taking pictures ... she always documented everything."

Greene also underscored Swett's commitment to her family: "She adored her parents, her two brothers, and her grandmother. She talked about them constantly and she treasured spending time with them."

While there will be a memorial service for Swett this summer in New York, Greene said that friends were interested in working with the University to organize another for when students were back in school.

The vice president of the Institute for Study Abroad at Butler University, Joanna Holvey Bowles, announced Swett's death in an email, in which she said that the New Zealand resident director "reported that the family was a very well supported by the community in Christchurch including a core support group from IFSA-Butler, the University of Canterbury and Rachel’s friends."

Amital Isaac, GS/JTS ’11, knew Swett from when they both pledged AXO together. While Isaac is no longer part of the sorority, she recalled Swett as someone always surrounded by friends.

“She was just wonderful,” Isaac said. “She was always very calm and demure. … She was a very centered person and she was such a pleasure to be around.”

Isaac also took a French class with her, where she said Swett was constantly worried about her French accent but always had thoughtful points to share. Isaac said Swett was talented and intelligent. One of her favorite memories with Swett, she said, was cramming furiously for a final neither of them had done the reading for.

“She loved all things French, she loved AXO, she loved New York City,” Isaac said.

And whenever Swett was stressed, Isaac said, she always upfront about it: Swett was once worried about failing an exam, but finally announced, “What will be, will be.”

Ultimately, Kesselman said, Rachel simply touched the lives of everyone she encountered.

"Rachel was a compassionate person who cared deeply about the people in her life," he said. "She was a lot of fun. Rachel was always seeking out new adventures. She loved exploring Paris with her friends. The trip Rachel organized to Portugal with a small group of friends was a highlight of my time abroad."