Jahanvi Desai Memorial Endowed Scholarship

Jahanvi was a renaissance woman whose curiosity knew no bounds. She created her own unique course of study with degrees in chemistry and art history. She sought out an apprenticeship at the Smithsonian and Quarto Conservation where she fell in love with book and paper conservation, a niche space requiring expertise in science and art. Her hard work and expertise resulted in owning her own conservation business focused on paper and preserving others’ legacies – books, family heirloom documents and historical records.

Outside the classroom, she could fix a car; she was a master at word games, a skilled sous chef (and an even better baker), and a terrific dancer. She had as many friends as she had interests. She was committed to conservation and recycling before it was cool to be an environmentalist. She was fiendishly smart and very, very funny. If you needed help or wanted to know something, you asked Jahanvi. Her relationships crossed generations and cultures. She was a free spirit and unapologetically herself. She led an independent, deeply satisfying life that was much, much too short. Her last act was one typical of her generosity, she asked that her legacy be to support the education for deserving students.