A girl with a heart of gold — Community comes together to remember Mamta Kandel

It wasn’t just her warm, radiant personality and dedication toward activism that made her so unique, but also her ability to make anybody smile — that is how people will always remember Mamta Kandel.

Kandel, a University of Idaho student died on Dec. 15, 2016 in a traffic accident. Kandel was traveling to see her family in Nepal and work for a mission trip she planned to help build a school for trafficked girls, said Clarisa Lopez, one of Kandel’s friends.

Known as an “actual angel on earth,” Kandel always knew how to put a smile on anyone’s face, Lopez said.

“She was always really really happy and excited … really friendly to everyone. She seemed to know everybody on campus. We would walk around and literally every person we’d come across would say hi,” said Heather DuMars, another friend of Kandel.

Kandel was involved in multiple campus organizations, including the Nepali Student Association while also working for the Residence Hall Association during her sophomore year, Lopez said.

Lopez met Kandel in 2014 working as her residential assistant. Lopez said the two got along well and have been friends ever since.

“She always tried to make a connection with everyone, whether it was just saying hi, or making sure she asked how your day was, there was something about her that really attracted people,” Lopez said.

Standing at just 4 feet 11 inches, Lopez said even though Kandel may have been a small person, her size didn’t matter because her personality was big.

“She was like a mighty mouse,” a friend of Kandel, Mackenzie Gussenhoven said. “She had so much charisma and ambition … She was just someone you could always go to and talk to and confide in all the time. She was a tiny girl, but she had so much attitude and so much sass.”

Kandel had many passions, including an online blog in which she wrote about her life experiences and other people’s stories. DuMars said she found joy in learning about other cultures. Kandel used her blog as a tool to meet different people around campus and the community from other cultures and write about their stories.

In Kandel’s blog post titled “I didn’t choose Idaho. Idaho chose me,” she wrote, “I have met so many people from so many different cultures with whom I have got this opportunity to live and learn life together.”

Lopez said Kandel craved knowledge and tried to understand different cultures and customs while continuing to stay true to who she was.

Not only did Kandel enjoy learning about different cultures, she also had a passion for helping others.

“Helping other people was what her purpose was,” Lopez said. “She really did it without even trying and without realizing the impact she had and how much she helped other people.”

Kandel was halfway through her junior year at UI studying sociology and psychology. Lopez said she chose her major simply because she wanted to help people.

“She was really dedicated to helping people and really wanted to make her mark on the world,” DuMars said.

Kandel saw helping others as one of the most important aspects of life, because she enjoyed seeing other people happy, Lopez said.

“I think one of her main hobbies was just helping people. She planned a mission trip and worked on improving social issues and things like that,” Gussenhoven said.

Lopez said she also found happiness in many other things, whether it be photography, selling Nepalese jewelry or cooking.

“She would always make sure you weren’t hungry,” Lopez said.

Along with her many hobbies, DuMars said Kandel obtained much of her happiness through God and participating in church activities.

“I know for her, she found happiness in church. Church was a really big thing for her, so anytime she was upset about anything it seemed to help her and she would just go and she had a lot of friends there,” DuMars said.

Her relationships with family, friends and God are what brought Kandel joy throughout her life, Gussenhoven said.

“It truly is a great loss I think for the university, because so many people knew her whether it was from Resonate Church, school, being a residential assistant or working at the 24-hour desk,” Lopez said.

Not only was Kandel bubbly and kindhearted, but Lopez said she was a genuine hard worker who knew exactly what she wanted. Kandel raised money to help trafficked women in Nepal and built the mission trip that took place over winter break, Lopez said.

“If she set her mind on something it was going to happen, because she’s Mamta and she does not play around,” Lopez said.

Kandel had a selfless attitude and was always worried about everyone else, Gussenhoven said, all of which shaped who she was as a person.

“I think that her purpose in life was fulfilled by just being who she was and I think she leaves a great legacy here at the university,” Lopez said. “She will always be in a lot people’s hearts.”

Savannah Cardon can be reached at [email protected]

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