In the wake of Alexis Lasker’s death, the former student’s close friends at Northwestern remembered her Wednesday as an outgoing individual and selfless friend.
“I don’t want her to be remembered as the sad girl,” Sona Arora (Weinberg ‘13) said. “That wasn’t who she was. She was always vibrant and happy and she always brought life to any party or any group she was with.”
Lasker, 22, was found dead Saturday in the 2500 block of West Fitch Avenue in Chicago, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. Her cause of death was determined to be suicide.
Lasker had been on medical leave from NU, her boyfriend Amar Mehta said, and she was last enrolled as a student in Fall Quarter 2012.
“She was very selfless, very caring, compassionate,” said Mehta, a Weinberg senior. “Very intelligent … and incredible work ethic.”
Mehta and Lasker met at a party in the spring of 2012. They had been dating for about a year and a half at the time of her death, he said.
Mehta and Weinberg senior Gina Tremmel, a close friend of Lasker, were both in close contact with her while she was on leave. They shared memories of her as a caring individual who would do anything for her friends.
“She had a great personality,” Tremmel said. “She was very bubbly, and she just always had a smile on her face. She would just brighten your day.”
Last week, Mehta said, he and Lasker had two tickets to a pre-screening of a film. Each ticket admitted one couple, and Mehta and Lasker were deciding who to give the second ticket to.
“We decided to give it to Gina, who is probably her best friend here on campus,” Mehta said. “I just remember, Gina thought she was going to third-wheel it with us, but Alexis, being Alexis, had an intricate plan to make sure Gina’s boyfriend could surprise Gina.”
Tremmel said her boyfriend does not attend NU, but Lasker had made arrangements for him to come.
“She was always just so willing to do anything for anyone,” Tremmel said.
Mehta added that Lasker “really valued her personal relationships with other people and was just so selfless in showing how much she cared.”
Tremmel met Lasker on move-in day their freshman year. The two both lived in the International Studies Residential College.
“We just became friends from day one,” Tremmel said. “If I was having a bad day she’d be like, ‘Come to my room, I just got a new shipment of tea.’ … She was always just wondering what she could do to make someone else’s day a little bit better.”
Arora, who met Lasker during Arora’s sophomore year through a mutual friend, said Lasker was “one of the most quick-witted people I have ever met” and full of enthusiasm for her interests. She said Lasker took Arora to see her first opera, Mozart’s “The Magic Flute.”
“She really loved arts and theater,” Arora said. “It wasn’t in English, I didn’t understand it, but it was entertaining, and she was really trying to show me a much classier world.”
Tremmel said Lasker would often joke about culturally educating her friends.
“She said I was going through ‘culture training’ and when she was done with me I would be cultured,” Tremmel said. “And I think my junior year she was finally like, ‘You’ve become cultured,’ and I was so excited. She’d done her job.”
Lasker had been studying in the School of Communication. She was a Quest Scholar and a part of the Honors Program in Medical Education. Tremmel said Lasker also volunteered on campus at the Women’s Center.
Mehta, a pre-medical student, said he would have liked to study at the Feinberg School of Medicine with Lasker in the future.
“She had so many similarities to me,” Mehta said. “It’s going to be hard to find someone like her.”
A memorial for Lasker will be held 7:00 p.m. Thursday in Harris Hall 108.
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @jeannekuang
