Niyati Trivedi

            “You could be a star,” he had said to me. He was Lohi Taksha, my former dance and drama instructor. At eight years of age, I was extremely shy, taking every opportunity I could to stay out of the limelight. Lohi however was a man full of life, energy, talent, constantly brimming with exuberance…and for some reason, he had a great deal of faith in me. Lohi helped me to crawl out of my shell and soon I absolutely loved to perform cultural Indian folk dances. Lohi passed away from cirrhosis of the liver right before I entered Cornell University, but I knew that he would be proud of me if I continued my involvement in the performing arts.

After coming to Cornell, I immediately became involved with one of the premier Indian dance troupes on campus, Cornell Bhangra. At that time, “Bhangra” which is a lively folk dance originating from the region of Punjab, was not a separate organization, but rather a single dance with twelve members. Four other members and myself soon decided to proliferate the Bhangra dance form by making it into an organization. Within one year of coming to Cornell, I became one of the main contributors in expanding the twelve person dance into a twenty person organization. Soon almost everyone on campus was talking about how much they loved Bhangra! Our organization was invited to guest perform at countless on-campus shows, and we also attended five national Bhangra competitions during my freshman and sophomore years, of which we won two my freshman year. I also went to Ithaca’s Boynton Middle School during their dance workshop series to teach Bhangra to middle school children.

This year, I helped take Cornell Bhangra to yet another level. I headed a committee which recruited even more members to our organization, and Cornell Bhangra was split into three teams: an all-boys, all-girls, and co-ed team. In this manner, not only did more people have a chance to try out for and join the Bhangra team, there were a larger variety of Bhangra dances. This year, we attended four

competitions of which we won three. Furthermore, I was a main figure in hosting Cornell’s first ever Bhangra intercollegiate dance exhibition, Pao Bhangra on March 1st, 2002. This show took weeks of hard work and publicity, but in the end, Pao Bhangra proved a titanic success selling out Statler Auditorium. Not only has Bhangra become famous on the Cornell campus through our numerous performances, but on an even larger level through our victories in several nationwide competitions as well as interviews by Indian television networks and newspaper reviews.

During the summers, I continue my involvement in cultural Indian dance in the New York City area. During the summers of my freshman and sophomore years, I choreographed six dances for the Vandana South Asian Broadcasting Network, a Public Access television network. My dances are shown continuously.

Of course, I do my part to be as active as possible with the CNS program, an organization that I am extremely grateful to for all that they have done for me. CNS enabled me to land an internship with the pediatric department at Cornell Medical Center in New York City, where I further learned greater responsibilities and leadership skills. My leadership there involved leading young hospitalized children in therapeutic play and other activities. I soon became a trusted faculty member of the pediatric department, and there were days when my supervisors left me in charge of the pediatric playroom at the hospital. On such days, I was responsible for leading and directing all therapeutic activities as well as making sure the children were all kept closely monitored in case of emergencies.

My major on-campus involvement with CNS is being a mentor group liaison for Beth Fiori, the Fellowship coordinator at Cornell. As a liaison, I have organized dinners and meetings with Beth and our group’s student members. I have taken on the role of a leader and sent out countless emails informing the group of upcoming activities and group meetings, and we have been able to come together

as a group and have dinner twice and meet once with Beth to discuss fellowship opportunities. Next year, I hope to work closely with Beth, my group, and Kris DeLuca-Beach to brainstorm on novel routes to take with the mentoring program to make it more efficient and exciting.

Besides CNS and Cornell Bhangra, I am also actively involved as historian of Alpha Epsilon Delta, the national pre-med honor society. As historian, I manage the previous medical application forms and information brochures and booklets of past AED Cornellians so that present members may gain from such material. I also participate in community service activities through AED, including many On Site service projects in the Ithaca area. Furthermore, I am a member and singer for the Hindu Student Council at Cornell. I have volunteered at Gannett, Cornell’s health facility, as well as Food for Life, a charitable organization which provides food and clothing to the needy, back home in New York City during the winters. In addition, I have had the honor of being on the Dean’s List for the past four semesters. I hope to continue to expand my leadership roles and responsibilities.