Vol. 5 [Alumni News] Scholarship Established in Memory of UT Student Savitha Shanmugasundaram

• Savitha Shanmugasundaram (MIS & ECON '26), a 21-year-old UT Austin senior, was shot and killed on March 1 in a mass shooting on the West 6th Street in Austin. A month after her passing, those closest to her have come together to establish an endowed scholarship in her name.
  
• The fund will support students from Title I schools attending UT for as long as the university stands. Organizers — led by her parents — are working toward a $500,000 fundraising target, which UT will match through The Texas Challenge program to create a $1 million endowment. The goal is to cover tuition for eight to ten Texas students annually. "Her dream is coming true," said her father, Shan Muthian.
  
• Savitha grew up in Austin and attended Austin ISD schools before enrolling at UT. Her drive to close educational gaps took root in middle school, after visiting a government school in India and witnessing the stark contrast with her own. From there, she channeled that motivation into action: she built a YouTube channel called studyfluff to help students with note organization, ran an Etsy sticker business during the pandemic and donated all proceeds to education nonprofits, and developed a coding tool to offer free programming help to students after completing a course on AI ethics at UT. She also received the Taco Bell Live Más Scholarship every year she was in college.

• At UT, she served as president of the Texas Indian Students Association twice and was widely regarded as the heart of the group — a best friend, older sister, and mentor rolled into one, according to fellow members. Her roommate and close friend Riddhi Goel described her as family. Friend Aditi Rao recalled that when her own mother passed away last fall, Savitha checked on her every single day.
  
• Savitha's parents continue to receive visits and messages from dozens of her fellow students, a source of comfort amid their grief. Those behind the scholarship hope it will carry forward what she believed in most — paying it forward. As her father recalled, when schoolchildren in India once asked a 15-year-old Savitha how they could repay her, she told them to pass the kindness on to the next generation.
  
• UT is administering the scholarship and accepting donations.

(Source: Austin American-Statesman)