UCLA student dies on Semester at Sea program
By Daily Bruin Staff
April 1, 1996 9:00 p.m.
Tuesday, April 2, 1996
Cherese Mari Laulhere, 21, killed in bus accident on way back
from Taj MahalBy Marie Blanchard
Daily Bruin Contributor
A UCLA student who was taking a semester abroad in India was
killed last week when the bus she was in lost control and landed in
a ditch, according to Indian local news agencies.
Cherese Mari Laulhere, 21, was one of five Americans and seven
other people killed in the bus crash near the Indian city of
Agra.
Laulhere was participating in a semester-long international
study program organized by the University of Pittsburgh. Known as
the Semester at Sea, the program tours 11 different countries with
about 600 American students, according to Brian Birkenstein,
Laulhere’s boyfriend who graduated last quarter from UCLA.
India was the fifth country the program had been visiting. The
semester-long international study program goes around the world on
a 23,500-ton passenger ship.
Four out of five students on the bus from the Semester at Sea
program were killed as the bus came back from a visit to the Taj
Mahal. According to a student on the tour, the bus fishtailed, went
off the road and overturned after landing in a ditch.
Laulhere had already visited Venezuela, Brazil and South Africa
on the trip. Laulhere’s next destination was to be Vietnam.
According to a University of Pittsburgh spokesperson, the
program will continue the trip.
A transfer student from Cypress Junior College, Laulhere had
attended UCLA for five months before leaving on Feb. 1. She was a
senior geography student and was scheduled to graduate in the next
year, Birkenstein said.
Laulhere grew up in Long Beach, where she attended Wilson High
School. This was her first trip abroad, according to her
father.
The funeral will be held this Wednesday at 10 a.m. in Cypress at
4471 Lincoln Blvd., Forest Lawn Mortuary. The phone number is (714)
236-8816.
Cherese Mari Laulhere
