By Jo Ann Mitchell Brasington ’89
Keeley O’Keefe ’20 plans to travel to all seven continents before she’s 30. She checked another off her list in February when she joined a Wofford group of 31 “Intrepid India” (their WhatsApp group name) adventurers led by Prema Samhat.
“Prema made it easy,” says O’Keefe. “I’ve already told her that if there’s space in the next trip, I want to go again.”
O’Keefe, a consultant with North Highland in Charlotte, N.C., works in the company’s digital transformation and technology area. She found those skills helpful as one of the tech-savvy young alumni who were called on to troubleshoot. Caroline Harrington ’21, an analyst for a sustainable energy company in Boston, Mass., also offered unofficial tech support. She was joined on the trip by her mother and grandmother.
“I take any opportunity to travel, and I knew I couldn’t pass up the opportunity for Prema to show us her native India,” says Harrington. “That I could share the experience with my mother and grandmother was really special.”
The intergenerational trip included people in their early 20s through people about to turn 80.
The group started in Mumbai and moved to Udaipur, Jaipur, Agra and New Delhi. The Taj Mahal, a world heritage site and one of the world’s greatest architectural wonders, exceeded expectations for both O’Keefe and Harrington, as well as for Donna and Jody Traywick ’67.
“You see pictures of the Taj, and they don’t do it justice,” says Donna.
The Traywicks, who have led group travel excursions and who have traveledextensively, were impressed with everything about the experience.
“We visited a Sikh temple and took our shoes off and walked through water to clean our feet. We saw people singing and participating in religious rituals. We also went to a Hindu temple. Those experiences were so eye-opening,” says Jody.
Still, they said that spending time with other Wofford people is what made the trip so special.
“Prema put together some of the most interesting people that Donna and I have ever had the privilege of traveling with,” says Jody.
“I got even more out of the experience because I was traveling with people who have had lots of life experiences,” says Harrington. “Jody Traywick and I talked a lot about our times at Wofford, and we discovered that we’re both huge Wofford baseball fans. It was fun to see the differences and the similarities.”
During the trip, the group began discussing a gift for Samhat to show their appreciation for the experience. The original idea was a visit to a luxury spa, but it grew from there. On March 9, members of the group surprised Samhat with a $10,000 gift to the William and Latika Rajpal Endowed Scholarship Fund, the scholarship that Samhat established to honor her parents.
Samhat was moved to tears by the gesture.
“I’m completely overcome,” she says. “I’m just grateful they enjoyed my home country with me. That was thanks enough. But I’m so appreciative of this. This is one of the most touching things that I’ve ever experienced.”