PR did a story on Karan’s signature song, "No Scrubs" by TLC, and what it meant to him and his communities. Listen to it below!
Maintaining Wellness with Dr. Kelly Greco
As students live through a global pandemic, one of the largest social justice movements and an economic downturn, many may feel overwhelmed with everything that’s happening.
He also worked at the Daily Trojan as wellness editor, and held various jobs and internships, including at Pineapple Street Media and Neon Hum Media.At the California Scholastic Press Association (CSPA) workshop — a two-week high school journalism workshop he himself attended — Karan helped teach a podcast class every summer in San Luis Obispo. He also served as a counselor, whom students loved to be around.
“I learned as much from him as the students said,” said Matt Hanlon, who co-taught the podcast class with him. “One year I asked him if we could change up the presentation and within a couple of days he’d sent over an entirely new one with several slides I knew nothing about, and of course Karan patiently explained them. He was that type of person. I will miss teaching with him, laughing with him and learning from him.”
“It was clear how much the students loved him and looked forward to working with him because their faces lit up whenever he was nearby,” said Laura Nelson, a CSPA instructor and Board member. “He was natural teacher — funny, kind, thoughtful and so smart.”
A Gifted Writer -- Daily Trojan
On My Mind Article -- Daily Trojan
The world was too small for Karan and his effervescent curiosity, his father Ranajit said. Karan entered USC in Fall 2017 as a journalism major on a Trustee Scholarship and was a student in Thematic Option, learning about the power of the written and spoken word. Before his junior
year, in June 2020, he declared an additional major in psychology to learn more about the intricacies of the mind and become more informed on ways to support others who have been affected by mental health issues.
He was a go-getter from the start, recalled alumna Emma Peplow, who served as editor-in-chief during Karan’s first year at the Daily Trojan from Fall 2017 to Spring 2018. She remembers that for one of his first stories, Karan was sent to the Health Sciences Campus — a bus ride away — to cover a breaking news story. Peplow was nervous to send a freshman, but Karan insisted he wanted to do it.
“He worked really hard,” Peplow said. “But at the same time, he just generated joy. He could come into a lifeless newsroom and generate joy from nothing. And the joy would just last even after he left the newsroom.”