University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM) is dealing with the sudden loss of an exceptional student, mentor and a kind presence in an international tragedy.

Zeynab Asadi Lari was one of 176 people killed when Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 crashed into a field shortly after takeoff from Imam Khomeini International Airport in Iran.

UTM professor Fiona Rawle said Asadi Lari “stood out right away” in a class of a thousand students because of the quality of her questions and her constant support for others.

“She was fiercely competitive with herself, and immensely collaborative with everyone else,” Rawle said. “She was smart, hardworking, but most of all I remember her being really kind.”

Asadi Lari planned to graduate UTM in the spring with a major in biology and health science. She was also the president of the UTM branch of the STEM Fellowship, which organized research and writing workshops open to university and high school students.

Prior to transferring to UTM, Asadi Lari studied biology at University of British Columbia for two years and interned for the World Health Organization.

She was also a mentor through the National Student Network (NSN). In her NSN profile, Asadi Lari said she had a “strong admiration” for medicine, public and global health, mental health advocacy and humanitarian work.

“I have set a target for myself, and worked hard every second no matter what obstacle I face,” she said in the profile. “Nothing feels better than reaching what you strive for after many failures.”

Rawles said everyone at UTM is in a “state of shock,” following Asadi Lari’s death.

“Being a professor we work a lot with student plans and goals and we talk always about the future,” Rawles said. “And I'm immensely sad that Zeynab won't be able to pursue her goals because she had some terrific goals related to global and mental health and I know she was going to make a really big difference."