Milad Ghasemi Ariani is being remembered as a student who would be there for his classmates when they had a problem, or needed someone to talk to.

“He was really caring because he was helping other students,” Towhid Islam, a professor and researcher with the University of Guelph’s Gordon S. Lang School of Business and Economics, tells the Mercury Tribune.

“Typically doctoral students are mature — they have families, children, multiple problems, they don’t have enough money. I found him helping other people, counselling them and motivating them.”

Islam first met Ariani five years ago when he was applying to be a part of a PhD program at the university. The Iranian student did receive an offer, but also got one from a school in the U.S., which he initially accepted.

A couple years later, Ariani was back and wanting to reapply. Islam said the school was happy to accept him again. However, it took some time for his visa to be approved, and he was only able to fully start in the program in May 2019.

Islam says Ariani, who was studying marketing and consumer studies, was doing research on how to best launch new products to the consumer market.

However, Islam says his students and colleagues remember Ariani for how he treated them.

“He already put a lasting impression on those students.”

Ariani is one of two University of Guelph students killed following Wednesday’s crash. Ghanimat Azhdari, a PhD student looking at Indigenous peoples-led conservation and governance, also died in the crash.

Two other Guelph residents, Parisa Eghbalian and her daughter Reera Esmaeilion, were also killed.