Courtesy photo

Keenan Fernandez drowned last week in Kathmandu, Nepal, where she was spending the summer with a study-abroad program called the Passage Project.

Friends of Keenan Fernandez said the “spirited” woman had passion for the world and its people — a quality that was evident in her life and, now, her death.

The University of Colorado student drowned in Kathmandu, Nepal, where she was spending the summer with a study-abroad program called the Passage Project, a program official confirmed Tuesday.

Fernandez, 19, of Atlanta, was swimming in the Sundarijal reservoir, 15 kilometers northeast of Kathmandu, about 5:30 p.m. Thursday when a current swept away her friend, Kesang Rajyal, 28, a Tibetan national, according to the Nepal Mountain News.

In an apparent rescue effort, Fernandez went in after Rajyal, but she, too, was taken under the water, said Vidhea Shrestha, founder and director of the Passage Project in southeast Asia.

“Keenan was a very strong swimmer,” Shrestha said Tuesday from Nepal. “She went in possibly thinking she could save him and rescue him.”

Shrestha said it’s monsoon season and water is spilling into the 100-year-old reservoir, which is 17 feet deep. There’s a drain in the reservoir, Shrestha said, and it’s possible Rajyal slipped and became caught in the drain’s current.

Both Fernandez and Rajyal died, according to program officials and Nepal news reports.

“It was a horrible, tragic accident,” Shrestha said. “There is no one to blame.”

Two other friends also were at the reservoir with Fernandez and Rajyal and tried to link hands and go in after them, Shrestha said.

“But they realized how deep and dangerous it was, and they gave up and came out to make the report,” she said.

According to Nepal news reports, Fernandez’s body was pulled from the reservoir more than two hours after she disappeared, and Rajyal was found about 12 hours later. The coroner ruled Fernandez drowned with a head injury, Shrestha said, adding, “We’re never going to know the full truth of what happened.”

Fernandez was planning to study at a monastery this week. Shrestha said the student was on a “free day” when she died.

“She has been pretty busy — living with a host family and learning the Nepalese language,” Shrestha said.

Fernandez had been in the region six weeks and was scheduled to stay another three weeks with the program, Shrestha said. She was due to return to Boulder this fall for her sophomore year at CU, where she was studying integrative physiology, but friends said she was enjoying Asia and hadn’t yet booked a trip back.

Shrestha said Fernandez’s parents are in Nepal, and the community will begin performing rituals in her memory today.

“She had a large appetite for life, and that is why — if you can imagine — the last few days have been so emotionally wrenching for us,” Shrestha said. “We are trying to deal with it moment by moment and let the sadness seep in a little at a time.

“Otherwise, it’s too overwhelming.”

Since Fernandez’s death, friends who’ve known her a lifetime, attended boarding school with her in Pottstown, Pa., or met her at CU have been leaving messages on a Facebook page created in her memory.

“You are now climbing trees in the sky baby girl!” one Colorado friend wrote.

CU sophomore Brooke Daley, 19, of Boulder, lived with Fernandez in the residence halls her freshman year.

“She was an incredible human being,” Daley said. “There were greater things out there for her.”

When Daley learned about the circumstances of Fernandez’s death, she said she wasn’t surprised.

“That is something she would do,” Daley said. “She was always looking out for others.”

Her heroism in death is reminiscent of another CU student who died this year while trying to protect his mother from would-be robbers in Mexico. Junior David Parrish, 21, died March 26 from a gunshot wound to the stomach.

CU spokesman Bronson Hilliard said the school is proud of both Fernandez and Parrish but devastated to lose them.

“These things are so poignant when they lay their lives down to help friends and family,” Hilliard said. “We can’t afford to lose any students, but it’s difficult to lose these students with such big hearts and ideals.”

Jennie Lynch, 19, of Philadelphia, said she learned of Fernandez’s death while hanging out with mutual friends from boarding school. She said she had to share the news, and they thought it was a sick joke.

Earlier that morning, the friends had been reminiscing about Fernandez’s wild adventures and infectious personality — like how she would dress up in crazy outfits to stand out among the conservatively clad students at their boarding school.

Courtney Jason said she met Fernandez after a squash practice at the boarding school where Fernandez had transferred to play the sport.

“She had the most competitive nature and determined spirit I had ever seen,” Jason said. “A person like Keenan does not come along every day.”