A master's of law candidate at the School of Law passed away Sunday morning after a brief illness.
Maja Kolb, a 29-year-old student from Berlin, Germany, had been studying at the University since August.
"I saw her almost every day of the week because she was very outgoing and would come over to the office to chat," said Judy Horowitz, associate dean for international studies at the law school. "She loved Duke and was a very active participant in all activities."
Horowitz added that Kolb's illness was likely pneumonia.
"It was very sudden," she said.
Kolb's friends described her as a very energetic person who loved dancing and always had time for a friend in need.
"Maja knew how to enjoy the little things in life, she was a lot of fun and the best of friends," her friends in the LL.M. class of 2007 said in a statement. "She shall be clearly missed.... It is very strange to think we shall not see her in the law school's corridors."
Kolb immersed herself in many areas of Duke life outside the classroom, including planning for International Week and participating in the Graduate and Professional Student Council campout for men's basketball tickets.
"She loved to laugh and loved to live," her friends said.
Plans for Kolb's memorial will be announced after her family arrives in Durham.
Kolb was at Duke working on her LL.M. degree-a program that educates foreign law graduates about the American legal system. Before arriving at the University, Kolb received her law degree from Free University in Berlin in 2001.
She then worked with a private firm and wrote her thesis, a comparative study of minors' capacities to contract under German, English and French law.
Kolb was fluent in German, English and Spanish and proficient in French, and supplemented her language skills by enthusiastically pursuing abroad experiences.
While in high school, she spent a year as an exchange student in Clark County, Va., and later studied for two trimesters at Universidad Autonoma in Madrid, Spain, as the recipient of the European Union's Socrates Scholarship.
Most recently, Kolb completed a summer externship with the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office.
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