Planning for a lifetime: the gift of education for BRAC Scholarship program students, Part 5/5

This post is the conclusion of a 5 part series, in which BRAC volunteer Nilopar Uddin tells the stories of three of this year’s BRAC Scholarship program students. Each student, with BRAC’s support, has succeeded in securing a place at India’s top Rajastan University and is preparing to embark on an exciting and ultimately life-changing journey, led by the power of education.

BRAC's Scholarshp program is behemoth in its span: in 2008 it donated funds to 18,000 boys and 22,800 girls. My meetings with the program's participants left me feeling overwhelmingly inspired. I have always seen education as a powerful tool, even in my own upbringing, but to see what it has done and will continue to do to the lives of these three girls has renewed my faith in it with vigour. The possibilities are limitless. BRAC is anxious to increase the number of scholarships, increase the number of sponsor organizations and individuals and to form an alumni of community of graduates.

As I gushed about the program to Fazle Abed Hasan, the Founder and Chairperson of BRAC, he smiled and waited for me to finish. With his next words, he flabbergasted me with how creative and inspirational his approach truly was. “I am thinking,” he said somberly, “of establishing a boarding school for the best of the students”. He went on to tell me his plans for the school; how it would hoist the future of 300 of the highest achieving students by giving them educational support in an academic setting from a young age.

Mr. Abed has hit on one of the potential weaknesses of all educational grant programs: some of these families are so poor that their children will pass the scholarship money on to them instead of utilizing it for educational purposes. BRAC’s Scholarship for the undergraduate students, such as Sukla, Roziana and Depthi, covers roundtrip transportation, passport/visa costs, tuition, board, medical insurance and pocket money. There is a possibility that much of the money that the girls could spare would be given to their poor families at home. It is also possible that students who are receiving money for private tuition are under pressure to save some for their families.

His idea iss a way to address this problem. It is also a way to mentor and develop student's abilities so that they can compete successfully in the application processes of the world’s elite universities. Of the second set of BRAC Scholarship program students, 122 were admitted into institutions of higher education. Of this group, 42 were admitted to Bangladesh’s public universities and 10 to universities in India.

“Why not Oxford?’ Mr. Abed beams at me, “why not Harvard?” I beam back. Its hard not to be contaminated by the sort of inspiration that can change lives for the better, forever.