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Thirty Outstanding New Americans Including Five Arab Americans Each Awarded $90,000 Toward Their Graduate School Studies in US
By Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships
NEW YORK – Today, The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans, the premier graduate school fellowship for immigrants and children of immigrants, announced their 2015 recipients. The thirty recipients, called “Fellows”, were selected for their potential to make significant contributions to US society, culture, or their academic field, and were selected from a pool of 1,200 applicants.
“I admire the Fellows’ ambition, accomplishments and work ethic,” said Daisy M. Soros, who co-founded the Fellowship program in 1997 with her late husband, Paul Soros (1926-2013). “They underscore the importance of New Americans to this country.” The couple, Hungarian immigrants, contributed $75 million to the organization’s charitable trust.
In addition to receiving up to $90,000 in funding for the graduate program of their choice, each new Fellow will join the prestigious community of recipients from past years, which includes US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, leading Ebola researcher Pardis Sabeti, Oscar health insurance co-founder Kevin Nazemi and over 500 other New American leaders.
“It is extraordinary to see all that these Fellows have already accomplished,” said Craig Harwood, who directs the Fellowship program. “Whether they are in the sciences, music, medicine, law or education, it is clear that this group of individuals will have a tremendous impact on their respective fields, and on life in this country.”
The 2015 class of Fellows includes researchers, mathematicians, writers, scientists, translators, musicians, entrepreneurs and future doctors and lawyers, as well as the first-ever Paul & Daisy Soros Fellow in the field of nursing. They hail from China, Vietnam, Iran, Nigeria, Somalia, the United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Albania, Ukraine, Morocco, El Salvador, Mexico, Colombia, Libya, Poland, Russia, Peru, Israel, Oman, Brazil and the United States.
The 2015 cohort of Fellows is extremely diverse in terms of family heritage, field of study and New American status:
–16 are female; 14 are male.
–The youngest Fellow is 21; the oldest is 30. The average age is 26.
–22 were born abroad; 8 were born in the US.
–2 are DACA recipients; 5 are green card holders; 15 are naturalized citizens.
–13 Fellows are pursuing medicine; 7 natural science; 4 law; 3 music, visual
and/or performing arts; 2 computer science; 2 business ; 1 social science and 1 education. 3 Fellows are currently pursuing more than 1 degree.
–14 are first-generation college graduates; 10 are first-generation high school
graduates.
–The Fellows attended a total of 23 undergraduate institutions, and will attend a
total of 14 graduate schools.
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2016 Application Now Open
Individuals can learn more about the Fellowship, the current Fellows and the application, as well as sign up for the Fellowship’s e-mail list, and an informational session webinar, at the program’s website: www.pdsoros.org. The 2016 application is now open, and is due on November 1, 2015 at 11:59 EST.
Selection criteria focuses on accomplishments that show creativity, originality, and initiative in light of the challenges and opportunities that have been part of the applicant’s immigration experience. The application is open to college seniors, students in the early stages of their graduate career, and those in the workforce who are seeking graduate training.
Full List of 2015 Fellows
Name, heritage, degree sought and university
Mohamad Abedi, Palestinian, PhD in bioengineering at CalTech
Oswaldo (Oz) Hasbún Avalos, El Salvadorian, MD at Columbia University
Cecil Benitez, Mexican, MD at Stanford Medical School
Shinichi Daimyo, Vietnamese and Japanese, MSN at Yale School of Nursing
Daniela Delgado, Colombian, MD at Harvard Medical School
Amal Elbakhar, Moroccan, JD at Harvard Law School
Asmaa Elsayed, Egyptian, EdM in global education at Harvard Graduate School of Education
Arash Fereydooni, Iranian, MD
Krzysztof Franaszek, Polish, MD at Harvard Medical School and MIT
Ledina Gocaj, Albanian, JD at Harvard Law School
Tiffanie Hsu, Chinese and Taiwanese, MFA in directing at UCLA
Ayan Hussein, Somalian, PhD in neuroscience at Yale University
Evgeniya Kim, Uzbek and Korean, MBA at Yale School of Management
Allen Lin, Taiwanese, PhD in systems biology at Harvard University
Ismael Loera Fernandez, Mexican, PhD in chemistry at Rice University
Paras Singh Minhas, Indian, MD and PhD in neuroscience at Stanford School of Medicine
Polina Nazaykinskaya, Russian, DMA in composition and music theory at The Graduate Center, CUNY
Minh-Duyen Thi Nguyen, Vietnamese, MD
Lucy Ogbu-Nwobodo, Nigerian, MD at UC Davis School of Medicine
Sandra Portocarrero, Peruvian, PhD in sociology at Columbia University
Yakir Reshef, Israeli, MD and PhD in computer science at Harvard Medical School and MIT
Raeuf Roushangar, Egyptian and Iranian, PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology at Michigan State University
Eugene Rusyn, Russian, JD at Yale Law School
Andre Shomorony, Brazilian, MD at Harvard Medical School and MIT
Sahar Soleimanifard, Iranian, MD at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Stephanie Speirs, Korean and Chinese, MBA at MIT Sloan School of Management
Gerald Chunt-Sein Tiu, Burmese, MD and PhD in genetics at Stanford University
Katherine Karmen Trujillo, Honduran, MA in law and diplomacy at The Fletcher School at Tufts University
Mark Minghao Xue, Chinese, MS in computer science at Stanford University
Julie Zhu, Chinese, MFA in painting at Hunter College, CUNY
The five Arab American recipients are listed below:
Mohamad Abedi
Award to support work toward a PhD in bioengineering at Caltech
Mohamad was born to Palestinian refugees in the United Arab Emirates. His family was under the constant threat of deportation back to the refugee camp in Lebanon where they had come from. His parents, lacking strong educations themselves, could not help Mohamad with his school work, but always served as his role models and inspiration.
Growing up, Mohamad spent his summers visiting family in the Beddawi refugee camp in Lebanon, where resources for healthcare were inadequate. He watched family members struggle with ailments that should have been easily curable, but instead persisted and grew worse. This experience motivated Mohamad to pursue an education in bioengineering, however he felt limited by the range of education options available to him. A world of education options opened up to him when, his senior year, after a ten year waiting process, his family’s application to the United States was approved. Mohamad was able to pursue a degree in bioengineering at UC Irvine where President Obama distinguished him during a commencement address as someone who knows, “what it means to dream”.
At UC Irvine, he worked on building diagnostic devices for rural areas by designing computers that run on air instead of electricity. Later, he investigated the robustness of bacterial genetic circuits with respect to noise. Recently, Mohamad received the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, recognizing him as one of the future leaders in his field.
Mohamad is now pursuing a PhD in bioengineering at Caltech. The long-term goal of his scientific career is to develop tools for non-invasive modulation of brain circuitry, which would allow scientists to understand and treat neurological and psychiatric diseases that involve the dysfunction of local neural circuits.
Amal Elbakhar
Award to support work toward a JD at Harvard Law School
Amal has had one foot rooted in Arab immigrant culture and the other in the classroom of social justice since her family immigrated to New York City from Morocco when she was nine years old. Overcoming cultural barriers, Amal was the first in her family to graduate from both high school and college. Soon she will be the first to obtain a graduate degree.
As a student at Macaulay Honors College at Hunter College, CUNY, Amal dedicated her free time to the Emergency Department at Bellevue Hospital, challenging her family’s understanding of how she should prioritize her time. Amal also worked at the Center for Reproductive Rights, an organization with incongruous views with those of her own conservative upbringing. Unafraid of the differences, Amal pursued the similarities in her religious beliefs and emerging consciousness of gender equality through her academic schoolwork. She wrote an award-winning honors thesis on Iran’s healthcare laws for women, and a second thesis on the current legal status of reproductive rights in the United States.
Upon graduating from college, Amal was awarded the Coro Fellowship in Public Affairs, an experiential leadership-training program that prepares individuals for effective and ethical leadership in the public affairs arena.
As a student and campus leader at Harvard Law School, Amal continues to focus on women’s issues. As a future lawyer-advocate, she hopes to represent individuals facing adversities while promoting the principles of civil rights that underlie our social infrastructure.
Asmaa Elsayed
Award to support work toward an EdM in global education at Harvard University
By the time she became a United States citizen, Asmaa had attended over eleven schools in four countries, including Libya, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The disruption in her education was not an oddity to her inspiring grandmother, who is illiterate, and Asmaa’s widowed mother, who did not have the chance to finish primary school.
Family instability and financial struggles transformed Asmaa from an academically-gifted child on track to graduate college at age nineteen to a non-traditional student who was at points homeless. Determined to succeed, Asmaa eventually graduated magna cum laude from George Mason University. She recently received her master’s degree from American University, where she served as an executive board member for the International Development Program Student Association, and was awarded over ten scholarships and honors.
For three years, Asmaa helped translate, edit, and culturally adapt some of the first research-based and developmentally appropriate early childhood education curricula and assessment systems available in the Middle East in Arabic. Asmaa co-founded a United States-based NGO, which helped provide education subsidies for orphans in Egypt and meals to over 700 families in 2008.
She worked for two and half years at the office of Hunaina Al Mughairy, Oman Ambassador to the United States, Washington’s first female ambassador from an Arab country. Asmaa is currently writing her first book, “The Pursuit”.
Asmaa’s goal is to be an advocate for human rights and peace and a leading scholar and practitioner in the field of global education.
Raeuf Roushangar
Award to support work toward a PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology at Michigan State University
Raeuf was born to an Iranian father and an Egyptian mother in Oman. Raised by his mother in Egypt after his father left for Iran, Raeuf endured continuous discrimination because of his Bahá’I faith, culminating in his suspension from Cairo University at the age of twenty. He traveled alone to the United States for a chance to continue his education, and spent six months homeless after his arrival. At night, he walked the streets. During the day, he spent time at the city’s public library, which was a source of enlightenment; it provided a safe place to sleep, as well as a treasure trove of knowledge.
He eventually found his way to the city’s community college where he got a math and chemistry tutoring job. As an undergraduate at Michigan State University (MSU), Raeuf was awarded two research fellowships, and published his findings on genetic interactions in human orofacial clefting syndromes.
Not forgetting those in need, as a freshman Raeuf founded a nonprofit organization that to date has collected and shipped more than $500,000 worth of medical supplies from the United States to poor communities worldwide. For his work and leadership, Raeuf was awarded the 2012-2013 MSU Leader of the Year, Clinton Global Initiative and Martin Luther King awards.
Raeuf is a first year biochemistry and molecular biology PhD student at MSU, with a research focus on “omics” technologies and their applications in personalized precision medicine. Working to create mathematical models to integrate various omics datasets, Raeuf believes that his research will improve diagnostic testing, medical decision-making and future individual patient healthcare.
Ayan Hussein
Award to support work toward a PhD in neuroscience at Yale University
Born to illiterate parents in Mogadishu, Somalia right before the civil war broke out, Ayan has sought refuge across country borders twice in her life. First, her family moved to a refugee camp in Kenya, and for a second time in 2003, when Ayan and her family were resettled with a relative in Clarkston, Georgia. Ayan was awarded the prestigious Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation scholarship, which she used to attend the University of Georgia.
Long after she had adjusted to the rigors of college life, and the challenges of being a first generation student there, Ayan discovered her passion for neuroscience. Her enthusiasm for neuroscience laboratory research grew while studying at the University of Oxford as a visiting scholar. After graduating, Ayan did research at Mount Sinai School of Medicine’s Morishita laboratory, where she investigated the molecular mechanism of brain plasticity in an effort to provide novel therapeutic targets for amblyopia and other neurodevelopmental disorders.
Ayan is a biological and biomedical sciences PhD student at Yale University, where she is examining the role of GABAergic interneurons in neural circuit development. Her research will provide insights into how dysfunction of inhibitory interneurons impacts the development of brain circuits in disease. Ayan is a 2015 recipient of the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.
Having benefited from mentors throughout her life, Ayan is dedicated to helping others succeed. Since 2008, she has served as a Gates Millennium Ambassador, helping to connect the Gates Millennium Scholarship Foundation with future scholars. She became a citizen of the United States in 2014.