{"id":4053,"date":"2023-05-14T21:54:22","date_gmt":"2023-05-14T21:54:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/?p=4053"},"modified":"2024-11-14T21:59:03","modified_gmt":"2024-11-14T21:59:03","slug":"brothers-create-scholarship-to-honor-father-support-international-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/?p=4053","title":{"rendered":"Brothers create scholarship to honor father, support international students"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Chowdry
Chowdry Rafiq and Lila Khan met at as international students SIU.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Jef<\/strong>f Wilson<\/strong><\/p>\n

For years, brothers Samir and Sahir Khan\u2019s only connection to SIU was the stories their parents shared about Carbondale and the university where they met.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur family started at SIU,\u201d said Dr. Samir Khan, a Director with the Government of Canada and an adjunct professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Ottawa. \u201cIt was always a bit of a mythical place.\u201d<\/p>\n

When their father, Chowdhry Rafiq Khan, passed away in February 2023, they decided to honor his legacy with a $50,000 donation to establish the C. Rafiq Khan Scholarship, which will benefit an international student in SIU\u2019s School of Analytics, Finance, and Economics.<\/p>\n

As a teenager emigrating from India, Rafiq Khan had been accepted into the University of Alabama and SIU. He settled on attending Alabama and was ready to board a train in Chicago that was headed to Tuscaloosa until a railway employee intervened and explained that Carbondale would be more hospitable.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt that time, SIU was a progressive island,\u201d said Sahir Khan, executive vice president of the University of Ottawa Institute of Fiscal Studies and Democracy. \u201cOur dad came to SIU during an age when America was opening up to the world. SIU was a university and campus ahead of its environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t take long for Rafiq Khan to establish himself on campus. He became a leader of many student organizations and was active in student government.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was always a fondness for the people in and around Carbondale,\u201d Sahir Khan said. \u201cHe remembered them as fundamentally good people. Both he and our mother have nothing but good things to say and fond memories to share, to this day.\u201d<\/p>\n

A couple of years after coming to SIU, Rafiq Khan was approached about meeting a fellow Indian student who was going to be arriving by bus. That student was Lila, who became his wife soon after.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were from two very different parts of India and didn\u2019t even speak the same language. English was really their shared language,\u201d Samir Khan said. \u201cThey made lifelong friendships at SIU. Their friends\u2019 kids are now our friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018A force for good\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Samir and Sahir Khan hope to inspire others with the story of their family and by honoring their parents by helping students like them.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur dad loved universities. He believed that they are a force for good,\u201d Sahir Khan said. \u201cWe want this scholarship to attract other foreign students and show that this school can represent you. SIU is opening its doors and hearts to students from around the globe, recapturing the sense of leadership that existed when our parents went there.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why a scholarship made the most sense. SIU\u2019s impact on the entire Khan family was too great to be ignored.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to do something that would leave a strong legacy,\u201d Samir Khan said. \u201cIt\u2019s all about education. It was very logical for us to give back to SIU. We\u2019re grateful for the education and experience our parents received in Carbondale. It\u2019s perfectly poetic.\u201d<\/p>\n

To make a gift, visit siuf.org.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jeff Wilson For years, brothers Samir and Sahir Khan\u2019s only connection to SIU was the stories their parents shared about Carbondale and the university where they met. \u201cOur family started at SIU,\u201d said Dr. Samir Khan, a Director with the Government of Canada and an adjunct professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the … Continue reading Brothers create scholarship to honor father, support international students<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4053"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4053\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4055,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4053\/revisions\/4055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}