The Art of Winning Canadian Scholarships
by MICHELE McLEAN
Student earns $110,000 in scholarships
May. 19, 2004 - A local high school student not only gets high academic marks, he also gets high marks for his community involvement.
And all Naheed Dosani's hard work has paid off; he has been awarded $111,000 in scholarship funding.
"I'm not happy just having the money," he said. "It's important to raise awareness."
Dosani, 19, is a student at Dr. Norman Bethune Collegiate Institute with a 94.5 per cent average. He received a $60,000 scholarship from TD Canada Trust, a $2,000 scholarship from Wendy's Restaurants, $2,000 from the University of Ontario Institute of Technology in Oshawa, $500 from the Canadian Merit Scholarship award and $500 from the Toronto Star.
He also received $20,000 from the Canadian Millennium Scholarship Foundation but agreed not to accept the award when TD Canada suggested he accept their $60,000. He also accepted an additional $5,000 from other organizations.
He received $30,000 from the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, but decided only to accept $2,000. The remaining $28,000 will go toward creating a new scholarship in his name for future recipients.
"This way I'll get to help other kids," he said. "With the interest, it will last forever and be able to keep going."
It's that attitude that Dosani shares with his classmates. He started a coin drive to raise funds for Afghanistan in his high school and got four local elementary schools involved.
The idea started when he experienced racism in his own school shortly after the 9/11 attacks. He said he was walking down the hall when another student said, "what's up Osama" to Dosani's Arab friend.
"He (his Arab friend) ignored it, but I felt like I had to react," he said. "Not all Muslims are terrorists. There was a lack of awareness."
He started the awareness campaign through the personal and social responsibility club at his school. "I turned the feelings of ignorance and hatred into feelings of sympathy," he said.
Dosani also started a school radio station, which went on air 45 minutes before school began each day to encourage students to get there early and get involved.
He used the radio airtime to start another campaign to thank healthcare workers.
He said he heard complaints about how the healthcare workers aren't doing enough.
"They stepped up," he said. "They're our soldiers."
He said after reading about the Blue Ribbon Campaign in The Scarborough Mirror, he wanted to bring it to his own school.
He dedicated a full day to thanking healthcare workers and had all the students at the school sign a huge banner to thank them.
The banner was then delivered to the Scarborough Hospital.
Dosani has held food drives for the Salvation Army, served as vice-president of the student council, editor of the school newspaper and also plays football, softball and is a marathon runner.
He is a student executive cabinet member of the United Way and is a Youth Lieutenant Big Brother in his Scarborough mosque.
Dosani said he owes it all to his parents. His parents moved to Canada from Uganda in 1972. "My parents are my heroes," Dosani said.
Dosani said his mother worked long hours in a factory and his father worked two jobs, but they went to school and became accountants and now have successful careers.
Dosani said he plans on studying biological science at the University of the Ontario Institute of Technology, then going to medical school and eventually working overseas with Doctors Without Borders.
"That would be my ultimate dream," he said. "It just feels like the right thing to do."