FEZANA scholars

The first issue of FEZANA Journal after Dolly Dastoor took up its editorship is a runaway youth number, which has been dedicated to the second generation of Zarathushtis, most of them born and bred in North America, some having migrated from India. As chair of the FEZANA (Federation of Zoroastrian Associations of North America) Academic Scholarship Program Dastoor notes that since the academic scholarship fund was established in 1999 it has received 120 applications and awarded 38 scholarships.

Of the dozen scholars who feature in Dastoor’s article three have chosen to go into medicine, four into engineering, one each into social service, telecommunications, fine arts/acting, business and architecture. Each of them is fired with a vision for the community that is strongly based on their conception of the Zarathushti faith.

FEZANA scholar 2005-2006 Shireen Cama received the Mehraban and Morvorid Kheradi Endowment Scholarship for graduate students based on academic excellence and overall contribution to the Zarathushti and non-Zarathushti community. The Pittsburgh born Cama spent much of her time working in New Haven public schools as an elementary school tutor and community health educator while studying for her economics degree from Yale University. Now at Harvard Medical School, she is working towards an MD and a master’s degree in public health. Hitherto she has developed a health education and HIV/AIDS prevention curriculum for a women’s cooperative in rural India, written material on disaster relief strategies for the World Bank on behalf of the Self Employed Women’s Association and was chosen for the Emerson National Hunger Fellowship, a highly selective program that trains future leaders in the fight against hunger, notes Dastoor.

Davier now and as a youth with his works (from left): Grace Steeple, Gandhi, Persepolis and Julia

In the medical stream at Ontario’s Queen’s University, Jamsheed Desai is the recipient of the Entrance Scholarship for Medicine and the Dr M. Gerald Lynch Award in Medicine 2004-05 at the University. In preparation for a medical career Desai had volunteered for a leprosy clinic in Bombay and at the Ruby Hall Clinic in Poona. He has since been working on a testing device for patients with myasthenia gravis which will serve to indicate clinical deterioration in patients, notes the article.

After graduating with honors in environmental studies from New York University, Zenobia Homavazir earned a postgraduate certificate in International Project Management from Humber College, Toronto. Currently working towards her master’s in social work at the University of Toronto, Homavazir has spent her summer holidays as a volunteer worker in Costa Rica, Guyana and India and worked with street children, youth gangs and garbage pickers in Nicaragua in association with a human rights organization. Her academic and extra-curricular achievements — she was on the Dean’s Honor Roll at her University for three years in a row — earned her a Governor’s Award of Distinction Merit Scholarship, the Ralph Fisher Award, the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute Award and the Humber College World Vision Award for Humanitarian Assistance.

From left (top row): Shireen Cama, Porus Antia, Kamran Afshari, Farzad Damania, Jamsheed Desai; (second row): Cyrus Havewala, Farhad Ardeshirpour-Zartoshti, Behzad Dabu, Zenobia Homavazir, Freya Motafram; (third row): Ninoshka and Natasha Singh

Working on a rural Peruvian health care delivery project in the summer of 2002 changed Farhad Ardeshirpour-Zartoshti’s perspective on life. The biology graduate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is now pursuing an MD degree at the University’s School of Medicine, having bagged a NIH Research Training Grant in Otolaryngology/Head and Neck, an American Heart Association Student Research Award. A sports and games enthusiast who is co-president of his medical school class, Ardeshirpour-Zartoshti has several published academic presentations and journal articles in otolaryngology, cardiac surgery and cardiology behind him.

Pursuing his master’s in electrical engineering at the Oklahoma State University, Farzad Damania was awarded the Ratan Tata, JRD Tata and FKS Foundation scholarships when he graduated with distinction in electronics and telecommunications from Bombay’s K. J. Somaiya College of Engineering. He has also received the Fali Chothia Charitable Trust and ZAGNY Academic Scholarships. He was involved as a volunteer with the Navsari Home for the Aged and Bombay’s F. S. Parukh Dharam­shalla, notes the article.

Cyrus Havewala, currently pursuing a master of science degree in telecommunications from the University of Maryland, earned his bachelor of engineering degree from Bombay University with first class distinction and received the Ratan Tata Scholarship. A volunteer fundraiser for the Blind Association and for literacy, blood donation and environment protection campaigns, Havewala is a public speaker.

Charleston born twins Natasha and Ninoshka Singh are both pursuing electrical engineering at Cornell University, New York. Both of them have several awards under their belt including the Pennsylvania Governor’s School of Excellence Award and the Society of Women Engineers High Honors Award. They both play the piano and violin, perform in their school orchestra and for senior citizens. To further their interest in electrical engineering they joined the electrical engineering sub-team of the FSAE (Formula One Society of Automotive Engineers) Cornell Racing Team to build a special dashboard as an interface to relay maintenance information to the driver and the team. This team of 50 highly motivated undergraduate and graduate engineering and business students comes together to design and build a Formula One style racecar and compete in an annual world wide competition against 144 other universities.

Scion of an artistic family, Behzad Dabu was recognized as an advanced honors student for distinction in music, acting and academic scholarship at the Liverpool High School in New York. Now at Columbia College, Chicago, working towards his bachelor of fine arts-acting as a Presidential Awardee, Dabu is a percussionist and black-belter who enjoys basketball and weight training and is looking towards a career as a freelance stage actor in the US and beyond.

Working towards a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering at UCLA, Tehran and Vienna educated Kamran Afshari is an active member of the Persian Students Society and has volunteered as a senior tutor for math, physics and computer sciences.

Malaysia born Porus Antia is a bachelor of architecture from India’s Birla Institute of Technology whose voluntary community service has included cleaning the prayer hall and agiary in Jamshedpur. Antia is currently studying for his master of science degree in building design, energy performance and climate responsive architecture at the Arizona State University’s College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture. A gold-medalist swimmer, Antia has represented his university in India and Arizona, winning the 50 m and 100 m freestyle events.

An undergraduate at the University of Michigan, Freya Motafram is aiming for admittance in the University’s School of Business in order to pursue a career in finance consulting or law. At the Brook­field Central High School in Wisconsin Motafram founded a political society and served on the executive board of the student council. An award winning member of the dance team, Motafram played the clarinet for the school’s wind ensemble and for two years served as intern in the office of the US senator Russ Feingold.