Recognizing talent

Three Zoroastrian organizations have come together to acknowledge and support outstanding community achievers in the field of science. The Massiah Foundation of California, and the Erach and Roshan Sadri Foundation of the UK working through the good offices of the London based World Zoroastrian Organisation (WZO) collaborated with various individuals across continents "for the common goal and objective of encouraging Zoroastrian students who have historically been extremely successful…in the advancement of science in general and their academic achievements in particular,” notes Khosro Mehrfar of the Council on Persian Culture which functions under the auspices of the California Zoroastrian Center (CZC).

Four winners, all from the US, were shortlisted from among a multitude of entries from all over the world, notes Mehrfar: Shireen Farhad Cama, a FEZANA scholar currently studying at the Harvard University Medical School, Natasha Demehri, studying biological sciences at the University of Florida, Venus Vakhshoori of the El Camino Real High School who secured first place in the US Academic Decathlon as the national student with the highest score and Neekaan Oshidary currently studying psychophysiology and clinical immunology at Stanford University.

Each of the four has built up a personal brand equity, participating in and winning national and state competitions and earning scholarships, as detailed by Mehrfar. Thus Cama is a Paul Dudley White Traveling Fellow, has participated in the seminar on Global Health Equity, won the Share and Care Foundation Fellowship, the Richter Fellowship, the Heinz Family Scholarship and the Yale Club of Pittsburgh Scholarship. Demehri is director of health policy for the American Medical Student Association, won the Work of Heart Award and won first place in the Orange county regional science and engineering fair. Vakhshoori is winner of the overall US Academic Scholarship as well as the Hilton Scholarship. Oshidary is winner of the Stephen Gerry Memorial Science Award for outstanding performance in chemistry honors. He has also won the St Francis Academic Achievement and many more.

The panel of judges included Prof Nasrin Rahimieh, Maseeh chair and director of Dr Samuel M. Jordan Center for Persian Studies and Culture and professor of comparative literature at the University of California, Irvine; Prof Soroosh Sorooshian, distinguished professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Department of Earth System Science, director, Center for Hydrometeorology and Remote Sensing, The Henry Samueli School of Engineering, University of California, Irvine; Dr Sohrab Salamatipour, chair of the Council on Persian Culture and trustee of the CZC; and Mehrfar.

Each of the four winners is scheduled to receive US $ 5,000 towards educational expenses at a ceremony at the CZC on Yalda night, December 15, 2007.

The Massiah Foundation has been established to provide charitable financial support to outstanding organizations with the potential to improve the collective future of Zoroastrians, notes its website www.massiah.com. Since its inception, the foundation has made significant contributions to various learning institutions, universities, children’s organizations, hospitals, cultural, arts and general welfare organizations in the United States. The mission of the Massiah Foundation is to work to improve the future of the world by investing in education, culture, arts, children’s organizations and health care. The Foundation seeks to make contributions without prejudice while giving aid, assistance and hope to the needy, states the website.

The UK based Sadri Foundation works for the humanitarian needs of the cosmopolitan community while the WZO has done much to alleviate Zoroastrian distress especially in rural India.