Award Report 2011

Dear Trustees, Donors and Friends,

Today marks the completion of our first phase of scholarships and relief assistance to be disbursed during the current fiscal year.

We have pledged over Rs. 100,000 per month in scholarship and relief aid for the next 12 months. This amount shall be distributed among 15 highly deserving young people. Of these, 14 are undergraduate students—7 at NUST, 4 at FAST-NU Islamabad, and 3 at FAST-NU Lahore.

The students were selected through a transparent and efficient process over a period of 6 weeks. Our awareness campaign had limitations of time and budget since we started late and were determined to keep administrative costs at zero. Nevertheless, we got excellent co-operation from the Universities mentioned and were able to reach a highly deserving pool of talented candidates in a very short time. We assigned each candidate a score based on need (50 points), academic ability (35 points) and quality of institution (15 points). In assessing the latter, we considered the University’s curriculum as well as reputation among students and employers. Our over-arching philosophy was to identify financially distressed young people who are doing well at reputable institutions so that they can find good jobs upon graduation and thus help their families and communities. You may witness the entire process of selection in the posts below and the Affidavit each recipient submitted is available here. Particulars of all 14 students are available in our office.

The 15th recipient is a young lady whose family suffered a string of recent misfortunes, culminating in the death of her father earlier this year. This family of 5 (a mother with two daughters and two sons) currently has no source of income and the eldest child is in danger of losing her admission at FAST-NU unless she can lighten her burden of debt to the University.

For next year, we are guaranteed to increase our funding of deserving candidates by about 20% to Rs. 120,000 per month. However, we estimate that the need of only the good students at reputable institutions alone is at least 5 times greater. We must therefore organise an aggressive awareness campaign over the next several months. Please do whatever you can in this regard. Action would be more valuable than advice because all our staff is volunteer and already over-worked. Thank you.

Sincerely,
Chairman

Awards 2011-2012

All candidates interviewed last week have successfully verified their documents and have been awarded FURTHER Scholarships for 2011-2012. Details shall be provided in your award letter to be collected from our office in Islamabad at 6 PM on Wednesday, 28 September 2011. Please remember to bring a fully executed Affidavit to receive your award letter. Candidates from institutions outside the Islamabad-Rawalpindi area can send a scanned copy of their completed Affidavit by email and follow it up with the original via post. The Affidavit may be attested by a government officer (Grade 17 or above), a bank branch manager, a university professor, or a notary public.

Congratulations to all our successful applicants. We are proud of your courage and committment. As long as we have young people like you, this country may yet have a future. We have learned from you a good deal about our society, our values, and ourselves. You have also helped us understand a few things that will hopefully enable us to become better administrators of this Trust. Thank you and good luck.

Feedback

All of the candidates interviewed so far have provided sufficient evidence of performance and need to confirm their awards. Details will be published after all interviews are completed on Monday, 26 September 2011. Meanwhile, please download the Affidavit and print it on a Stamp Paper of any value (Rs. 10 or less would be fine). You must submit the completed Affidavit to receive your award letter from our office in Islamabad on Wednesday, 28 September 2011, at 6 PM.

We had very pleasant conversations with all of the candidates and we learned a great deal from them. We are deeply impressed with the intelligence, integrity, and courage of everyone we have met so far. Two of the candidates, Waleed Aslam and Hassnain Arshad,  made the admirable effort to provide feedback on the process and we appreciate their comments.

Provisional Awards

After some difficult decisions, the Board of Trustees has provisionally approved 14 candidates for FURTHER Scholarships 2011-2012. It is a matter of great satisfaction for the Board to have reached such a deserving pool of highly capable young men and women in a very short time. The following statistics provide a clear snapshot of the quality and need of the successful candidates:

  • Average GPA: 3.37 (Source: University Transcript)
  • Average Intermediate Score: 83.75% (Source: HSC Certificate)
  • Average Matriculation Score: 88.18% (Source: SSC Certificate)
  • Average Household Income: Rs. 23,679 per month (Source: Proof of Income)
  • Average Number of Dependents: 4.79 (Source: Family Form B)
  • Average Household Income per Dependent: Rs. 4,389 per month

The amount of support shall be determined after a personal interview to be held in Islamabad next week. The following candidates must appear for the interview with the originals of the 5 source documents mentioned above:

  1. Waleed Aslam
  2. Muhammad Hassnain Arshad
  3. Asad Liaquat
  4. Muhammad Farrukh Zia
  5. Sanwal Muneer
  6. Muhammad Shehryar Raza
  7. Asma Mushtaq
  8. Muhammad Hassan
  9. Syed Muhammad Amais
  10. Sumbal Rizwan
  11. Usama Abdullah
  12. Ummair Asghar
  13. Kashif Ghaffar Asim
  14. Rida Naeem

Please look for an email from us on Saturday, 17 September 2011, to find the date, time, and address for your interview. Please remember to check your SPAM and JUNK folders. If a candidate does not appear for the interview or does not bring all documents in original, his or her award shall be withdrawn and distributed among the other approved candidates.

Our apologies to all other applicants who, though deserving, could not receive an award because of limitations of funding. We hope to improve our funding capabilities next year.

Important Update

Emails were sent out to 26 short-listed candidates on 05/09/2011 asking them to deliver scanned copies of all relevant documents through email by 12/09/2011. All emails were delivered to the respective mailboxes without any errors. A reminder email was sent on 10/09/2011 and was also delivered correctly to all 26 mailboxes. However, a large number of short-listed candidates did not respond at all. When contacted by phone, they had the following excuses:

  1. I did not check my email
  2. I had an exam
  3. I did not check my SPAM folder
  4. I did not check my JUNK folder
  5. I was very busy

Several of the candidates did not even answer their phones. All of this represents an irresponsible attitude which is rampant in our society. Laziness and callousness have become a part of our culture and are destroying the fabric of our polity. YOU, the young people of Pakistan, must stop this disease so that we can become a responsible nation.

Please check your email and send all documents requested by 11:59 PM on Wednesday, 14 September 2011. There will be no extensions and no excuses will be entertained. FURTHER is not responsible for checking your spam or junk folders or for adjusting your email settings to make sure good emails are not being filtered. You are all educated people who should behave responsibly. We are trying to conserve our resources so that we can maximise the funds available for scholarships. Making so many phone calls is a frivolous and unnecessary burden.