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Sirdar Kapur Singh Scholar makes
mark as
Harvard-Wharton joint degree student
WSN Network
Philadelphia: Sonu Kaur, the first Sirdar Kapur Singh scholar under
the Sikh Education Foundation chapter set up by United Sikhs at
Harvard University, entered Wharton School as the first student
under the Harvard- Wharton joint degree program this year.
United Sikhs launched the Harvard chapter of Sikh Education
Foundation (SEF) last year and its scholars are called Sirdar Kapur
Singh Scholars, named after the Sikh renaissance scholar. The first
Sirdar Kapur Singh scholar was Sonu Kaur from Jalandhar, Panjab. She
received over $17,000 under the award to study a Master’s in Public
Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard
University.
“United Sikhs selected Sonu Kaur for the SEF scholarship because of
her aspirations to break the glass ceiling that exists for bright
women in corporate boardrooms. Additionally, her strong desire to
work on empowerment programs for women, especially in Panjab, will
make her an asset to the community,” said Dr IJ Singh, United Sikhs
director, who is a professor at New York University and provides
career guidance to many bright students.
In 2006, when United Sikhs approved the funding of her second
semester fees, Sonu Kaur and her father Dhir Singh, who retired as
an officer from the Indian armed forces, were overjoyed to receive
the scholarship. With no financial support from the educational
institution, the family had discussed giving up her admission to the
prestigious Harvard University.
The Kennedy School of Government is the world’s premier school for
world political and development leaders such as the first African
woman president of Liberia, Ellen J. Sirleaf, the current UN
Secretary General Ban-ki Moon, and two former Mexican presidents,
among hundreds of ministers and diplomats.
Thanks to United Sikhs, the family’s financial burden was relieved,
and Sonu Kaur went on to finish her first year at the Kennedy
School. Sonu Kaur officially became the first Wharton-Harvard joint
degree student, after the two schools approved the unique joint
degree in March 2007. “The two schools offer the perfect complement
of public service and finance skills that I was looking for when I
came to the US to study,” said Sonu Kaur.
Sonu Kaur is currently studying a Master’s in Business
Administration at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, an
Ivy League university. Wharton is the world’s premier school in
finance and is the training ground for hundreds of CEOs, including
Donald Trump and Anil Ambani.
Sirdar Kapur Singh was a civil servant, parliamentarian and an
intellectual par excellence of the 20th century. He was a
renaissance man whose fields of expertise included Sikh theology,
philosophy, history and literature.
Applicants, from any part of the world, for the Sikh Education
Foundation scholarship, grant, or prize to study at the designated
universities and colleges can contact
sikheducationfoundation@unitedsikhs.org.
17
October, 2007
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