Six Indian-Americans win fellowships

Washington, April 28 (IANS) Six Indian Americans are among 30 immigrants and children of immigrants from 20 countries who have won 2012 Paul and Daisy Soros New American Fellowships to pursue advanced degrees.

Each award provides up to $90,000 in tuition and support for two years of graduate study in the US in any field.

Immigrants to the US from Hungary, Paul and Daisy Soros set up the programme to honour contributions by immigrants to the US.

One of the Indian-American fellows, Houston, Texas-born Sahil Singh Grewal, will use his grant to pursue a law degree or MBA. With a degree in economics from Rice University, he worked on healthcare issues while interning at the White House.

Jasmeet Ahuja, daughter of Sikh Americans who immigrated to the US in the 1970s, plans to use the money to pursue a law degree at Yale Law School.

With degrees in engineering from Stanford University, Ahuja has worked as director for South Asia in the US State Department's political-military affairs bureau and on the staff of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

New Jersey-born Victor Roy will use his award to study for an MD at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine.

Roy, who has worked with indigenous Mayans in Guatemala, slum children in West Bengal and with villagers in rural Ghana, co-founded GlobeMed, which links university students to community groups to improve the health of people in poverty.

Born in Norwalk, Connecticut to an Indian father and Chinese mother, Indra Sen will use his grant to pursue a master's degree in public policy at Harvard University.

With a Palestinian classmate and an Iranian Jewish friend, Sen co-founded Inspire Dreams, a nonprofit praised by President Bill Clinton for providing education to over 700 Palestinian young refugees in the West Bank.

Born in India, Vineet Singal plans to use his grant to study for a medical degree at the Mayo Clinic School of Medicine. A Stanford University graduate, Singal founded a nonprofit that has raised more than $250,000 to support volunteer efforts to provide health education to patients at free clinics in the US

New Orleans, Louisiana-born Rina Thomas, who deferred her admission to Harvard Law School to become advisor to Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal on economic development, taxes and budget policy, will use the grant to complete her law degree.

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)