Pakistani American Wins Rhodes Scholarship

Noorain Fatima Khan, a Pakistani-American, is among the 32 students from across the United States who were selected Sunday as Rhodes Scholars for 2006. PAL-C and Rising Leaders Directors have congratulated Khan on her selection.
Originally from Grand Rapids, Michigan, Ms. Khan, 21, is a senior studying political science, women and gender studies, and religious studies at Rice University, in Houston, Texas.
Rhodes Scholarships are the oldest of the international study awards available to American students and provide two or three years of study at Oxford University in England.
Khan intends to pursue a master of philosophy or doctor of philosophy degree in migration studies at Oxford to prepare her for her goal of working to mobilize marginalized communities.
As a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow, Khan is studying the attitudes toward veiling of Pakistani-American immigrants. Her senior thesis is a study of veiling Muslim women in Houston, Texas. Khan has been honored at Rice as a Barbara Jordan Scholar and by the Girl Scouts USA as a “Young Woman of Distinction,” awarded to the top 10 Girl Scouts in the country. An active campus leader, Khan chairs the Baker Institute for Public Policy Student Forum. Khan has interned at Shirkat Gah, a Pakistani NGO dealing with women’s rights through the IMPAK program. She has also interned at the US Senate, the Middle East Institute, Amnesty International, and Baker Institute Energy Forum. Noorain is fluent in Urdu and speaks Spanish, Arabic, Pushto and Farsi.
The daughter of Dr. Shaukat and Mrs. Umbreen Khan, Noorain credits her family with her success.
Rhodes Scholarships were created in 1902 by the will of British philanthropist Cecil Rhodes. Winners are selected on the basis of high academic achievement, personal integrity, leadership potential and physical vigor, among other attributes

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