A “Victorious” Hunter Student

One of the questions Faiza Masood was asked during her application for the Marshall Scholarship, a post-graduate program to study in the United Kingdom, was how much she appreciated the needs and concerns of others.

The admissions committee could not have found a better candidate than the 21-year-old Hunter College senior. Faiza, a practicing Muslim and president of the campus Interfaith Club that she founded in September this year, had just held an event titled “Why is My Neighbor Scared of Me?” in support of those who face bias every day because they are immigrants, or of a certain faith or sexual orientation. She became the first Hunter student in the school’s history to win the scholarship.

More than 800 over-achieving college seniors across the nation typically compete for the Marshall program, which is akin to the Rhodes Scholarship in prestige and selectivity. Apart from Faiza, only one other student from New York State made it to this year’s Marshall cohort. With its approximately 5 percent overall acceptance rate, Marshall puts even Harvard College’s current 5.9 percent, a record low, to shame.

Faiza means “victorious” in Arabic and the grant she won will allow her to study for a master’s degree in Islamic Law at London’s world famous School of Oriental and African Studies starting in Fall 2017.

Faiza says she took a class in Islamic Law in her earlier years at Hunter and was instantly captivated by it. She also observed diverse interpretations of the law during her recent travels in Jordan, Morocco and Pakistan.

These experiences convinced her that Islamic Law can take “very different shapes” in different contexts and is not “inflexible” as most would think. After getting a master’s degree in London, Faiza wants to continue with her studies further and to eventually get a Ph.D. in Islamic Law in the future.

Donning a hijab over her petite frame and a constant smile on her delicate face, the newest Marshall Scholar comes from a Pakistani immigrant family with four daughters. Masood sisters are no different from girls their age: They like putting make up on each other, watching movies, and gossiping.

Contrary to the stereotypical view in the West that Islam suppresses women, girls in the Masood family are given every opportunity to be educated. Faiza, who is the youngest of the four, has an older sister, Hajara, who also studies religion at Hunter, and is graduating soon.

Faiza’s father, Gulraiz, 62, and her homemaker mother, Kalsoom, 55, came to this country as immigrants and worked hard.

Before Hunter, Faiza studied at Razi School, a small religious Pre K-12 school in Woodside, Queens. Her graduating class had only 10 boys and girls. Faiza credits the rigorous academic program at Razi for preparing her for Hunter College.

At Hunter, Faiza majored in religion with double minors in Arabic and Asian American Studies. As a native Urdu speaker, she studied Arabic abroad through summer fellowships offered by the State Department and Columbia University. Last year, she spent time at the Harvard Divinity School’s Diversity and Explorations Program.

Faiza draws attention to the parallels in the U.K. and the U.S. when it comes to the increase in anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim rhetoric. In the aftermath of first the Brexit vote in June and later during the bitter U.S. presidential campaign, Faiza sensed the anxiety and discomfort among her immigrant classmates and neighbors.

“Hunter [College] said they’d be a sanctuary campus, and that means a lot for these vulnerable students,” she says.

Hunter is CUNY’s most diverse campus; 50 percent of its students have at least one parent born outside of the U.S.

Noting that Faiza is the seventh CUNY student to be awarded a Marshall Scholarship, Chancellor James B. Milliken said in a statement, “Faiza…is an example of the gifts [immigrants] bring to our campuses. Immigrants and their families have always been among our most outstanding students and they go on to make great contributions to New York.”

So, what does Gulraiz, Faiza’s father and the patriarch of a Muslim family with five women in it, think of his youngest daughter moving all alone across the pond? Faiza beams when revealing her father’s reaction: “’She can do it; she’s an independent girl,’ said my father.”

The Marshall Scholarship is a post-graduate program that supports American university students to pursue graduate studies in British colleges and universities. Founded in 1953, it was named after U.S. Secretary of State George C. Marshall, whose namesake plan helped rebuild Europe after World War II.

Every year, as many as 40 scholars are selected based on academic merit (GPA above 3.7), leadership potential, and ambassadorial qualities to promote U.S.-U.K. relations.