2025 Scholarship Winners; Meet Zainab Irfan & Leeya Pearla Mensah Sowah

Written by Kelly Cervantes

The Ayesha Farrukh Scholarship serves to support students who demonstrate academic excellence, leadership potential, and a commitment to community service. This scholarship is open to any student and of any age across the world. We recognize that scholarships can be very difficult to apply to, as there can be limitations due to citizenship, year of study, and location. However, we have made the scholarship accessible to anybody to ensure that no matter where they are at, they know that they can get support.

Thanks to the kinds of donations from Western Union, Google, the Watson Institute, and Echelon Collective, we are able to provide students with up to $2500.

We are proud to announce this year’s Ayesha Farrukh Scholarship recipient, Zainab Irfan and Leeya Pearla Mensah Sowah. 

Zainab is from Wazirabad, Pakistan. Zainab has 5 siblings, but unfortunately due familial circumstances, she was placed at the Roshni Homes Trust. While these setbacks are unfortunate, Zainab has persevered as she is a very intelligent girl, having achieved straight A’s in first term in the third grade. Zainab will be our youngest recipient ever at just 9 years old. 

Leeya is from Kenya and she is a student at Holy Child School in Cape Coast, Ghana. Leeya noticed how the amount of waste in her community was creating health issues such as malaria and cholera. After partnering with non governmental organizations, she and her team were able to successfully reduce the amount of litter and subsequently diseases around the area. Her impact was so significant the Chief implemented fines for littering. 

Zainab and Leeya will be the third and fourth scholarship recipients, joining Ava Reyes and Oku Betany. Ava Reyes is currently an undergraduate student at University of California Berkeley. Oku Betany is currently a student at Crossover Technology Institute. These women have explained how the support of the Ayesha Farrukh Scholarship has made their education dreams a reality. For example, Ava, who is from Southern California has the opportunity to fly and see her parents during her school breaks. 

In the past, the Farrukh Foundation has selected recipients who were in high school, or in college.

However, for the first time, the Foundation has decided to open the scholarship to any student around the world, regardless of age. Farrukh Foundation acknowledges that there are educational setbacks, despite some countries offering free education. For example, students may not be able to go to school due to lack of transportation, or they do not have enough food at home, which hinders academic performance. That is why Farrukh Foundation has now been opened up to any student. We believe that supporting students from a young age will boost their chances of pursuing higher education.

For anyone that is interested in applying for the Ayesha Farrukh Scholarship, you can apply here.