The Columbia University Scholarship for Displaced Students - Columbia's first-ever University-wide scholarship, and the world's first scholarship of its kind - supports displaced students from anywhere in the world by offering them full scholarships to pursue undergraduate or graduate degrees across Columbia’s 19 schools and affiliates.
We are pleased to announce our second cohort of 15 students, who join Columbia from 11 countries and will attend 10 different Columbia schools. Click on their individual profiles below to learn more about their incredible journeys.
Across its first two cohorts, the Scholarship has now supported 33 students from 19 countries attending 14 schools.
(Note: a number of scholarship students wished to remain anonymous due to their sensitive statuses and so are not profiled below.)
Schools Hosting Students
- Barnard College
- Columbia Climate School
- Columbia College
- Columbia Law School
- Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science
- Graduate School of Arts & Sciences
- Graduate School of Journalism
- Mailman School of Public Health
- School of General Studies
- School of International and Public Affairs
- School of Professional Studies
- School of Social Work
- School of the Arts
- Teachers College
Countries of Origin
- Afghanistan
- Bangladesh
- Brazil
- Cameroon
- China
- Democratic Republic of Congo
- Eritrea
- Ethiopia
- Haiti
- India
- Liberia
- Nepal
- Nigeria
- North Korea
- Rwanda
- South Sudan
- Syria
- Turkey
- Venezuela
School of Professional Studies (Syria)
Sami is a human rights activist and published researcher on sectarianism, socioeconomic disparities and human rights abuses in the MENA region. He served at the UN House (ESCWA) in Beirut and UN Security Council Affairs Division (UNDPPA) in New York City and has a strong background in UN peacebuilding and peacekeeping commissions and international human rights mechanisms and tribunals.
Columbia Journalism School (Nigeria)
Ohimai is a journalist, social change advocate, and online publisher that was appointed as Microsoft ambassador in the campaign against cybercrime in Nigeria, set a record as Nigeria’s youngest presidential campaign manager, and served as a ministerial advisor in four federal ministries from 2011 to 2015.
School of International and Public Affairs (Syria)
Asaad is a strategic analyst and media advisor specializing in high conflict and crisis regions from Iran to Haiti. Asaad served in the Office of the Chairman of the White Helmets and has worked with international media outlets and think tanks such the Guardian in the UK, Al Jazeera English, Al-Monitor, and many other Arabic media outlets.
School of International and Public Affairs (Venezuela)
Erick is a Venezuelan organizer for the Venezuelan diaspora in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut where he has been connecting and acting as a liaison for diverse initiatives, including demonstrations and forums to raise awareness on the Venezuelan crisis.
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (Afghanistan)
Shabnam was born in Afghanistan in 1996, the year the Taliban came to power, before fleeing to Quetta, Pakistan, where she lived in a refugee community and is now focusing on human rights studies with a concentration on refugees and forced migration.
