Through TD’s Scholarships for Community Leadership, Suhaib Hashmi, a just-graduated student from Calgary’s Robert Thirsk High School in Calgary, is set to earn up to $70,000 toward his post-secondary education.
He is one of only 20 students across Canada to receive this recognition.
For Hashmi, who came from difficult circumstanceses early in his life, and his family, the scholarship, which was awarded to him based on his work in his community, is the culmination of hard work and perseverance.
“I come from a single mother household and growing up I had a lot of people run programs with and for me,” he told LWC.
“As I got older, I was able to start running a Grades 1-3 youth support circle, where every Saturday for about an hour and a half, five or six kids would come and play and they’d tell me what’s going on with their lives and I do some lessons on morals and character.”
Hashmi also runs a club at a Mosque near his house twice a month. With a team of seven to 12 volunteers, Hashmi organizes over 60 kids into their respective age groups, he said.
“Some families are refugees, some families have just come to Canada and need a place where these kids can feel like kids rather than having to worry about the world,” he said.
Fittingly, Hashmi is starting the early education program at Mount Royal University this fall.
“I love working with kids and being a mentor or an older brother figure,” he said.
‘This scholarship is more hers than anything’: Scholarship is a family honour
While having a late night chat with a friend one night, Hashmi first learned about and decided to look into the scholarship.
After working with his friends and family on his application, his uncle gave him a direct wake-up call.
“My uncle told me that I had to give it my all, because this would be a golden ticket opportunity to keep myself and mom out of a lot of stress,” he said.
“I ended up writing three different essays about what makes you feel deserving of the scholarship. I was so stoked, even when I got the interview. I jumped in the air and I gave my mom a hug.”
When he finally found out he was chosen, Hashmi said that he’d never been so happy.
“I was sitting eating with my sister and I picked up my phone to go to the mosque for night prayers and I saw the notification and I was so happy, I jumped in the air,” he said.
“I prayed, I was grateful to God, and my sister is just ‘like, what is going on with this guy? Did somebody die?’ And then I told my mom and said ‘Mama, I got it. My university’s covered for the next four years,’ and it was just an amazing, amazing, amazing feeling.”
Hashmi said that his mom is very humble and amazing. For her, the scholarship made the struggles worth something, he said.
“Being a guy from a single mother household, a lot of the time I would fall into the statistics of kids who are struggling with gangs, I see that a lot in my community,” he said.
“This scholarship is more hers than anything, for her sacrifices, for helping me with my programs. Mothers parents are the backbone of everything and just her being there, she’s a superhero. She was crying when she found out. Just that I was able to even put a smile on her face and take some of those worries away, that felt amazing.”
