More than two years after the Santa Fe High School shooting, the family of a Pakistani exchange student killed during the massacre is determined to keep her memory alive through a new foundation that will provide university scholarships to low-income Pakistani women.
Abdul Aziz Sheikh and Farah Naz are hopeful this new nonprofit initiative, the Sabika for Peace Foundation, will expand educational opportunities for those who need it most. The organization is named for their daughter, Sabika, an exchange student, and one of the 10 people killed during a shooting at Santa Fe High School in May 2018.
The foundation is a partnership between the Sheikh family and several prominent nonprofit organizations, including the Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund and the American Council for International Education (ACIE). These organizations are providing a seed grant of $300,000 to establish the foundation, which will support programs to “honor Sabika’s memory,” including by providing scholarships to fund university studies for low-income Pakistani women, particularly those with civic engagement aspirations.
Naz, Sabika’s mother, said that ACIE representatives approached the family prior to the COVID-19 pandemic with the idea of honoring Sabika’s legacy through an educational foundation. While the pandemic presented some obstacles in getting the organization off the ground, in part because the academic year in Pakistan was postponed, the hope is that the foundation will be prepared to give out scholarships whenever Pakistani schools reopen.
“I’m always worried that we might forget (Sabika),” Naz said during a Zoom interview from the family home in Karachi. “But starting this foundation I know this is impossible. I know if I continue working with foundation, she will always be with me.”
The Sheikh family said the scope of the foundation will target scholarships for universities in Pakistan for now, but will eventually expand to offering exchange opportunities for American schools “so that the connection and ties” with the United States continues, said Sania Sheikh, Sabika’s sister.
The new foundation will be led by a board of directors, which will include representatives from the Sheikh family as well as four independent directors selected by the family in consultation with the partnering organizations. Everytown for Gun Safety, which is representing Sabika’s parents in two civil lawsuits against the accused Santa Fe High School shooter’s parents and an online ammunition dealer, will maintain an advisory role with the foundation.
“Their strength and commitment to trying to make things better here in the United States when it comes to gun laws and gun safety and also in their home country of Pakistan has really inspired all of us,” said Eric Tirschwell, managing director of Everytown Law, a project of the Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund. “It’s been our great privilege to be able to work with them on (the foundation) as well as all of the other work they’re doing.”
Sabika Sheikh came to Santa Fe High School in August 2017 as a youth ambassador with the State Department-sponsored Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study program, which provides scholarships for secondary school students from countries with significant Muslim populations to spend one academic year in the United States.
She excelled academically and threw herself into the American teenage lifestyle, volunteering at the local library, dressing up as a pirate for Halloween, keeping score at baseball games and attending prom. At the time of the shooting in May 2018, Sheikh was weeks away from returning home to her family in Karachi.
Her sister, Sania Sheikh, said that despite Sabika’s distance from her family and the inherent difficulties being a young Muslim girl living in a small, rural, politically conservative Texas community, she believes Sabika cherished her school year in the United States.
“I think my sister spent the best days of her life in America,” Sania said.
Even as the pain of losing their daughter lingers two years after the Santa Fe shooting, Farah and Abdul have an enduring faith that the terrible actions of one person do not reflect on the overall character and culture of an entire country. Their son, Ali, 15, recently told them that he hopes one day to study abroad in the United States. If that happens, they won’t let the trauma of losing Sabika cow them in fear.
“This one shooting will not affect their education,” Abdul said in Urdu, as Sania interpreted. “And if my other children ever wish to study in America, I will not stop them.”
nick.powell@chron.com
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Parents of slain Santa Fe exchange student Sabika Sheikh start Pakistan foundation in her name - Houston Chronicle
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