Meet a Chilliwack student making big plans with a big scholarship

Rida Khan was in the high school library when she learned that she was in the running for a life-changing scholarship.

She was studying for a major exam in a subject she loves—AP chemistry—when she opened the email. Suddenly, doors into higher education that had previously been only barely open were thrown wide.

The scholarship Rida won, called the Beedie Luminaries scholarship, is for students who have great grades and who have faced other challenges in their lives. The Chilliwack teen moved to Canada with her family when she was seven years old. While she found navigating the new environment easy when she was young, it got trickier as she got older.

FVC: What do you plan to go to university for?

Rida Khan: I'm going to be starting at UBC in a bachelor of science in nursing, and I’m trying to take some biochemistry courses on the side. Eventually, I would like to work my way up to becoming an oncologist. I think starting with a background in nursing would be beneficial when it comes to bedside etiquette and having a general understanding of the hospital environment.

FVC: Becoming a nurse before attending medical school would also let Rida split up her education the way she wants to, she says.

RK: If I need to take a couple years to be a travel nurse or to do various things in the health care field, that allows me to pace my life as I wish.

FVC: That’s a long path ahead of you. How does getting this scholarship make you feel?

RK: Oh, it’s incredible. I remember in the winter time when I didn't have this scholarship initially. And I was incredibly worried about my future. Being financially secure is a huge thing. It's something I've always wanted. It's a big aspect of everybody's lives. Knowing I didn't have that kind of support was closing a lot of doors for me. So knowing that I have this part of my future taken care of is so incredible for me, because it allows me to continue with my passions.

FVC: How much was the scholarship and what do you expect it to cover?

It was $44,000, and it does cover my nursing program, at least, but I do have additional courses, like biochemistry, that I'm taking in the summer. So that's something I'm going to have to work around but does not pose as a problem.

FVC: Do you think that desire to be financially secure influenced your decision to complete a nursing program before med-school, instead of a pre-med or biology major?

I just really am a person who's very hands on and I wanted to ensure that that's something I had during my pre-med years. Nursing is something I’d be very satisfied with, even if I didn’t wish to pursue med school later. I often like to put myself in a position where I can be satisfied no matter what the end result is going to be. Especially when it comes to something like medical school. I believe nursing is such an incredible career and it opens up so many pathways. And I'm a person who values service to others and service work and nursing really capitalizes on that…I think I craved that more than just looking at it as a job. I really just had a strong passion for health care. And I wanted to get to that as soon as I could.

FVC: The Beedie Luminaries scholarship goes to students who have faced difficulties of one sort or another in their lives. It’s not just about grades. I’m curious if you’d like to share what you wrote about on your application?

RK: I mainly wrote about being a Muslim hijabi [editor: a hijabi is a person who wears a hijab] and visibly a minority in a very predominantly white neighborhood. And I wrote about the struggles of always having to prove yourself by forcing yourself to be outstanding in various aspects and having that pressure.

In a sense, that pressure can be harmful but it also led me to accomplish great things and it allowed me to become very confident because I knew subconsciously I had to be the representation. This is why I initially started wearing the hijab. Because growing up, there was this vision of people who were Muslim and it wasn't always very positive. A part of me knew that I had to represent something bigger than myself, even if that meant placing myself in a position where I might struggle a little bit.

So I started wearing the hijab, and that honestly allowed me to represent a greater community. Now, there's other girls who come up to me who are younger than me and let me know that I've inspired them to be more confident in their heritage and their culture because I'm very expressive of it.

FVC: You arrived in Canada when you were pretty young, right? What was that like?

I was seven years old, and I really enjoyed it. I remember it was difficult at first, but I clicked really quickly. I’m very talkative and I'm very open to people, I’m a little bit of a social butterfly. So I didn't struggle initially. But then you get older and kids kind of reflect what they hear at home or online. I believe that's when a little bit of struggle started but I think it just built my resilience even more.

Rida’s Sher Project has provided hot meals and hygiene products through several different initiatives. She recruits teenage volunteers through the various clubs and organizations she was a part of during high school, including her high school rugby team.

FVC: You mentioned that you wanted to continue serving your community. Do you hope to keep up with the volunteer work—like the Sher Project—you started in high school over the next four years?

The Sher Project has been a great part of my life. And I wish I'd started so much sooner.

We worked very closely with the population in need in Chilliwack. We were really able to recognize the gaps in our community. And as a teenager who's very proactive and likes to take charge I recognized that ‘Hey, you know what, we really need to have hygiene bags that we're able to distribute directly.’ I really wanted something that was direct and quick. It can be very difficult for me to go through a long process and to ask a club to do something. So I said ‘Okay, I need to create something myself’ and that is what I did. It was an incredible time for me.

FVC: Do you plan to keep playing rugby in university?

I really want to continue to play rugby but my parents are really asking me to weigh the concussion factors against my academics. It was a great part of my life. I started in grade 12. But it was incredible and I realize I should have started much earlier because it's something I really took too naturally.

Rida graduated from GW Graham Secondary in Chilliwack in June. She’ll start at UBC Okanagan’s Nursing Program in September.