Hamilton student heading to Harvard to spend summer studying at top American university

A Hamilton student is going on the trip of a lifetime to spend the summer studying at Harvard.

Flying to Boston this Saturday, Ibrasheel Abid will join three other Care Experienced students from across Scotland before beginning their classes at the world-renowned university and living on the campus.

The group are taking part in its seven-week programme where they will study two university-level courses, live with other students from around the world and take part in typical campus life.

Planning to become an aeromechanical engineer, Ibrasheel will be taking a physics course to help with his career aims.

He also has a keen interest in languages and is already able to speak English and Urdu, so he will be using his time in the States to learn Japanese alongside one of his fellow Scottish students.

Ibrasheel, 16, said: “I don’t think it’s fully sunk in yet because I’m getting congratulated by people in school and it all feels a bit surreal.

“I’m really looking forward to studying the physics class. I want to become an aeromechanical engineer as I’ve always been really interested in how things work and how you can make them work better.

“Going to Harvard will be a great help with applying and then going to university for it.”

The trip is being organised by Who Cares? Scotland as all of the students are Care Experienced.

The charity believes that all Care Experienced people – those who are or have been in care such as children’s homes, foster care or who are looked after by relatives or at home with social work involvement – should be able to follow their academic dreams regardless of the challenges many Care Experienced people face during education, such as placement moves and school changes.

To help with this the charity has been running its Harvard Summer School Sponsorship initiative since 2010 and has supported 30 Care Experienced people to attend.

Louise Hunter, Chief Executive at Who Cares? Scotland, said: “We’ve been giving Care Experienced people the opportunity to attend the Harvard Summer School for over a decade.

“We’ve been able to see the wonderful impact this has had on our previous scholars not only on their education and careers but also socially.

“For many Care Experienced people there are often barriers outside of their control in receiving the best possible opportunities as a student.

“One of our reports earlier this year highlighted that 1.3million school days have been lost to absence for Care Experienced pupils since February 2020, when The Promise was published.

“Work is being done to help Care Experienced pupils thrive in schools such as the Care Experienced student bursary and minimum entry requirements for further education institutions. By providing this opportunity it’s just another way we hope to support Care Experienced people to be able to achieve their academic goals.”

Ensuring the students are well supported once in America, the charity works in collaboration with the Director of Harvard University Summer School.

Bill Holinger, Director of Harvard Summer School, said: “Young scholars from Who Cares? Scotland have been attending Harvard Summer School and enrolling in classes for undergraduate credit for well over a decade now.

“We are very happy to have them add a spark to the summer student body, providing perspective and depth in their classrooms and congeniality in the dorms.”

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