NEW YORK: The parents of Momina Cheema, a 25-year-old Pakistani student who died in a road accident last month, announced establishment of a scholarship at the University of Virginia School of Law, her alma mater, to honour the memory of their daughter.

The announcement was made by Momina’s parents—Tayeba Zia, a columnist for the Daily Nawa-i-Waqt and Dr. Akhtar Cheema, a medial specialist—on the occasion of her chehlum at their residence in Queens, a borough of New York City.

The scholarship will be funded at $ 100,000, and the school will begin giving awards when the funding has reached $ 50,000, according to Paul Mahoney, the Dean of school.

“The scholarship would be awarded annually and a preference would be given to students who express an interest in Islamic law or culture,” Dean Mahoney said in a letter to Dr. Cheema.

Momina’s parents said they also plan to set up a scholarship in Momina’s name in Pakistan for outstanding students to help them acquire higher education. The Chehlum was attended by a large number of the bereaved family’s friends, civil society representatives and members of U.S. based Pakistani media.

Momina Cheema was born in Lahore on September 25th, 1985 and raised in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United States. She was speech champion and valedictorian at Jackson High School in Massillon, Ohio, graduated from Duke in 2007 with a B.A. in Literature, was a 2008 A.M. graduate of Harvard’s Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and was attending Law School at The University of Virginia with a judicial internship at the U.S. district court, Eastern District of New York at the time of her death.

Friends and family will always remember her loving personality. She passed away after an automobile accident in Albertson, New York on Friday June 10th, 2011. She is survived by her parents Muhammad Akhtar and Tayyeba, her younger brothers Fareed and Saeed and countless other relatives and friends who loved her.

via, mominacheema

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