Scholarship takes Sujan from Raiganj to Europe

Babul Kumar Bhaduri sits with his sewing machine in front of a fabric store at Hatpangashi Bazar of Raiganj upazila, Sirajganj. This is his means of living. He has a son and a daughter. His son Sujan Kumar Bhaduri always excelled as a student in school. Despite having to struggle with poverty, he scored a GPS-5 in this SSC exam. But then things weren’t looking up. His father was struggling to feed the family and had no big dreams for his son. A local teacher then helped to connect them to Prothom Alo and things changed.

Sujan received the BRAC Bank-Prothom Alo Trust Adamya Medhabi scholarship. This helped him finish his HSC. And now meritorious young Sujan this year has gone on to get the prestigious Erasmus Mundus scholarship of the European Union. He is now studying under this scholarship at the ‘Masters Programme in Plant Breeding’ at UniLaSelle in France. Next year he will take up higher studies in this subject at the University of Helsinki in Finland.

Hatpangashi is a peaceful village on the green banks of the river Ichhamati. Sujan is the elder child of Babul Kumar Bhaduri and Monica Rani Bhaduri. He began his studies at the local Hatpangashi Government Primary School. Then from Class-VI he began studying at the local Laila-Mizan School and College. The teachers noticed that he was an exceptional student and the school’s assistant headmaster Ranajit Kumar Sen kept an eye on him. The teachers had high hopes in Sujan.

In 2011 Sujan passed the SSC exam with a GPA-5 score. His family was worried about the costs of his studying any further, but that is when he got the BRAC Bank-Prothom Alo Trust scholarship. He used that to get admitted to Bogura Cantonment School and College in the science group. He passed the HSC exam, yet again with a GPA-5 score.

After that he got admitted to the agricultural department of the Hajee Mohammed Danesh Science and Technology University in Dinajpur. He was the president of the university’s Prothom Alo Bondhushava branch for the 2018-19 term. He passed his BSc exam from there and while studying his Masters, he secured the Erasmus Mundus scholarship. On 10 September last year Sujan flew off to Europe.

Sujan Kumar Bhaduri says, “The BRAC Bank-Prothom Alo Trust Adamya Medhabi scholarship has been the beacon of hope in my life. I would never have been able to have studied HSC and BSc Honours without this scholarship.

He said, after completing BSc, he began studying Masters in genetics and plant breeding. While others were looking for jobs, he was looking for a good scholarship. He started getting a bit frustrated, having to stay a home for four months at a stretch because of coronavirus. But then he received the good news. He had secured the Eramus Mundus scholarship.

Expressing his gratitude to Prothom Alo Trust, Sujan said, “We, who have succeeded with the help of others, should reach out to help others too once we are established in life. We can create opportunities for deprived students.”

The BRAC Bank-Prothom Alo Trust, under the Adamya Medhabi (Indomitable Talent) programme, every year provides scholarships at the HSC and Bachelors level to students based on their SSC and HSC results respectively. Prothom Alo representatives carry out a nationwide talent hunt for the purpose. So far 942 students have been provided with scholarships under this programme. Of these, funds were provided for 718 from BRAC Bank, and for 224 students from other individuals and donor agencies.

Presently, 271 are receiving scholarships. At the Bachelors’ level, among the 221 receiving scholarships, 107 are studying in government and autonomous universities, 19 in medical colleges, 32 in universities of science and technology, 55 under the National University and eight under the quota for the poor in private universities.

* The report, originally published in the print edition of Prothom Alo, has been rewritten for English edition by Ayesha Kabir