**This scholarship is now established, and more donations will add to its amount. This campaign will continue until the deadline and we will keep you, our friends, updated.**
On August 9th , 2015 26 year-old Sheida Hosseinzadeh, sister, friend, daughter, passed away during a tragic accident while camping with her friends in Avery County, North Carolina. We hope to turn this misfortune into an opportunity to preserve her memory by helping young students like Sheida succeed through the Sheida Scholarship.
What is Sheida Scholarship?
What can you do ?
If you have any ideas, questions, or concerns, please send us a message at our facebook page.
Help us with your generous donations, to establish a permanent annual scholarship for architecture graduate students at UNC Charlotte to achieve their dreams. In memory of Sheida, who was an example of hope and success.
How’s one deal with such a tragedy? How to protect the beauty of a life in the face of the enormous ugliness of a loss?
What was loved, what was lost, Sheida, was much more than all of the achievements that can be listed, the exceptional student (MArch 2015, UNC Charlotte), all of the success and potential of the career.
She was even more than all that made so many love her, all the anxiety of the world taken away in the laughter shared with a sister, the moments that overcame all the miles in between in the daily call received from a daughter, the emotions shared—far bigger than all words can ever explain—in the care package of a partner, the days saved by the mere notification of the message, from a true friend.
She was all of this and yet her soul much more enormous than being capsulated in these words.
Perhaps the answer is in her. Because behind the larger than life smile of the girl loved by so many, was the soul of fighter, a survivor. As so many others from our heated region of the world, Sheida faced and overcame many challenges and obstacles in her life. So if her free soul has to be reduced to a single word let that be courage.
We, family, friends, colleagues, class-mates, and simply the many inspired by Sheida, wish to get her message of hope across. Through this campaign and with your generous help, we aim to create an opportunity for future striving architects pursuing their higher education at the School of Architecture (SoA) at UNC Charlotte.
The story of Sheida is the dream of many aspiring students—especially those who travel thousands of miles and oceans to pursue higher education just like her. In her brief time at UNC Charlotte, Sheida managed to achieve it all, financial independence, exceptional academic merits, and the beginning of a promising career right after college (and these are only things that can be measured and listed). But nothing is simple for the life of the eager international students of today; Sheida was the same. Her achievements became possible only through her never ceasing courage and dedication and the help of those who aspire to support and nurture young talents.
So still under the burden of the tragic events, help us rise up. Let her legacy continue. Let us make Sheida become this hope to those like her, who are willing to fight for their dreams, let her life become a hymn to the talents of future.
Born in 1989 in Tehran, Iran, the youngest of three sisters, Sheida was born into a family of activists and educators. From an early age, her amazing potential shined as she was accepted to the Farzanegan School, part of the National Organization of Developing Exceptional Talents. She continued her path of success as she received her bachelor degree in architecture from one of the most prestigious schools of the country, Iran’s University of Science and Technology. Just two years after, she bravely took the hard journey and moved thousands of miles away to follow her dreams. She moved to Charlotte, North Carolina to pursue her master’s degree. Due to her extreme talent and exceptional work ethics, right after receiving her degree, she was offered a position at one of the city’s most esteemed architectural firms, Shook Kelley. But only after a month, tragedy hit. Surrounded by her beloveds and while enjoying the nature of Avery falls—so close to her new home—an accident took her life.
With the help of all of you, we want to establish a Scholarship in the honor of Sheida, her life and her career. It is to be a chance for future Architects to follow Sheida’s path, that of passion, courage, and success, an ode to the pursuit of dreams.
These funds will be established in the form of a merit based/need based scholarship. As an official School of Architecture award, through their website the applications will be open to all—including international—architecture graduate students.
Please join us and help us spread Sheida’s message of hope. Your financial and emotional support can make an impact a generation of future innovators and architects. Let her name be remembered as such.
So please donate what may be possible for you,
And please share this cause on your social media platforms, contact those who can help, contact us with ideas…
We look forward to achieving this, with you.
What better way to honor our beloved heroine, Sheida
For donors outside of United States, based on your country's tax regulations you can use your donations towards tax deductions. To do so, you will need UNC Charlotte Foundation's Employer Identification Number (EIN) which is: 56-6059417