For Khansa Maria, a student at Georgetown University’s campus in Qatar, her advocacy work for people with disabilities is personal.

Maria is blind and has faced disability challenges growing up in Pakistan. And she will use that experience, she said, when she heads to Oxford University next fall as Pakistan’s 2021 Rhodes Scholar-elect, to pursue a master's degree in evidence-based policy intervention and social evaluation.

“I do have a disability, I am blind, and I firsthand experienced the impacts of not having an inclusive society,” Maria said, noting she wants to give back.

“I do have a certain responsibility to my community to improve things to the extent that I can or at least lend my skills or my experience to the benefit of future blind people from Pakistan,” she said.

Maria advocates for the disabled and educates about inclusion — whether within a friend group or a business thinking of designing its space for people with disabilities. She said she believes people should be better informed.

She attends Georgetown’s Qatar campus — called GU-Q — which follows standards set by the American with Disabilities Act and she said accommodates the disabled better than her hometown of Lahore.

Still, spaces are not always as physically accessible as they need to be to those with disabilities, and conversations and language about the disabled should be more inclusive, Maria said.

At GU-Q, she is studying for a bachelor’s degree in foreign service, with a concentration in culture and politics.

“I thought foreign service or working in someplace like the U.N. would be where I'd end up,” Maria told VOA. “So, [Georgetown] just felt like the perfect fit, where I wouldn't just focus on my advocacy skills and my ability to negotiate diplomatically, but also learn about you know, the historical implications and the economic implication of conflicts.”

Maria has been a campus leader and participant in a multitude of organizations, including the debating union, the South Asian Society, and the Hoya Leadership Pathway. She has also worked at the U.S. Embassy in Qatar.

“They were always willing to listen and adapt,” Maria said of the embassy. “And I got some amazing experiences. I was a part of a really nice team. I got some really good advice and mentorship.”

“I am grateful that my supervisors at the embassy were always supportive and always found opportunities to help me make the best of my experiences. Working with such accomplished and empowering women was a dream come true,” she told VOA.

Maria has also researched diaspora migration and how it is represented in literature. She is writing her honors thesis on the evolution of the disability rights movement in the South Asian context.

Like many college students during COVID-19, Maria has experienced pandemic upheaval.

“I had a couple of trips planned to conferences and stuff that I was supposed to go to, but I wasn't able to do that,” she said. “And I think, in another sense, obviously, there is a certain amount of isolation that came along with it for everyone. I wasn't able to travel back home to Pakistan for a year and a half, you know, classes went virtual, my job went virtual.”

Maria became interested in the Rhodes program after meeting a scholar from India. He was also blind, and they became friends. She was apprehensive at first about applying but followed through.

“I just realized there was no harm in applying,” Maria told VOA. “If nothing else, it would give me an opportunity to just reflect on my experience, get my opportunities together, get my ideas together, and just take the leap.”

She said she couldn’t believe she was selected to be a Rhodes Scholar.

“I was beyond delighted but at the same time, I couldn't believe that it had really happened,” she said. “I realized that I am privileged and am excited about all these new experiences.”

Maria said she is most excited to learn from other people at Oxford.

“You know, what was most impactful for me here [at GU-Q] was the community that I was a part of: the everyday conversations, the random debates,” Maria said. “And that's what I'm excited about — just the environment, the people that I'll meet, the stories that I’ll interact with, and all that I can learn from those people.”

Ruth Chane, a computer science major from Ethiopia, writes about her experiences settling into student life at Whitman College in the U.S. state of Washington.

"The community at Whitman College made sure I felt welcomed even before I stepped foot on campus," she says.

Read her essay here.

In The Student Life, the student newspaper for the Claremont Colleges, a consortium of five liberal art colleges and two graduate schools in Claremont, California, student Rochelle Lu writes about readjusting to her Shanghai home after spending a semester in the United States.

Read the full story here.

Cedarville University in the U.S. state of Ohio says it’s got more than 140 international students representing 44 countries.

Here, the school interviews Jonathan Sutton, director of international student services. He talks about his job and the opportunities for international students on campus.

Read the full article here.

Morehouse College, a private, historically Black liberal arts college in the U.S. state of Georgia, offers a guide for international students interested in attending the school.

Among the tips to apply and thrive at Morehouse:

• Take advantage of the school’s orientation program
• Turn to the school’s Center for Academic Success for tutoring, support and more
• Immerse yourself in campus life via clubs and societies

Read the full article here.

WASHINGTON — 

The administration of President Donald Trump said on Monday it will review Columbia University's federal contracts and grants over allegations of antisemitism, which it says the educational institution has shown inaction in tackling.

Rights advocates note rising antisemitism, Islamophobia and anti-Arab bias since U.S. ally Israel's devastating military assault on Gaza began after Palestinian Hamas militants' deadly October 2023 attack.

The Justice Department said a month ago it formed a task force to fight antisemitism. The U.S. Departments of Health and Education and the General Services Administration jointly made the review announcement on Monday.

"The Federal Government's Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism is considering Stop Work Orders for $51.4 million in contracts between Columbia University and the Federal Government," the joint statement said.

The agencies said no contracting actions had been taken yet.

"The task force will also conduct a comprehensive review of the more than $5 billion in federal grant commitments to Columbia University."

The agencies did not respond to requests for comment on whether there were similar reviews over allegations of Islamophobia and anti-Arab bias.

Columbia had no immediate comment. It previously said it made efforts to tackle antisemitism.

College protests

Trump has signed an executive order to combat antisemitism and pledged to deport non-citizen college students and others who took part in pro-Palestinian protests.

Columbia was at the center of college protests in which demonstrators demanded an end to U.S. support for Israel due to the humanitarian crisis caused by Israel's assault on Gaza. There were allegations of antisemitism and Islamophobia in protests and counter-protests.

During last summer's demonstrations around the country, classes were canceled, some university administrators resigned and student protesters were suspended and arrested.

While the intensity of protests has decreased in recent months, there were some demonstrations last week in New York after the expulsion of two students at Columbia University-affiliated Barnard College and after New York Governor Kathy Hochul ordered the removal of a Palestinian studies job listing at Hunter College.

A third student at Barnard College has since been expelled, this one related to the occupation of the Hamilton Hall building at Columbia last year.