Celebrating Success: Faaria Khan

NEWS |

Faaria Khan (2017, MEng Engineering Science) recently finished her third year at Pembroke, achieving a first in finals. Due to her excellent exam results, she was awarded the Paul Martins’ BP Scholarship, worth £1,500. We caught up with Faaria, who reflected on her time at Pembroke so far ahead of beginning the fourth and final year of her degree.

“Whilst it is an obvious thing to say, the last three years have really flown by. I vividly remember the excitement of move-in day, the first encounters with still-close friends and the myriad of welcome events at Pembroke and across the University.

The original reasons why I chose Pembroke have regularly stood out to me throughout my time here, such as the architecture, the engineering tutors, the halal food and the accommodation. Moreover, I hail from a small, homely town in Surrey so truthfully the life and community at Pembroke didn’t feel a world away from home. This certainly made the daunting transition to University much easier and I felt settled at Pembroke almost immediately.

The engineering course has been challenging and repeatedly pushed me to new limits, but I feel richer and more grateful for this opportunity with each passing year. In addition to the academic demands of my third year, I was elected as the President of the Oxford University Islamic Society, one of the University’s most active communities. While it was a challenge to balance my work and commitments, I look back on the past year with a great sense of fulfilment and gratitude for the experience.

I was very humbled to receive the Paul Martins’ BP Scholarship. This was unexpected but immensely appreciated. I hope to live up its standard through hard work and dedication.

In my final year project, I will be working to optimise a breathing-powered prosthetic which I am very much looking forward to. Outside of my studies, I have been chosen as Cisco’s Brand Ambassador and I will also be working on Student Needs, a non-profit company I co-founded earlier this year, which provides minimal-cost, online tuition to disadvantaged Year 7-11 students across the UK.”

This is the fifth and final article in our 2020 news series celebrating high performing Pembroke undergraduate students and recent alumni in their examinations. The first, which focuses on the collective exams success of the students this year, can be found here.