Kia Zahrabi was one of the 2002 recipients of the Francis Family Scholarships. His parents are Rostam Zahrabi and Mojgan Fard.
The Southern Okanagan Secondary School Enrichment Fund has assisted many deserving students in the continuance of a quality education. This has been done through the establishment of various Scholarship, Trust and Memorial Funds which make annual bursaries and awards available to all students demonstrating excellence in their field of academic, technical, trade or vocational training. One of these scholarships is the Francis Family Scholarship.
The Francis Family Scholarship was donated by Mr. Norman Francis in memory of his parents Blaine and Alice Francis of Oliver, BC. Blaine arrived in Oliver in the early 1930’s and Alice came to Oliver during the 1940’s to teach school. Both were active community members and volunteers. The first Francis scholarship awards were presented in 2001. Norm Francis was born and raised in Oliver and graduated from S.O.S.S. (1967). He attended UBC and received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Sciences, and subsequently earned a Chartered Accountant designation. He co-founded several technology companies, including the company that invented the ACCPAC and Simply Accounting software, and later Pivotal Corporation, a world leader in customer relationship software, where he was CEO until 2001. Mr. Francis is retired and spends his time travelling, skiing, cycling and playing golf, as well as being an active philanthropist in the Vancouver area.
The Francis Family Scholarships are $2,500.00 awards given to two deserving students each year. Each student must submit a portfolio to highlight their involvement in school and community. The portfolios are graded on organization, academics, school involvement, community involvement, citizenship, work ethic, and self awareness. A properly formatted resume must be submitted. The portfolios are critiqued and graded by four teachers and the recipients are chosen from this.
We would like to highlight some of our past scholarship winners so you can see how important it is to support and encourage our graduating students.
Kia Zahrabi was one of the 2002 recipients of the Francis Family Scholarships. His parents are Rostam Zahrabi and Mojgan Fard.
Kia studied at McGill University in Montreal from 2002-2007 and received a Bachelor in Civil Engineering and a minor degree in Environmental Engineering. He has been working as a consulting engineer (mainly in the municipal sector) for the past 4.5 years or so (with some time spent traveling in between jobs). He worked for TRUE Consulting (who does the engineering work for the Town of Oliver) for two years and now works in Vancouver for a firm called Kerr Wood Leidal Associates.
One of his biggest interests is traveling. He loves discovering new places, learning new languages and cultures and understanding how other people in the world are living. He spent one semester of his university in Barbados, which he really loved. He also did a camping/surfing road trip down the Baja peninsula in Mexico, travelled through parts of Thailand and Cambodia and did a 22,000 km road trip “loop” around North America. He also did a two-week backpacking trip through Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica, and most recently came back from a 3 week tour through several provinces in India. He is also into biking and has been getting into white water kayaking.
His goal for the past 5 years or so has been to eventually get involved in some work in developing countries where he can have a positive direct impact on people’s lives. He has thought about this quite a bit and is still not 100% sure what kind of work he will be doing. However, he feels his engineering experience in combination with his language and understanding of various cultures will help him make a positive impact in people’s lives. He has thought about working in the area of water and sanitation since it is so critical to people’s health and well being.
Kia would like to give a big thank you to Mr. Francis and his family. He remembers how much the scholarship helped him when he was starting off at McGill. It’s inspired him to give back as well and he hopes to do something similar one day.
And to the grads of 2014, he just wants to wish them all the best. He says that life, ideas, relationships, etc change every day and all we can do is to continue to roll with the punches and keep on experiencing life. Take the most out of every experience because that’s really what life is about.