Michael Vinay Bhatia Tribute

Dear friends,

Four months after Michael Bhatia's death in Afghanistan, the outpouring of mutual support has meant so much to all of us. We are humbled to be reminded of how many loyal friends Michael had -- from childhood, from Brown, from Oxford, from the military -- and we have been privileged to get to know so many of you better.

One of the ways that we want to perpetuate Michael's legacy is by establishing a permanent, named endowment for a traveling scholarship at Brown University. When Michael was a junior at Brown, he organized an aid convoy to the Sahrawi refugee camps in southwestern Algeria.

These sorts of undergraduate experiences can allow college students to enrich their understanding of the world and discover new opportunities for their careers. In particular, these experiences can inspire young people to engage in humanitarian work and national service.

Michael would have loved those goals -- because those are the goals to which he committed himself.

The Brown University development office tells us that we will have to raise a minimum of $25,000 to establish a permanent scholarship in Michael's name that will be able to provide funds every year and sustain its value over time.

To those of you who have already donated, we are very grateful. To those of you who haven't had a chance to donate yet, we would encourage you to do so by logging into the donation website at https://gifts.development.brown.edu/Brown/ChooseGifts.aspx and making sure to designate "add to an existing endowment fund" -- specifying the "Michael Bhatia Scholarship Fund."

Thank you so much for all that you have done -- and continue to do -- to sustain Michael's legacy.

Jason Wasfy and Alan Trammell