Fresno State alum 1 of 6 nationwide to receive a prestigious $20,000 fellowship

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- A Fresno State postgraduate has earned a prestigious fellowship to assistance prosecute her imagination of becoming a doctor.

She's not the archetypal Fresno State grad to person the award, but she did person the highest magnitude ever fixed to a Bulldog.

Keyara Piri is simply a arrogant girl of immigrants.

Her parents moved to the U.S. from Iran and she spent astir each of her beingness successful Fresno, attending University High School and Fresno State arsenic a President's Scholar successful the Smittcamp Family Honors College.

Now, she's continuing her acquisition crossed the country.

Piri is pursuing her passionateness of becoming a doc successful Baltimore, Maryland, and is present attending aesculapian schoolhouse astatine Johns Hopkins University.

"It's been awesome truthful far, truthful I can't hold to spot what other they person successful store," Piri said.

She's celebrating her caller task and a caller large grant that volition assistance with her schooling.

This summer, Piri was selected to person a Marcus L. Urann Fellowship from Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society.

The fellowship provides $20,000 toward her tuition.

"I conscionable consciousness similar it lifts a load disconnected my shoulders and it allows maine to absorption much connected what's important, which is studying and getting acclimated to the schoolhouse and my caller environment," Piri said.

The enactment process is competitive.

First, the committee of the Fresno State Phi Kappa Phi Chapter chose her exertion to guardant to the nationalist committee for consideration.

Saeed Attar, Ph. D., serves connected the section committee and besides worked intimately with Piri during her clip astatine Fresno State.

He says her exertion stood out.

"I had a gut feeling that Keyara's exertion would person a bully accidental of being considered," Attar said.

Along with much than 3,500 unpaid hours, Piri led aggregate clubs and organizations and took portion successful probe connected prostate crab nether the mentorship of Dr. Qiao-Hong Chen portion astatine Fresno State.

That hard enactment and dedication paid disconnected arsenic she became 1 of conscionable six students selected from crossed the federation for the fellowship.

"It inactive doesn't consciousness real, to beryllium rather honest. One retired of six is simply a precise shocking statistic," Piri said.

Attar says helium knows Piri's aboriginal is bright.

"I anticipation that she volition enactment arsenic motivated and arsenic excited astir her aboriginal arsenic I am. She's going to beryllium a fantastic physician," Attar said.

Piri says she's inactive unsure which specialty she'll absorption on, but she's excited to research each of her options.

"My overarching extremity is to conscionable go the champion doc I tin be," Piri said. "I conscionable privation to marque my friends, my family, my assemblage arrogant and conscionable enactment hard and past possibly 1 day, adjacent travel backmost and service the Central Valley."

Piri says she hopes this shows different Bulldogs, and imaginable bulldogs, that attending Fresno State tin unfastened galore doors for their future.

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