Grameen Bank Son Going for Ph. D in Malaysia
Aslam Mia was born in a rural poor family where poverty was a common phenomenon and education never touched their lives. They have been illiterate for all generations.
Aslam’s father was a poor farmer who used to work on other people’s land to sustain his family and his mother was a housewife. His mother became the member of Grameen Bank in early 1990’s when he was a small kid. She is currently one of the Centre-chiefs of Grameen Bank Khamarkandi Gabtali Branch in Bogra Sadar.
Aslam was a meritorios student and therefore got very good result throughout his student life. He achieved GPA 5 in Secondary School Certificate examination in 2006 and and it was the first time his school got the best result in its entire history. He obtained GPA 5 in his Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) exam too.
From then on, he was dreaming to pursue the higher education to serve the nation. The turning point in his life materialized in 2009, when Grameen Bank arranged a scholarship from Khazanah Foundation (a foundation created by Investment Fund of Malaysia called Khazanah), which gave him the opportunity to study in Department of Economics of International Islamic University, Malaysia to get an undergraduate degree. Aslam stated “ It was the happiest and most memorable day in my life”. Among 40 qualified students, only five were selected for that scholarship. Aslam finished his Bachelor of Economics (BECS) from International Islamic University, Malaysia in 2013 and obtained CGPA of 3.725 out of 4. He ranked 2nd among 156 graduating students. In addition, he has awarded department’s prestigious honor “Dean’s Award” six times which showed the highest academic excellence in the faculty. He also tutored students more than two and half years under the university tutorship program. After completing the bachelor Degree with his excellent academic results, Aslam got an offer from University of Malaya (UM) to do fast track Ph.D. under Bright Spark Scholarship Program (BSP) on the topic “Micro Credit and SME Development in Bangladesh”. He will start his Ph. D from February 2014.
Aslam’s ultimate future plan is to return to Bangladesh after completing his Ph. D and work for the people Bangladesh, the country he belongs to.
“I always keep a dream in my mind in line with the dream of Prof. Muhammad Yunus, which is to eradicate poverty in Bangladesh. I will work to achieve my goal even though there are thousands of hindrances,” he says.
