Dougherty Family College student Khadra Sharif was recognized with the Don Friborg Student of the Year Award at nonprofit BestPrep’s virtual Annual Lunch-In event in October. The award also includes a $2,500 scholarship for her tuition.
The Student of the Year award is given to one of BestPrep’s 56,000 students for their advocacy usage, and volunteerism of the organization’s educational programs. The award is named after Don Friborg, one of the original BestPrep board members and executive at General Mills.
Sharif has been a tremendous BestPrep student since 2017, when she first participated in eMentors while attending Robbinsdale Cooper High School. eMentors is an eight-week email mentoring program that pairs a high school student with a volunteer mentor from the business community. She attended BestPrep’s Minnesota Business Venture summer camp (MBV) a year later and came back the next two years as a student leader. Since then, she has volunteered at a student panel, board meetings and BestPrep fundraising events.
Sharif moved to the United States from Turkey in 2014 and struggled with the language and fitting in with her classmates. After attending MBV, however, she gained confidence, made friends and learned how to prepare for her future.
Sharif shared, “BestPrep taught me to be organized, outgoing, flexible and a leader, and the most important is to love what I do.”
At the virtual event, Dougherty Family College Founding Dean Alvin Abraham gave congratulatory remarks to her for receiving the award.
BestPrep’s Annual Luncheon is a yearly event that showcases its educational programs with special recognition for those students, teachers and volunteers whose efforts have been outstanding during the school year. Due to the pandemic, BestPrep hosted the event virtually and renamed it the Annual Lunch-In. More than 525 guests tuned in.
