Harpreet (Sony) Kaur Sandhu Awarded P.E.O. International Peace Scholarship

The Graduate College is pleased to announce that Harpreet (Sony) Kaur Sandhu, master’s student in integrated agricultural sciences, has received the P.E.O. International Peace Scholarship (IPS). The International Peace Scholarship Fund provides scholarships of up to $12,500 for women from other countries to study at the graduate level in the United States and Canada. Members of P.E.O. believe that education is fundamental to world peace and understanding.

Sony comes from a farming family in Punjab, India, where she completed her B.Sc. in agriculture. As an undergraduate student, Sony was granted a full-ride scholarship her sophomore year and was consistently in the top 5% of her class. Aside from her studies, Sony was a performing artist and acted in more than 50 shows about women and women’s rights.

A member of the Phi Kappa Phi and Phi Alpha Xi honor societies, Sony is interested in researching agricultural methods, crop genetics, pest control, and economics. Her main focus is on the sweet potato crop, which has abundant possibilities of eradicating childhood malnutrition in developing countries. She says, “My dream is to make this crop successful in the continent of Africa, where the benefit can be maximized.” She hopes to improve the crop yields on sweet potato in countries like Ethiopia, Tanzania, Kenya, and Mozambique to address the increasing food demand. She believes this crop has the potential to not only meet local demand but also enable farmers to export the surplus production and improve national the economy.

Sony’s advice for future applicants is to “be true to your story.” She plans to pursue a Ph.D. and hopes to be a part of an organization that will focus on world agriculture, allowing her to help where hunger and malnutrition are a problem. Being awarded this scholarship has given her the confidence to advise women in her home country of India by encouraging them to pursue higher studies and be independent. She says, “There is so much opportunity in the world.”