2024 Harter Scholar takes unusual path to Baker

Last February, Baker University selected Hope Khosravipour to receive the 2024 Edward Lin Harter and Sylvia Lloyd Harter Scholarship, the university’s most prestigious academic award.

As the Harter Scholar, Khosravipour will receive full tuition for four years on Baker’s Baldwin City campus and will also have the opportunity to spend a semester studying abroad at Harlaxton College in England.

Compared to Harter Scholars of year’s past, Khosravipour’s journey to Baker was anything but routine.

Although she was born in Kansas, Khosravipour and her family moved to Istanbul, Turkey, when she was eight, where she was raised by her American mother and Iranian father, who became a refugee at 17 years old.

Family Visit Reaps Benefits

During her sophomore year of high school, Khosravipour was visiting family in Kansas when her brother convinced her to attend a local college fair. There she learned about Baker’s LEAP 3+3 pre-law program, an early-admission program through Washburn University that allows students to enter the job market earlier while reducing their total legal education costs.

After graduating from high school in 2023, Khosravipour took a gap year to participate in mission work around the world. While she was in Mexico, she learned she had been invited to compete in Baker’s Academic Scholarship Competition Day, and with the help and encouragement from her parents, she found a last-minute flight and made the trip to Baldwin City.

After running into a few travel-related roadblocks, Khosravipour arrived at the competition, which was already three hours underway. Despite that, she was able to take part and share her experiences as the by-product of two cultures connecting.

While in the Netherlands, Khosravipour received the call letting her know that she had been named the next Harter Scholar while her entire family waited on FaceTime in anticipation.

Scholarship Will Make Career Goal Possible

“It’s an incredible honor to be chosen as the Harter Scholar. I didn’t grow up with a lot of money, so this was not only a blessing to me and my academics, but to my parents as well. I’m very thankful for this opportunity to be able to achieve my lifelong dream of becoming an attorney and helping refugees.”

Today, Khosravipour is on the path to becoming an immigration lawyer by pursuing a major in international studies before applying to the Wasburn University School of Law through the 3+3 program.

The Harter Scholarship is funded through a gift from the estate of Edward and Sylvia Harter of Bryan, Texas. Graduates of Missouri Wesleyan College in Cameron, Missouri, the husband and wife wanted to contribute to Baker after the university maintained Missouri Wesleyan’s records and held alumni reunions after the college closed in 1930.