CAMBRIDGE, Mass.-Jameel Group of Jeddah, Saudia Arabia, has given the Massachusetts Institute of Technology $5 million to provide financial aid to needy undergraduates from Middle Eastern and Asian countries.
Mr. Mohammed Jameel, President of the Group, who received the SB degree in civil engineering from MIT in 1978, established the Abdul Latif Jameel/Toyota Scholarship Fund, so named to honor his late father, Abdul Latif Jameel, and the automaker with which the late Mr. Jameel had a long relationship. The late Mr. Jameel founded a company in 1955 that became the world's largest independent Toyota distributor.
Dr. Charles M. Vest, president of MIT, expressed the appreciation of the university and called the gift an "extraordinary generosity by an MIT alumnus." He said Mr. Jameel has provided "a truly special opportunity" to students in many countries "who likely will never have dreamed that such an education would be available to them." Students eligible for assistance under the Jameel fund are those from countries including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Burma, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Laos, Pakistan, Saudia Arabia, Sri Lanka, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, Turkmanistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.
