On Sept. 17, 2025, Senior Kazi Uzayr Razin was awarded the Rossing Physics Scholarship. To be eligible for this scholarship, a student must attend an Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), be majoring in physics or have a strong physics background.
Razin is one of 11 nationwide recipients of the award and is the first international student from Augustana College to achieve this recognition. To qualify for this award, Razin was nominated by the Department of Physics at Augustana. Razin shared that he was nominated last year but didn’t get the scholarship.
“Every year, the department has to nominate a couple of people from the physics and engineering department,” Razin said. “This year I got nominated again and thought, ‘I’m going to really prepare well for it this time since I didn’t get it last time.’”
As an engineering student from Bangladesh, Razin expressed pride in his accomplishments. For Razin, receiving this recognition encourages him to continue working hard and putting in effort.
“It’s really motivating because [I’m] being rewarded for all of the hard work [I’ve] done for the past three years,” Razin said. “With all the work I’ve put in, this [scholarship] is just kind of a recognition for that.”
In preparation, Razin said he reached out to other Augustana students who received this scholarship in the past. With the help and guidance of Amanda Gravelle ‘24, the 2022 and 2023 scholarship recipient, he said he felt more confident in his scholarship application.
“We talked about how to write a good essay for the scholarship and what [the scholarship panel] was looking for, as far as I could tell, and how his personal experiences impact how he approaches learning and his goals in life,” Gravelle said. “He’s probably one of the most motivated students I’ve met in my entire life.”
Senior Graham Hunt, Razin’s roommate, helped Razin with his application essay as a Reading/Writer Center Tutor. He also said that Razin has always been extremely motivated and good at balancing his academics.
Nathan Frank, physics professor and the physics, engineering and astronomy chair, shared the competition that comes with the application.
“For the [Rossing] scholarship, anyone that goes to an affiliated ELCA [Evangelical Lutheran Church in America] school may have students apply for the scholarship, so there’s a whole bunch of schools that can nominate people,” Frank said.
Frank emphasized that Razin exemplifies how well students are prepared for the world and achieve great things.
“Uzayr is one of our best students; he’s very consistent, does a really great job, he’s an ideal student,” Frank said. “I feel good that [Augustana is] able to provide the environment that could allow him to thrive and not be stifled, and instead gain leadership and do all of those wonderful things that we want to see our students do right.”
