When Xavier Ibrahim, SIS/BA ’23, made his first phone call as a Payne Fellow in January 2023, his mom and brother greeted him cheering. A year later, Khalil Ibrahim, SIS/BA ’21, celebrated becoming a Rangel Fellow in the same way: by dialing up his two biggest champions.

The Bronx-born brothers draw inspiration from their mother, Rita Asare, a single parent from Ghana. “She always wanted us to achieve our dreams,” says Khalil (pictured right). Today, they are doing just that—having earned prestigious Foreign Service fellowships with more than $100,000 in benefits each.

Xavier (pictured left) was one of 30 candidates nationwide selected for the US Agency for International Development (USAID) Donald M. Payne International Development Graduate Fellowship Program. After completing orientation and interning for Representative Steny Hoyer (D-MD), he enrolled in Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs—an experience the fellowship made financially attainable. 

At the program’s conclusion, he will secure his five-year appointment as a USAID Foreign Service officer (FSO)—a changemaking position he hopes will enable him to bolster economies and health infrastructure. “The love and care that my mom instilled in me is the same love and care I want to give out to the world,” he says.

His brother’s successes lit a fire in Khalil to apply for the same fellowships. “If he can do it, I know I can do it,” he told himself. And so he did, becoming a finalist for both the William D. Clarke Sr. Diplomatic Security Fellowship and Charles B. Rangel International Affairs Program. 

An Army reservist, Khalil attended AU on the GI Bill, set on pursuing counterintelligence for the FBI. The Community-Based Research Scholar, track-and-field athlete, and ROTC cadet arrived in DC with national security on his mind but emerged from AU with a passion for diplomacy. 

The university had two Rangel fellows and a Payne fellow in 2023, according to Lori Felton, assistant director of AU’s Office of Merit Awards, and one Rangel fellow and a Pickering fellow in 2024. (These two fellowships draw a cumulative 900 applicants annually.) And since 2019, AU has landed two fellows across the four programs each year. 

The intensive application process includes a personal statement “that’s more than a recounting of their résumé,” Felton says. “Motivation is important: What brought them to AU? What draws them to the Foreign Service? I try to get to know applicants and help them get to know themselves in a way that speaks to the mission of the fellowships.”

The Ibrahim brothers are motivated to get to work. Even though his appointment feels far away, Khalil—who has yet to start his fellowship duties—has his eye on Ghana, his family’s homeland, where he hopes to improve trade relations and security as an FSO.

Xavier, meanwhile, will jet abroad for a 10-week internship after completing his first year at Columbia. Then comes graduation, destination bidding, and getting sworn in. His regions of interest span from sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East to Latin America and the Caribbean. 

But wherever he ends up, Xavier says, “It’s because of my mom.”