Scholarship Helps Victim's Son Reach for Dreams
20-year-old's father was killed in convenience store robbery
By LITA BECK
Updated 10:43 PM CST, Mon, Oct 19, 2009
A North Texas university is helping the 20-year-old son of a slain convenience store clerk get the education his father wanted for him.
David Rai experienced the worst and the best during his first year in Fort Worth.
He came to North Texas in October of last year and was reunited with his father, who had left Nepal for Fort Worth 10 years earlier to earn a better living to support his family with.
But his father, J.B. Rai, was slain in a robbery while working as a clerk at a convenience store just three months after his son arrived.
"I felt like everything was crashing down," David Rai said.
He was left to support himself and his younger sister, who had also come from Nepal.
"I was going down financially," Rai said. "My bills were higher than my income."
But then Texas Wesleyan University stepped in with a solution. It offered him a full scholarship for as long as Rai wants to study there.
"We found a place in the residence hall, got him a meal ticket and said you're going to get an education," university President Hal Jeffcoat said. "That's what your father hoped for you, and we want to be part of it."
Rai said the university is "God-sent angels."
"Even though I lost something, I still have been blessed with all these people who've been helping me," he said.
Rai is doing well in his first semester, studying computer science and working on campus. He said he hopes for a good job and a good family in his future.
"These are the best days of my life after everything that happened," he said.
In addition to the university, Rai credits Meadowbrook United Methodist Church in Fort Worth and the Nepal Society for supporting him. His sister lives now lives with family in India.
The man who killed his father pled guilty to murder in exchange for a life sentence.
First Published: Oct 19, 2009 10:20 PM CST
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