U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s biography on the U.S. Department of State website states: “Rubio is passionate about the American Dream because he’s lived it himself.”

On May 26, I received a letter from a neurologist at the Kilimanjaro Medical Center in Moshi, Tanzania. Her letter introduced Mina Bakhshi, a student at the United World College in Moshi.

Mina has a Shelby Davis Scholarship to attend Franklin & Marshall College.

The neurologist wrote: “Mina will leave from my house in Moshi and come to a place near the Clinic for Special Children, where 30 years ago I was a student!”

The letter included a photograph of the neurologist’s six United World College students — from Pakistan, Uganda, the Czech Republic, Afghanistan, Poland and Ghana. Her students observe neurological assessments, births, surgeries and postmortems. Her goal is to have students experience health care while working among the poor of Tanzania.

Mina Bakhshi herself wrote: “My sister was accepted to study at a university. Then in 2021 the Taliban seized control and ended my sister’s dreams & those of millions of Afghan girls. My sister’s life taught me that to be heard I needed to raise my voice through Education. I am the first girl from our family to study abroad.”

On June 26, Mina traveled to the U.S. embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, to plead for a U.S. student visa. She has an Afghan passport. She can only be given a student visa if Rubio, as secretary of state, decides that her education would serve the United States’ national interest.

Secretary Rubio: Please allow the embassy in Dar es Salaam to give a student visa to Mina Bakhshi. Share your “American Dream.”

D. Holmes Morton, M.D.

Strasburg