The Analyst Who Had to Start Over
- No One Left Behind
- Feb 11
- 3 min read
How one Afghan political specialist is rebuilding his career through the America’s Scholarship Program.
By Matthew Marcellus | No One Left Behind in collaboration with Afghan Future Fund
The kitchen table is covered with vocabulary flashcards. Mohammad sits with his four children, working through English pronunciation. His wife prepares tea in the next room. It is evening in the Washington, D.C. area, and this is what the family does now. They rebuild fluency together, one word at a time.
Three years ago, Mohammad occupied a different kind of room. As a political specialist for the U.S. State Department in Afghanistan, he monitored Taliban movements, tracked the involvement of Pakistan and Iran in regional affairs, and translated complex security developments into assessments that shaped American understanding of the conflict. He built professional networks over years. He earned credibility in spaces where credibility was survival.
None of it transferred. When Mohammad arrived in America, his credentials did not convert into professional currency. The networks existed on the other side of the world. He enrolled in a Public Administration program. He started over as a student.
Supporting a family of six while studying full-time requires constant assessment, anticipating needs before they become crises and allocating limited resources across competing priorities. But education costs money. And for a family living on limited resources, tuition did not balance easily against rent and groceries.
"I wish more Americans understood how deeply Afghan allies believed in the shared vision.
Many of us risked everything."
Then Mohammad learned about the America’s Allies Scholarship Program.
AASP, a partnership between the Afghan Future Fund and No One Left Behind, provides up to $15,000 in educational funding for Afghan and Iraqi Special Immigrant Visa holders who served alongside U.S. forces. The first cohort received over 800 applications. Twenty-one recipients were selected. Mohammad was one of them.
“It allowed me to focus on my studies without the constant worry of financial pressure,” Mohammad said. “It’s a message that our sacrifices alongside U.S. forces are remembered.”
The turning point came during a course on public ethics. Mohammad was studying administrative responsibility, the theory of how government officials should be held accountable to the public they serve. For most students, the concepts were theoretical. For Mohammad, they were an operational debrief of everything he had witnessed fail in Afghanistan.
“I realized that these principles could have changed so much if they had been truly applied,” he said. “That confirmed this is exactly what I’m meant to do.”
His goals after graduation are to continue working with the U.S. government or an international organization on political analysis and conflict resolution, mentor new Afghan refugees, and serve as a bridge between Afghan communities and American institutions.
“I wish more Americans understood how deeply Afghan allies believed in the shared vision,” Mohammad said. “Many of us risked everything. Not for money or status, but because we believed in partnership... We sacrificed.”
The kitchen table is not the secure facility Mohammad once occupied. The textbooks are not the classified reports he once analyzed. But the work is the same, reading situations, identifying patterns, and building something that might endure. His children’s English improves each week. His own academic vocabulary expands each semester.
The analyst is still analyzing. He is simply operating on different terrain now.
About No One Left Behind
No One Left Behind (NOLB) is a veterans-founded nonprofit dedicated to Afghan and Iraqi a
llies who served alongside U.S. forces under the Special Immigrant Visa program. Since its founding, NOLB has evacuated thousands of allies and their families from imminent danger, provided resettlement services to support their transition to life in the United States, and advocated for legislative reforms that uphold America’s commitment to those who risked their lives in service to U.S. missions. The organization is led by combat veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
About Afghan Future Fund
The Afghan Future Fund is a mission-driven nonprofit that helps at-risk and displaced Afghans rebuild their futures through education, career development and entrepreneurship. By providing scholarships, skills training and professional pathways in partnership with universities, employers and nonprofits, AFF connects Afghan talent to lasting opportunities and global networks.
