The Softic Family Foundation

About

The Softic Family Foundation (SFF) is dedicated to promoting education and religious tolerance. We provide scholarships for students at all educational levels, from elementary and high school to undergraduate and graduate studies. We support degree and non-degree earning activities at private and public institutions. Our scholarship oversight committee is independent of the foundation’s governing body. Moreover, the committee evaluates the applications in a blinded fashion in order to select the most deserving candidates without knowledge of their name, gender, or religious affiliation. For more application details, please visit the Scholarships tab.

In addition to scholarships, the foundation fosters religious tolerance by distributing gifts during cherished religious holidays. This activity aims to promote religious tolerance based on the premise that all major monotheistic religions are a continuation of the same message. We view the current differences as a product of separation among different religions in space and time, spanning hundreds or even thousands of years and covering most of the globe. Therefore, the purpose of the SFF’s initiatives is to empower individuals of various religious backgrounds to be better at following their own teachings in order to create a more just and peaceful world.

The foundation builds on Dr. Samir Softic’s prior experience leading the Bosnian and Herzegovinian Education Fund (BiHEF), albeit with a different aim. In 2003, BiHEF provided English language classes for recent Bosnian refugees, encouraging higher education enrollment. These classes were held at the University of Cincinnati and included four levels of English classes: beginner, intermediate, advanced, and college level. The college-level class was taught by Steve Simpson, who was then teaching English 101 at the University of Cincinnati. Additionally, BiHEF offered a fifth class designed to preserve the Bosnian language and culture among the children of Bosnian immigrants.