The father of a graduate student who died in 2011 established a State Department fellowship program this week in memory of his son.

Vinod Gupta, a philanthropist and former CEO, created the program to honor his son Benjamin Gupta – a law and business student who died from a mix of alcohol and oxycodone at 28 years old. GW awarded the late student an MBA degree posthumously last month.

As many as four fellows will work in the Secretary of State’s Office of the Global Partnership Initiative, where Ben Gupta had interned, or in a regional bureau, according to a release.

MBA graduates from any accredited university can apply for the six-month internship program, which will stress  private-public partnerships in foreign policy and development. A selection committee comprised of members of the GW School of Business, the State Department and the Gupta family will choose the fellows.

Ben Gupta had worked under then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the program. The former first lady, a family friend of the Guptas, lauded him during a memorial service held at the University last year as “a great representative of our country.”

Gupta, an Omaha, Neb. native, planned to enter the business world after he graduated.