Yale College juniors Angela S. Chan and Emily Chiang have been selected as the first Richard U. Light Fellows for the study of East Asian Languages in East Asia. Both will attend the CET Spring Term in Beijing Program at Capital Normal University College of Foreign Languages in Beijing from February through May. This will be the first time that either student has had the opportunity to live and study in the People's Republic of China.
Ms. Chan of Jonathan Edwards College is currently a student in "Intermediate Chinese" at Yale, while Ms. Chiang of Morse College is enrolled in "Advanced Chinese."
Ms. Chan's major is electrical engineering, and her career plans after graduation include management consulting or engineering in East Asia. Ms. Chiang is a political science major who plans to attend law school after graduation.
"I believe that in Ms. Chan and Ms. Chiang we have identified two outstanding students with a strong and lasting commitment to attaining excellence in Chinese proficiency and to using their understanding of Chinese language, culture and society in their future studies and professional careers," says Edward Kamens, professor of Japanese literature and faculty director of the Light Fellowships. "They are exemplary in many ways: as exceptionally bright young women who have set themselves the task of high accomplishment in extraordinarily challenging fields; as young American adults of Chinese heritage who seek to equip themselves with fluency in a language that is literally foreign to them, in order to further their academic and professional aims; and as outsanding Yale students of fine character who show promise of becoming real leaders and women of great achievement in their future fields of endeavor. They are truly deserving of the honor of being designated the first Richard U. Light Fellows at Yale."
The Light Fellowships were established in October to support Yale students in their studies of East Asian Languages in China, Japan and Korea, through annual grants from the Richard U. Light Foundation of Kalamazoo, Michigan. Fellowships cover all expenses for travel to and from East Asia, tuition and fees for approved study programs, living expenses and incidentals. Students may seek support for full year programs, single terms, summer programs, or combinations thereof. Selection of fellows is made by a committee of faculty members in East Asian languages and East Asian studies on the basis of academic excellence, commitment to the study and use of East Asian languages in their future careers and the appropriateness of the selected program. Applicants must have achieved a basic mastery of the language they intend to study, but may not be fluent speakers. The fellowships are administered by the Council on East Asian Studies and the Center for International and Area Studies.
For further information, contact Xinmin Liu, program assistant for the Richard U. Light Fellowships at Yale, at 432-9345.