Naming the Asian American Scholarship
Asian Caucus works yearly on its commitment to helping with the Asian American Scholarship Banquet. This is a banquet where 4 rising Seniors are chosen out of a large competitive pool of applicants and are recognized for their contributions to the Asian American community. The scholarship was founded in 1995 through the initiative of students and faculty members. The winner receives $15,000 as well as money for the book store. The other 3 finalists also receives gift certificates to the boo kstore.
At the moment, it is the only scholarship geared towards the AHANA community that is still not named. This has been a continuous concern for the Asian community because having it unnamed is a disservice to the Asian community. An unnamed scholarship raises lots of questions; what does that show about the Asian community; who are our heroes? Why can't we name some heroes? What does that show about our education? Why aren't our heroes being taught in the classrooms?
There has been a continuous movement to try and get the scholarship named. Originally, the idea was to name it after Yuri Kochiyama. Kochiyama, who was a close friend of Malcom X, dedicated her life for American human rights. She worked on the the Civil Rights Movement led by King and the Black Power Movement (or Black Liberation Movement) led by Malcolm X. In the 1960's, she created links to other cultures who were facing the same struggles as the Blacks, such as the Puerto Rican Movement, hoping to unite all deprived minorities under one common vision. Furthermore, she focused on her roots and helped the Asian population, especially the Japanese American population since her father was taken as prisoner during the Japanese American Internment acts as a response to the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
When students presented the idea of naming the scholarship after Yuri Kochiyama, Father Leahy. Though he never officially announced his reasoning for rejecting the candidate, it is suspected that the main reason he rejected her name was because she was not well known enough. Unfortunately, there wasn't a large enough student movement that was in support of naming the scholarship after Yuri Kochiyama.
Years later, starting with 2009, there is a new push and movement to try and get the scholarship named after a new hero. This hero is Aung San Suu Kyi She is remembered for leading a nonviolent movement to protect Burma's freedom in the face of the military coup following the end of socialist rule in Burma. She created the National League for Democracy and won 82% of the popular vote to become prime minister, but was put under detention by the Burmese military. She is remaining in detention every since. In 1991, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and remains the only political prizoner to win one. She is also the winner of the Rafto Peace Prize for Human Rights, Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, Jawaharlal Nehru Peace Prize from the government of India, and was named One of TIME Magazine's 100 most influential people. The test of her loyalty to her country occured in 1999. In 1999, her husband was dying of prostate cancer in England. He was not allowed to visit her, but Aung San Suu Kyi was given permission to visit him. She refused because she feared that if she left Burma she would never be allowed to return.
For more information about the scholarship and about applying visit http://www.bc.edu/offices/ahana/scholarships/asam.html#asamreq
last updated August 30, 2008