Gratitude is a quality that you’ll find a great deal of among Gonzaga students, especially those who rely on scholarships to make their education possible. Francisca “Francis” Chau (’15) is one of those students and she was kind enough to share a letter of gratitude she sent to the Mary Stuart Rogers Foundation for the role they play in her Gonzaga experience.
To the Mary Stuart Rogers Foundation,
My name is Francis Chau and I will be a senior at Gonzaga University studying Sociology and Criminal Justice with a minor in Religious Studies. I would like to take the time to thank you for the amazing opportunity to be a Mary Stuart Rogers Scholar. I am incredibly thankful to receive such a prestigious scholarship and humble to be recognized amongst other world-changers who received the scholarship.
I would like to share with you what I have been doing this summer as I move toward my final year at Gonzaga. I was chosen as one of seven students to participate in three vetting trips for the Opus Prize that will be hosted in the fall. I accompanied another student and a faculty member with the Opus Foundation Board of Directors to South East Asia where I spent a week learning and evaluating an organization that supports human rights and sustainable education and environmental improvements. Immediately afterwards, I spent four weeks with my family in Viet Nam to learn more about my culture as well as spend time with my family, whom I have not seen in 8 years.
As I am writing this letter, I am preparing myself for my next adventure, which will be another 4 weeks away from home at Yale University. I will be serving as a Resident Assistant for a Social Entrepreneurial program where high school students who are passionate about social justice will come together to come up with strategic plans to approach a social injustice in the world. Once I come back from Yale, I will be preparing myself for a retreat with the Regional Board of directors for the Pacific Affiliate of College and University Residence Halls, for which I will be serving as the Regional Technology Coordinator.
I am happy to say that after graduation, I will be working for Teach for America in South Central Washington. I have not received word yet on what subject and grade level that I will be working with, but I am excited nonetheless about the opportunity to decrease the educational gap and work toward resolving injustices that are present in our public education system. I am deeply blessed for the opportunity and humbled to have been chosen a year in advance where now I can focus on my academics and not worry about what I will be doing post-graduation.
Again, I would like to express my utmost thanks for this wonderful opportunity and I hope that I live up to the mission of the scholarship through my academics and the service I will be a part of during the 2014 and 2015 school year. God bless!
Sincerely,
Francisca Phuong Chau
The Mary Stuart Rogers Scholarship provides 12 new scholarships each year to Gonzaga students. Francis was named a Rogers Scholar in the spring of 2014. Rogers Scholars are chosen based on their demonstrated commitment to social justice as made manifest through community service involvement and student leadership and can be identified by their commemorative rings, which are given to scholarship recipients as part of Mary Stuart Rogers’ wishes.
Learn more about the Mary Stuart Rogers Scholarship or how you can establish your own named scholarship at Gonzaga. You can also make a gift in any amount toward Zag scholarships by visiting gonzaga.edu/give.