Boston College Law Student Seung Hye (Shang) Yang ’24 has been awarded a $15,000 Don H. Liu Scholarship. The coveted honor is offered to three scholars each year who possess the greatest potential to both excel in the classroom and succeed at a top law firm or Fortune 500 corporation.
Yang is the first BC Law student to be given this opportunity since the founding of the Don H. Liu Scholars Program in 2014 by two past presidents of the Asian American Bar Association of New York, Jean Lee and Mike Huang. It is named after Don H. Liu, executive vice president and chief legal and risk officer for Target and a member of its executive leadership team.
According to its website, the scholars program’s goal is to identify, cultivate, and inspire future Asian American leaders within the legal profession in order to address the single most important reality facing Asian American professionals today—the barrier to advancement.
Yang, a 1L student representative for BC Law’s Asian Pacific American Law Students Association (APALSA) and writer for the BC Law Impact blog, will receive the scholarship as well as mentorship and assistance with her career development, including identifying potential internships.
“I am still undecided on what kind of law I want to practice in the future and I am hoping that the mentorship this program offers will provide me with some guidance from Asian American attorneys currently working in the private sector of New York,” said Yang. “Ultimately, I want to be able to use my legal education to help people who come from backgrounds similar to my mother’s. Growing up as immigrants, it was hard for her and my late father to find proper legal help due to their language barriers and financial hardship. Watching their struggles with the law inspired me to become a lawyer who could help people like them.”
An integral mission of the scholars program is to increase representation of Asian Americans in positions of influence, leadership, and power within the legal profession. To that end, says Yang, “I want to equalize the legal field so people from all backgrounds can afford the help they need.”