03.23.07
Scholarship honors struggle to succeed
Paul Louie, a social activist, retired Presbyterian minister and 16-year member of the L.A. Human Rights Commission, has donated $100,000 to establish a scholarship fund at San Francisco State University for poor and disenfranchised students.
The Louie Loy and Leong Shee Memorial Scholarship honors the memories of Louie’s parents, who emigrated from China at the turn of the 20th century. (Louie’s father made it into the country just two months before Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act.) Together, the Louies overcame hardships like anti-Chinese discrimination to raise 11 children and build businesses in Seattle.
“Generations always stand on the shoulders of the ones who come before them,” said Louie, who himself earned a master’s from Harvard’s Divinity School with the support of his parents. “It is my strongest hope that students who receive this scholarship never forget where they came from, work hard to prepare themselves, and find ways to give back to their communities.”