Jennifer Chang

Chang wins Sproul Award--Cal's highest honor

By Rebecca Ray

Saratoga resident Jennifer Mei-Yin Chang received the highest honor a UC-Berkeley student can receive when she was chosen to receive the school's Robert Gordon Sproul and Ida W. Sproul Award.

Cal gives the award to one male student and one female student each year for campus and community involvement and personal achievement.

"For me to be honored in that way is very humbling," said the 21-year-old Chang. She added that it was "such a thrill, because I've enjoyed every activity I've done at Cal. To be recognized for that is really something special for me."

Chang has served as a student officer and worked on school programs such as Educational Mini-Grants and Cal Feedback and Course Tips for Students while at Cal. Last year, she represented Cal students at the UC system-wide Freshman Admissions Policy Conference.

Because she won a statewide high school leadership award in 1998, Chang belongs to California's Young Women of Achievement. Through this organization, the 1998 Lynbrook High School graduate has hosted various festivals and celebrations, met with government officials and encouraged community service and active participation.

In addition to serving as a program and resident assistant in Cal residence halls, Chang founded Project VIP, a mentoring program for at-risk students at Berkeley middle schools. As a member of the all-female Kappa Alpha Theta sorority, she helps raise money for Court-Appointed Special Advocates, which provides mentorship and support for abandoned children and children from abusive homes. She has also worked for the Cal recruiting office and helped recruit players for the Cal football team.

However, Chang said, of all the activities she has done, the Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership Foundation, which she has belonged to since 1996, has been "the backbone" of her inspiration." She said that a HOBY conference heightened her awareness of issues such as world hunger and taught her that the world was bigger than high school.

As a reward for receiving the Sproul award, Chang spoke at the UC-Berkeley Charter Anniversary Banquet on March 15 at the San Francisco Hilton.

"It was an incredible feeling," she said, partly because her parents, Edmund and Janice Chang of Saratoga, got to share it with her. At a large school like Cal, she says, they don't get as many chances to share her proud moments with her as they did when she was in high school.

Chang, who competed in national speech and debate competitions in high school, said she enjoyed speaking in front of more than 1,000 people at the banquet. She also introduced her parents to Cal administrators, including Chancellor Robert Berdahl, and U.S. Secretary of Transportation Norm Mineta.

Community service has always been a big part of Chang's life. As a little girl, her parents took her to church and various community events. And when she got involved in student government at Blue Hills Elementary School, which she attended from first through fifth grades, she saw the positive things the school did for the community.

Although Miller Middle School in San Jose only had seventh and eighth grades, Chang attended sixth grade there as well. This was because of the Super Six program, in which 30 G.A.T.E. students in the Cupertino Union School District attended sixth grade at a junior high, rather than an elementary school, and took classes with seventh- and eighth-graders.

In high school, Chang got involved in student government and Mothers Against Drunk Driving's first California Youth in Action team, which lobbied for solutions to underage drinking. She also volunteered for Good Samaritan Hospital and belonged to the Saratoga Youth Commission, Saratoga Youth Corps and Sunnyvale Youth Advisory Council.

In May, she will receive her bachelor's degree in political science. Chang, who is minoring in education, hopes to earn a master's degree in education and then attend law school.