Jessica Shu-Kuen Chang: College's Generosity Supported Exploration

Jessica Shu-Kuen Chang and Connie Chung

essica Shu-Kuen Chang '07, Connie Chung Scholarship recipient and computer science alumna, had an invaluable cross-disciplinary experience at Maryland. She says an internship in the A. James Clark School of Engineering taught her about "leading a balanced life. The computer science department encouraged me to take courses that would challenge me, even those not necessarily geared toward undergraduates," Chang says, adding that independent research with faculty helped her interests materialize into a field she's pursuing in graduate school at the University of Washington, where she studies computer science. "These things you can't learn in class," she says.

In her last two years at the university, Chang also received an award from the Christopher David Malter Memorial Scholarship Fund, the Clifford and Camille Kendall Dean's Scholarship and the John D. Gannon Scholarship—all from the College of Computer, Mathematical and Physical Sciences. The gifts, she says, have "allowed me the time and energy to focus my efforts toward my studies and invest more in my community...this may not be quantifiable, but then again, things that have the deepest impact usually are not."

Award-winning journalist Chung '69 is a co-chair of the Great Expectations scholarships campaign and an Alumni Hall of Fame inductee.