Scholarship

Objective

To provide financial and personal assistance to selected Wah Yan students who would like to pursue a university education in the US and who have bona fide financial needs.

Background

The Fr Deignan Scholarship was established in 2000 by a group of Wah Yan alumni living in the San Francisco bay area whose lives were touched by their experiences at Wah Yan. We felt that the top students have lot of options, including other merit-based scholarships and probably do not need our help. We, instead, have directed our energy to helping those deserving students who may not have stellar academic achievement and their families do not have the financial means to allow them to pursue a university education in the United States. In essence, we want to give students a “second chance” to achieve their fullest potential.

We favor helping students who would attend their first 2 years at a junior college not because we want to lower our standards. Quite the contrary, junior college in the US is an excellent stepping stone to an eventual bachelor degree at a prestigious university. Many of us in the San Francisco area have done exactly that, and eventually graduated from MIT, UC Berkeley, Stanford, Columbia, etc. Quite frankly, many of us probably would not be accepted as freshmen to these same schools we graduated from.

Since the founding of Fr. Deignan scholarship more than 20 awards have been granted. Through generous donations and matching grants from our members, together with contribution from the Southern California Chapter, we look forward to helping more young Wahyanites to come to study in America.

Program Information

The current award amount is $8000 per student for two years. Our goal is to grant two new awards each year. Based on the financial condition of our reserve and availability of matching grant, we may adjust the number of new awards. A scholarship selection committee comprised of our chapter members is formed to shepherd the process.

Typically in March of each year our chapter will contact the two principals of Wah Yan to detail the current program (or changes) and ask them to collect the applicants from both schools. During the month of May the selection committee will evaluate the applications and conduct interview with students. In June we announce the awards.

The aforementioned timeline may change. Detailed and updated application information and timeline will be posted in this web site by March of each year.