By From a young age, Cal State Long Beach student Anna Chau has always needed to support herself or her family.
Chau, however, who has been paying for graduate school out of pocket, was given some support when the Cal State University Board of Trustees awarded her a $3,000 scholarship at last week’s meeting.
Chau, a graduate student in the counseling program, was awarded a 2013 CSU Trustees’ Award for Outstanding Achievement, representing CSULB in the ceremony at last week’s Board meeting.
“This was the biggest [scholarship] that I was applying for and never in a million years did I think I’d get it,” Chau said. “I got a call stating that I was the one nominated by the [CSU] chancellor to be chosen for the scholarship for [CSULB]. I was very ecstatic. I was very happy and shocked.”
The outstanding achievement award is given to a student who displays great academic performance, community service, financial need and personal accomplishments, according to a CSULB press release.
Chau’s parents came to America from Vietnam after the Vietnam War, and she grew up in San Francisco where she started working at the age of 14 to support her family.
After earning her bachelor’s degree in psychology at San Francisco State University, she took two years off of school to live in Hong Kong. Chau came back to the U.S. to pursue her master’s degree in counseling.
After earning her master’s degree, Chau said she hopes to work with minorities and at-risk populations, as well as victims of trauma and minorities in the jail population.
She said her upbringing influenced her decision to pursue counseling in graduate school.
“I grew up with Asian immigrant parents, so feelings were never talked about and they were never shared,” Chau said. “Being able to go into counseling and help other people to explore their feelings and talk about them was a huge thing for me.”
The Board honored Chau and the other award recipients at its meeting in the Chancellor’s Office last week.
“The ceremony was something that I will never forget because I got to sit in a room with 22 other students who have endured some, if not more, of the same stuff that I went through,” Chau said. “It was just such a powerful room to hear different stories that we got to share about our upbringing and struggles that we came across to where we’re at now.”
Chau said she was overcome with emotion when the award recipients were given a standing ovation at the end of the ceremony.
Bita Ghafoori, a counseling professor at CSULB and an adviser to Chau, said she was thrilled for Chau. Ghafoori described Chau as a dedicated, intelligent and committed student.
“It shows the quality of students we have here at CSULB,”Ghafoori said.
Chau, who is paying out of pocket for graduate school, said she will put the scholarship money toward her tuition, which will help to lower her student loan debt.
