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2026 Awardees
2025
Alicia Wu
Biomedical Engineering, Cornell University
Alicia Wu is a Taiwanese American student at Cornell University pursuing a degree in Biomedical Engineering. Inspired by the potential of science and technology to improve human health, she is particularly interested in regenerative medicine, stem cell therapy, women’s health research, and developing treatments for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease. She hopes to build a career translating scientific discoveries into therapies and medical technologies that address unmet healthcare needs, particularly for conditions that have historically been under-researched or lack effective treatments. Through her work, she aspires to improve patients’ quality of life while making innovative, evidence-based care more accessible to individuals and families around the world.
As the daughter of a Taiwanese mother, Alicia values the cultural heritage that has shaped her identity and outlook. She has been influenced by the Taiwanese traditions of perseverance, humility, respect for education, and commitment to serving others. These values have guided her academic journey and motivated her to pursue challenging opportunities that foster both personal growth and meaningful impact.
Beyond the classroom, Alicia is committed to serving her campus and local communities. She will serve as Vice President of Cornell’s Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES), helping to provide professional development and community among fellow biomedical engineers. As Development Coordinator for Camp Kesem, she supports fundraising efforts that provide free summer camps and year-round support for children whose parents have been affected by cancer. She also volunteers with Alzheimer’s Buddies to build meaningful connections with individuals living with Alzheimer’s disease while tutoring students in her free time. Through each of these roles, Alicia strives to embody the Taiwanese values of compassion, service, and lifelong learning while working toward a future dedicated to improving the lives of others through biomedical innovation.
Amber Li
Food Science, UC Davis
Amber Li is from Tainan, Taiwan and moved to the Bay Area during her sophomore year. Next year, she is planning to pursue a Food Science Degree at the University of California, Davis. Her passion for food has sparked from frequent food visits of her childhood. These visits taught her both the history and culture of Taiwan, with flavors like 土托魚羹 and 擔仔麵 specifically storing memories of Tainan. After moving to the states, she missed these flavors from home. To satisfy her cravings, Amber decided to start cooking and experimenting. Some of her favorite dishes to make include 三杯杏鮑菇 and 小火鍋. Throughout this process, she found a way to satisfy her cravings, and also sparked interest in the science behind cooking. The water concentration would change the texture of her steamed eggs, the temperature would modify the taste of her tanghulu, and the humidity would affect the shape of her sponge cake.
During the summer of her junior year, she had the chance to participate in the Agricultural Chemistry Summer Camp held by NTU. She was introduced to gluten, then taught to make it by rinsing a flour dough, washing away its starch. Afterwards, Amber instantly connected the process of making gluten to a side dish for the traditional Taiwanese porridge breakfast—braised canned gluten. She realized that the cheap market of this product reflected the simple process of its production. This experience fueled her to connect her Taiwanese heritage to her passion for making food.
Amber also loves exploring Taiwan’s cultural heritage. In her free time she enjoys taking photographs of the unique architecture of ancient temples and watching Wuxia dramas.
She hopes to explore the characteristics of different foods through food chemistry and management, hoping to develop new innovative products to reflect her taste of Taiwan.
Emma Hsu
Chemistry, Stanford University
Emma Hsu (徐俪容) is a rising freshman at Stanford University majoring in Chemistry. Emma was born and raised in San Francisco, California, by her parents, who were born in and immigrated from Taipei, Taiwan. Having witnessed and experienced firsthand the confusion and fear that come from language barriers and the lack of healthcare equity, she’s motivated to pursue a career in the medical field. Particularly because of her own cyst, Emma has decided to become a surgical oncologist dedicated to using plain language to create open, informative conversations for every patient.
Over time, she wondered how the smallest molecules could control human health. These questions pushed her to attend labs at UC Berkeley and the Summer Science Program’s Synthetic Chemistry course. With these experiences, Emma wishes to use her chemistry degree to contextualize unfamiliar processes, helping patients leave conversations with genuine understanding to fuel their resolve to keep fighting.
Outside of academics, Emma has a strong sense of community advocacy. She founded Health Starts Here, a non-profit organization dedicated to health access and first aid education. Through the organization, she raised over $2,000 to create over 200 first aid kits for low-income communities. In her school, she founded Academic Bowl, a club focusing on schoolwork support, SAT preparation, and national competition training. By bringing her curriculum to the school’s leadership program, Emma raised the average GPA from a 2.7 to a 3.0, allowing failing students to now be eligible for many opportunities.
In her career, Emma wants to balance rigorous science and compassionate humanity. With her chemistry degree, she wishes to help each and every patient to feel less alone and afraid. By choosing to be a surgical oncologist, Emma hopes to become the doctor her family never had, where precision in communication and surgery saves lives.
Leslie Yang
Percussion Performance, Boston Conservatory at Berklee
Leslie Yang is an incoming freshman at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, where she will major in Percussion Performance with a minor in Music Business. A recent graduate of the Interlochen Arts Academy, Leslie studied with world-class faculty and acclaimed guest artists. During her senior year, she was selected for the Interlochen Imagine US National Tour, performing alongside renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma for the premiere performances of Wynton Marsalis’s new cello concerto.
Leslie also took part in the premiere of Terra Infirma, an interdisciplinary harp and percussion concerto by Reena Esmail featuring Yolanda Kondonassis. The project brought together music, visual art, theater, and poetry to raise environmental awareness, which inspired Leslie’s interest in how the arts can spark conversation about global issues. As a percussionist, Leslie is drawn to new and contemporary music. She is passionate about collaborating with living composers, and challenging the norm of what music can be.
Outside of music, Leslie has a strong interest in environmental science. She co-published a paper on a synthetic urine testing model as an alternative nitrogen source for fertilizer, and completed a research mentorship at James Madison University isolating and characterizing bacteriophages. Although she isn’t continuing her formal studies in science, she plans on staying involved through a path that connects her interests in science and music.
In the future, she hopes to grow not only as a musician, but also as an advocate for the role of the arts in society. She plans on continuing to explore how music can connect with other art forms to engage broader audiences, specifically to raise awareness of current social and environmental issues. Leslie hopes to combine her performance career with her leadership and organizational skills to use music as a platform for education and advocacy.
Yinhan Kwong
Pre-Med, University of Michigan
Yinhan Kwong is a rising sophomore at the University of Michigan’s College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. He is currently on the pre-med track and is interested in pursuing dermatology. He was raised in Portland, Oregon, and comes from a Taiwanese-American family. Due to this, he maintains a strong connection with Taiwan throughout his life, and routinely visits each year to see his grandparents living in Taichung.
At the University of Michigan, Yinhan overcame new challenges. Despite coming from a small, private high school and initially struggling in his first few months, he quickly adapted and was able to earn high marks with a max-credit course load with tough weeder classes, while managing work in organizations such as Project Save Our Skin, routinely working on his business endeavors, applications and outreach, pre-med shadowing, being highly active physically, and still maintaining a highly optimized sleep schedule.
This summer, Yinhan has continued his pre-med journey and shadowed at multiple clinics, before departing for his biomedical internship at Molsentech in Taipei, a biotechnology company founded from Taiwan’s top research institution, Academia Sinica. He is currently working there and hopes to develop his professional skills by navigating the real world and learning about the intersection between global healthcare and technology.
Yinhan is very grateful to receive the Taiwanese American Scholarship Fund, and its investment and support. He aims for this to be a step towards his greater goals, with no intention of stopping. He will continue to pursue excellence, with the long term goal of becoming the leading physician-researcher in dermatology.
Alston Ho
Business Administration, University of Southern California
Hi! My name is Alston Ho and I am from the San Francisco Bay Area. I grew up in Taiwan until the age of 8, when my family immigrated to the U.S. Some of my fondest memories from growing up in Taiwan include exploring the local night markets and trying all the food they had to offer.
From a young age, I was drawn to community service and helping others. Whether it was teaching students at a local afterschool program or serving on my county’s Youth Commission, I found significance in the tangible impacts I had when I showed up for those in my community.
Learning about the broad applicability of business and the impact one can make through it made me want to combine both of those passions, which is what drew me toward majoring in Business and exploring ways to continue that type of work in the social impact space.
In the fall, I will be a Sophomore at the University of Southern California majoring in Business Administration. So far, I have been involved in numerous business and consulting clubs and served as part of the executive board for USC’s Taiwanese American Club (TAO). Outside of academics, I enjoy doing spontaneous activities, exploring nature through trails around the Bay Area, and checking out new restaurants.
Receiving the Taiwanese American Scholarship Fund scholarship is something I am truly grateful for, and it motivates me to keep pushing forward, pursue my goals, and give back to this community in the future.
Austin Wei
Biology, Tufts University
I am Austin Wei, one of the 2026 TASF awardees. I am a rising sophomore attending Tufts University as a Biology major to one day become a General Dentist. The reason why I aspire to become a dentist is because I have always had a deep rooted drive for science ever since I interned at BIDMC Harvard Lab and discovered that scientific research helps save lives. I also took an SMFA class in Metal Working and wanted to pursue a hands-on crafts related career. Therefore, I chose dentistry as my calling because dentistry combines both the scientific and crafts world together while saving lives in the process.
Hoshiko Hsu
English concentrating in Creative Writing, Asian-American Studies, and Legal Studies, University of Pennsylvania
Hoshiko Hsu is a Taiwanese-American from Queens, New York.
Devoted to advocacy and expression, she was the co-captain of her high school’s debate and mock trial team, co-president of the animal advocacy group, and co-editor-in-chief of the literary magazine. Then, believing it is every person’s responsibility to foster their community, she also chaired TSTT, a program that mobilizes students to provide free English lessons to underserved children. Her volunteer work has distinguished her as a 4x-Gold President’s Volunteer Service Award recipient.
As a writer, Hoshiko is passionate about the ability of language to foster cultural change and belonging. Having achieved distinctions such as the YoungArts Award, Scholastic Medals, and being named the NYC Youth Poet Laureate, she uses poetry and creative nonfiction to envision the future we are long overdue for. Her performances have been featured at Federal Hall, the Brooklyn Museum, WNYC, and the New York Botanical, amongst others.
This fall, Hoshiko is continuing her studies at the University of Pennsylvania as a University Scholar. She intends to pursue Creative Writing, Asian-American Studies, and Legal Studies, using her intersectional humanities interest to document the Taiwanese-American experience in literature.
Her essence can be summed in the following if you commit yourself to something, do it wholly. Do it with no expectation. Do it because you love it. Do this, and you will rarely find regret standing in your path; instead, a field of flowers and a blue sky. Seeds you sowed. Love you reap.
Victoria Yang
Public Policy, UC Riverside
Victoria Yang (楊宗樺) is a second year Public Policy major at the University of California, Riverside. As a child of Taiwanese-Chinese immigrants, Victoria has always found it precarious to balance her ethnic identity alongside her American upbringing in a society that wasn’t created for people like her.
Inspired by her identity, she developed a passion for law and advocacy, through expanding access and opportunities within her community. She founded her school’s Mock Trial Association, a club designed to introduce students to the legal field and provide guidance for those exploring careers in law, an area previously underrepresented at her school.
As Program Facilitator for APIs Mobilize, Victoria designed a leadership program empowering Asian American students to run for public office and connect with their ethnic identities. Victoria also serves as a founding member and Chief Administrative Officer of Therapicasso with the goal of addressing intergenerational trauma among students, parents, educators, and community leaders through art.
At UC Riverside, Victoria works as a Research Assistant with Professor Jennifer Gaudette to study how interest groups and economic elites affect electoral results. She was also part of the UCR delegation for the first-ever UC-wide AANHPI Advocacy Day. In Sacramento, she used her lived experience to lobby for expanding language access and establishing dual enrollment programs in front of state elected officials.
After college, Victoria aspires to become a lawyer who advocates both in the courtroom and her community, inspiring and uplifting others to discover their inner strength just as she has discovered hers in law and advocacy.
Rylyn Wang
Mathematics and Biology, Brown University
Rylyn Wang is an incoming freshman at Brown University, where she plans to concentrate in Mathematics and Biology. As of now, she is exploring two different paths: the computational biology route into the medical field, or actuarial studies within the business and finance industry. Growing up with both parents being diagnosed with cancer, her family has faced many health concerning and financial related problems. In the future, she wishes to gain the knowledge to alleviate this burden on both her family and future youth experiencing the same thing. She attributes her drive and motivation to her family, friends, and pets, who inspire her to work hard and pursue her goals. She has been deeply involved in cat fostering, helping coordinate volunteers and organize foster events to find cats loving homes. Last summer, she also traveled to rural Taiwan to teach English to elementary school students, an experience that allowed her to reconnect with her cultural roots while contributing to the education of the next generation. Her goal in life is to secure a future where she can support first generation and low income students like her succeed in life. She is grateful to the Taiwanese American Scholarship Foundation whose generous scholarship will help support her journey at Brown University and more.
