A Blessed Life

Cliff Huang ’68 (Ph.D.) weaves a tale that is truly rags to (academic) riches. It’s a success story that he is quick to attribute to family, friends and mentors – and one that led Huang to recently make a $1.5 million gift to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

This gift has established the Chin-Su and Yu-Mei Huang Fund in Economics in honor and memory of his parents. The fund is designated to support graduate students in the department of economics in the College of Arts & Sciences. Huang also has plans to add to the fund in the future through a significant estate gift.

In September 1964, Huang left Taiwan for North Carolina after being admitted to UNC-Chapel Hill. He had not received financial aid and only had $400 in his pocket. With not enough money to pay the $250 tuition, Huang visited the registrar’s office, where they ultimately waived his tuition.

“Looking back, I am so grateful for the financial generosity of the tuition waiver that made my education at UNC possible,” Huang said. “My UNC education helped make it possible for me to fulfill my dream of being a college professor. I constantly remind myself of a Chinese idiom that says, ‘When you drink water, think of its origin.’ Funding scholarships for students in need, just as I was some 50 years ago, would be the only way I could ever repay my deep gratitude to my alma mater.”

Read Huang’s complete Carolina Story..

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