Wootton with Chenhui Liu
COLLEGE STATION, April 29, 2011 — Chenhui Liu, a sophomore business major from China, received Texas A&M University’s 2011 Eppright Outstanding International Student Award during a luncheon meeting of the university’s International Board.
The Texas A&M Eppright Outstanding International Student Award is the highest honor presented to a currently enrolled international student at the university.
Chad Wootton, associate vice president for external affairs who presented the award, said Chenhui Liu has worked very hard in the short time she has been at Texas A&M and is very deserving of the award which recognizes the outstanding contribution made by a student to international understanding and leadership at Texas A&M and in the local community. The criteria to receive this prestigious award, which carries with it a $2,500 scholarship, includes an excellent academic record, involvement in a wide array of university and community activities, and promotion of international awareness on campus and in the community.
Nominators say from the moment Liu stepped off the bus at Fish Camp before her freshmen year, she had already decided she would share her Chinese culture with everyone who wanted to know. As a participant in the Freshman Leadership Learning Community (L3C) she impressed the L3C co-coordinator with the variety of her different extra-curricular activities, her initiative to see opportunities and gain experience that would better prepare for her future and always to find ways to share her Chinese culture.
After joining the Chinese Students and Scholars Association, Liu set up a bi-weekly Cultural Exchange Salon connecting non-Chinese Aggies interested in China with Chinese students who were willing to share personal experiences and create further opportunities for interaction. She now serves as vice president of Chinese Students and Scholars Association and is a mentor for the International Students Mentor Association. She also serves as a sophomore peer mentor in a Freshman Leadership Learning Community. Liu was active in China Week, Chi-Aggie Night, Mid Autumn Festival Performance and Brazos Valley Worldfest. She directed and performed in the drama “Butterflies Love” and sang in the “Heal the World” for the Haiti earthquake relief effort.
In the community she coordinated and instructed the Chinese Cultural Program at Jane Long Middle School for students.
Eppright finalists with Chenhui Liu (Center) and Krista Tacey (right)
Three other students were finalist for this year’s award, Juan Kamar, a senior chemical engineering student from Honduras; Siddharth Thawrani, a senior finance major from India, and Ratnaprabha, a doctoral student in molecular and environmental plant sciences from India. Wootton said that each of the finalists is an absolutely outstanding student and has been involved in activities both on the campus and in the community. For the first time this year each student finalist received a $500 scholarship award.
Riyadh Chakmachi, a former international student from Iraq, created the Outstanding International Student Award in 1985. In 1991, the award was endowed through the generosity of the late Col. George J. Eppright, class of 1926. The criteria to receive this prestigious award includes an excellent academic record, involvement in a wide array of university and community activities, and promotion of international awareness on campus and in the community.
Contact: Linda Edwards, Phone: 979-862-6700
Tags: Chenhui Liu, Eppright