Maldonian Susan Choy Wins Boston College Award

[Editor's note: The following was submitted by Boston College.]

Malden native Susan Choy has been named the 2011 Dr. Donald Brown Award for extraordinary contributions to the greater AHANA [African-American, Hispanic, Asian and Native American] community at Boston College.

A consummate student leader, Choy said service has always played a big role of her life. Choy points to service trips to Mississippi and Nicaragua as experiences that made the greatest impact on her while in college.

“The experience provided me with the motivation to look inside and learn why things were happening. I decided to become more informed of the current political structure in Nicaragua, sought out news, and returned a second time…it made all the difference for me,” she said.

Choy is a Carroll School of Management student who will graduate this month with a Bachelor of Science in Operations Management and Marketing. She will earn a minor in American Studies with a concentration on Asian American Studies.

While at BC, Choy was involved in the AHANA Leadership Academy, the Emerging Leaders Program and was a member of the Campus School Volunteers Boston Marathon Team. She served as chief-of-staff for the AHANA Leadership Council, was an AHANA Caucus co-director and vice president of the Southeast Asian Student Association.

“I always strive to do my best and try to find what I can do to better myself,” said Choy. “I really want to experience it all and find myself getting antsy if I’m not doing anything. It was nice to find people with a similar mindset here at BC.” 

The Brown Award was established to honor the former director of the Office of AHANA Student Programs, Dr. Donald Brown, who served from 1978 to 2005. Under his leadership, the name of the office was changed from “Office of Minority Student Programs.” Brown is credited with initiating much AHANA programming, including the Thea Bowman Scholars, the Benjamin Elijah Mays Mentoring Program and the Jamie Escalante Tutorial Program. He was instrumental in the development of many University-wide initiatives including the Martin Luther Kind Jr. Scholarship Committee and the Affiliates Program.

“I am humbled and fortunate to be recognized,” said Choy of the award.

Choy has accepted a job in operations at UBS Investment Bank and hopes to earn an MBA in public health.