Hongkonger who tutors prisoners gets top Ivy League honour
In her valedictorian speech, Chow Jin-yun also thanked ‘unsung heroes’ such as janitors and security guards for her Princeton experience
A Hongkonger who tutors prison inmates has been given the top honour for her class this year at a prestigious Ivy League university in North America.
Chow Jin-yun, a former student at the Independent Schools Foundation Academy in Hong Kong, said she was “surprised and flattered” after being named valedictorian, the highest ranking student, at Princeton University for 2017.
The 22-year-old graduate delivered the valedictorian speech at her graduation this week, in which she praised the university’s “unsung heroes”, including security guards, janitors and other university employees whom she said had “shaped her Princeton experience”.
“For me, being named valedictorian is much less about being recognised for my academic achievements and more about being given the opportunity to say something that matters to a group of extremely talented and diverse students who are about to go into the real world,” she said.
“In my speech, I also talked about the importance of giving genuine human interaction a chance to blossom when we are all governed by our over-packed schedules.
Chow will pursue a PhD in comparative literature at Stanford University, after completing her undergraduate degree in the same subject at Princeton. During her course she studied Latin, German and Old Irish, as well as taking literature classes in Chinese and French.