2010-2011 Application

The Y.F. Wu Asian American and Pacific Islander Student Scholarship provides financial assistance for students of Asian or Pacific Island descent who attend ASU. The Y.F. Wu Scholarship is administered by the APAS Program at ASU, with involvement of from APA educational and community members.

Mr. Wu’s hometown is Panyu, Guangdong Province, China. He attended his last year of high school in Shanghai then studied at Fudan University. He majored in political science and graduated in 1936. After graduation Mr. Wu immigrated to the U.S. from China to seek a master’s degree in Public Administration from Columbia University. While at Columbia, he met his future wife, a student from Shanghai who was majoring in the newly emerging field of genetics.

Mr. Wu obtained his doctorate degree in Economics and took courses at the University of Chicago for a year before the couple decided to return to China in 1940 to live and work. Upon retirement, he and his wife moved join their daughter in Arizona, where their son-in-law taught fluid mechanics at ASU for a number of years.

After his wife passed away and his daughter and son-in-law moved to Hong Kong, Mr. Wu decided to join them in Hong Kong. He lives in a high-rise building on Hong Kong Island and walks 25 minutes every morning to a senior citizen club for socializing, reading, and entertaining.

Mr. Wu established the Ying Fan Wu Foundation to support educational causes and medical research. Over the years, he has made generous donations to several institutions, including ASU, his alma mater Columbia University, and Fudan University in China. In addition to supporting the scholarship fund, Mr. Wu has also made donations to the Phoenix Chinese American Elderly Association. His donation to ASU was one of the key contributions which helped to establish the APAS Program at ASU. This donation is now the endowment for the scholarship program.

The Y.F. Wu Scholarships awards range from funding a year’s tuition to semester book awards. Mr. Wu believes that Asian American and Pacific Islander students should be knowledgeable about and actively involved in their communities, so student recipients are encouraged to participate in Asian American and/or Pacific Islander campus activities.

All full-time Asian American and Pacific Islander students at ASU are encouraged to apply for the Y. F. Wu Scholarship. The Y. F. Wu Scholarship recognizes outstanding students who demonstrate academic excellence combined with leadership and service. The scholarship fund was created in 1990 by the ASU Asian American Faculty and Staff Association (AAFSA) and Arizona’s Asian Pacific American community. Priority is given to Arizona residents and to students who have taken at least one APAS course. A minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0 is required, and students can reapply each year they are eligible.