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Date: September 14, 1998
Four Outstanding Undergraduates Receive Prizes as Academic Year Begins
Princeton, N.J. -- Four Princeton University undergraduates received academic prizes yesterday from President Harold T. Shapiro during ceremonies held September 13 to open the 1998-99 academic year. Outstanding members of each class received $1,000 cash prizes honoring exceptional scholastic achievement.
The winners were: Chan Vee Chong '99 of Singapore; Renee Yuen-Jan Hsia '99 of Arlington, Texas; Andrew A. Houck '00 of Colts Neck, N.J.; and Jared G. Kramer '01 of Atkinson, N.H.
Top-Ranking Senior
Chong is the winner of the Class of 1939 Princeton Scholar Award, giving annually to the senior who, at the end of the junior year, has achieved the highest academic standing for all prior work at Princeton.
Chong, who expects to graduate in June 1999 after only three years at Princeton, is completing a degree in electrical engineering. He will be working on his senior independent project under the direction of Professor Hisashi Kobayashi. He is studying at Princeton on a full scholarship, known as the Glaxo-Wellcome EDB Scholarship, from the Singapore Economic Development Board. During the summer of 1998, Chong worked for the Economic Development Board, which aims to attract investment to the Southeast Asian nation.
The son of See Lee Chong and Kwai Chan Chong of Singapore, Chong has been active with the Southeast Asia Society while at Princeton. He has served as the group's co-chair for publications and as treasurer. In the summer of 1997, Chong completed a Princeton summer program in Japan, then known as Nihongo Studies in Kanazawa, where he studied the Japanese language.
Exceptional Junior-Year Work
Hsia, daughter of Dr. Pei and Fontaine Hsia, received the George B. Wood Legacy Junior Prize, given to the incoming senior in recognition of outstanding academic achievement during the junior year at Princeton. Hsia is a major in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, where her work focuses on development issues in China under the direction of Professor of Politics and International Affairs Lynn White III. Hsia plans a senior thesis on the activity and direction of non-governmental organizations working in mainland China. Hsia, who speaks Mandarin and Cantonese, is also pursuing a certificate in East Asian Studies.
At Princeton, Hsia has been involved with the Princeton Evangelical Fellowship and the Student Volunteers Council, having served as project director for the Conversational English Program. This program pairs Princeton students with the spouses of graduate students or visiting scholars from foreign countries who wish to improve their English skills. Hsia is also a member of the Symphony Orchestra and has performed with the Princeton Jazz Ensemble.
Hsia, a member of the Woodrow Wilson School Advisory Council, studied in South Africa last year with a Wilson School policy task force on education, which worked with the Amy Biehl Foundation in the black township of Guguleto. She is a recipient of the Colin U. Miller Scholarship and the R.W. van de Welde Prize, and she was named the 1997-98 Charles Plohn í66 Scholar. Her senior research is supported by the McSpadden Fund and the George McGregor Fund.
Award for Sophomore Year Work
Houck, also an electrical engineering major, won the George B. Wood Legacy Sophomore Prize, given for exceptional work in the second year at Princeton. Houck was last year's winner of the Freshman First Honor Prize. He is a recipient of the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship.
At Princeton, Houck is active in the Princeton Evangelical Fellowship. As a freshman, he tutored fellow students in his residential college, Wilson College. This year, he will be a resident assistant at Wilson.
Houck has spent the past two summers working as a technical associate at Lucent Technologies/Bell Labs. His parents are Dave and Dennie Houck of Colts Neck.
Freshman First Honor Prize
Kramer, a graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy, received the Freshman First Honor Prize, awarded for superior academic work in the f irst year at Princeton. His alma mater will receive a check for $250 for the purchase of books in his name.
Kramer, son of George and Jennie Kramer of Atkinson, plans to major in computer science and is also interested in English literature. (Princeton students do not declare a major until the end of the sophomore year.) While at Princeton, Kramer has been active in the Glee Club and the Ballroom Dancing Club. On his own time, he enjoys running. He spent the summer of 1998 working at Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. in Portsmouth, N.H.