Chinese Student Scholarship
The Chinese Student Scholarship was established in 2018 by Dr. Betsy Y.C. Strong in honor of her father, Joseph Siao-Dah Chow, who attended Asbury and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1933. The scholarship awards $2,500 per year for four years to a student of Chinese descent.
Impact
From his daughter, Dr. Betsy Y.C. Strong:
Joseph Chow was born in 1909 in the city of Nanking, China. His family was not well-to-do, and only with the help of an uncle was he able to attend school as a youngster. As a teenager, his family moved to the bustling seaport city of Shanghai where he met some American missionaries. Joseph spent much of his adolescent years frequenting the missionary halls after school. The missionaries got to know him and saw him as a promising young man, which eventually led to them offering him a scholarship to attend Asbury College.
In 1929, Joseph sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco on his way to Kentucky from China to begin his Asbury journey. After earning his bachelor’s degree in 1933, Joseph returned to Shanghai to study law, ultimately securing positions with companies such as Bayer and Shell Oil. He also met and married Josie M.T. Hwang, a piano teacher, and they had four children.
Surviving the Japanese invasion and witnessing the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, Joseph relocated his family to Hong Kong where he continued to work as a lawyer for Shell Oil until his retirement at age 57. In 1969, Joseph’s family moved to Los Angeles, California, where he worked for a title company and later as an interpreter for the LA County court system for another 28 years before retiring a second time at age 88. Joseph passed away at the age of 96 with four children and 14 grandchildren.
From Dr. Betsy Y.C. Strong:
“What I most admired about my father [was] his faith and his never-give-up attitude. He prayed fervently for each and every member of his family daily. He had incredible tenacity and did not give up in situations which would have been daunting for anyone else. He trusted that God had a plan for him and had a blanket of protection for him and his family.
“I would like to extend my deep appreciation to Asbury College on behalf of the family. Joseph Chow (and his family) would never have had the life opportunities without the gift provided to him by the Shanghai missionaries.”