Applause rang out in the Faculty Dining Room Tuesday evening as Eugene Yuan stood to accept the 2026 Benigno and Corazon Aquino Scholarship award.
“Thank you so much for hearing me out and helping me better the community,” Yuan, MCAS ’27, said.
Yuan was named the 30th winner of the annual Aquino Scholarship, which is awarded to a Boston College junior with a “strong academic record who has actively been actively engaged in Asian American issues and service to the Asian American community,” according to the scholarship’s website.
Named for Benigno and Corazon Aquino, two Filipino political activists who propelled the country toward democracy during the 1970s and ’80s, the scholarship provides the recipient with $25,000 toward their senior-year tuition and a $1,000 gift certificate to the BC Bookstore.
Yuan, a cadet in the University’s army ROTC program, hopes to become a veterinary pathologist in the Army Veterinary Corps.
In the program, he shared that he “hopes to build stronger support networks of international students” on campus and ultimately strengthen student voices.
Yuan was one of five finalists alongside Mary Jeong, CSOM ’27, and Rachel Buhay, Alexander Favorito, and Andrew Ren, all MCAS ’27. Each finalist receives a $1,000 gift certificate to the BC Bookstore and a small scholarship.
University President Rev. William P. Leahy, S.J., presented Yuan with the award, emphasizing the importance of resilience amid moments of isolation.
“That word resilience keeps coming back to me because I think in living life, we know there are moments where things don’t always go as we might wish,” Leahy said. “There are times when we can feel isolated and perhaps not connected. But what we share, no matter whether we came recently to the United States or 100 years ago, it’s a humanity—a common humanity.”
Shaina Lu, a queer Taiwanese American artist and educator, delivered the keynote address, during which she shared her journey to finding passion in both art and teaching, encouraging the audience to work for themselves and for what they love.
“I want the art that I create to be freely for myself and my community, looking at the work that needs to be done,” Lu said. “And for you too, I hope that you look at your communities and think, ‘What gifts can I give them?’”
2025 Aquino Scholarship Recipient Jadon Lee, CSOM ’26, reflected on how his time at BC has pushed him to create his own story and use his tools to better the Asian American community as a whole.
“I’ve come to believe that we are not just culture inheritors—we are culture creators,” Lee said. “We take what was given to us, whether that’s our family sacrifices, our community’s resilience, our histories, languages, different values, and we shape something new out of it.”
Lee reminded the finalists of their commitment to the Aquinos’ legacy and the finalists’ role in carrying out the mission of supporting everyone’s rights and livelihoods.
“You’re stepping into a deep legacy,” Lee said. “You aren’t just inheriting it, but you are shaping it.”
