Dr. Chen Chen Kan, President

Born in Taiwan, my parents came from mainland China during the Chinese Civil War in late 1940s. Not long ago, I myself was a kid who needed financial support to finish education.  I am very grateful for having been supported by all sorts of scholarships and various part-time jobs offered out of people’s kindness.

After graduating from Taipei First Girls’ High School, I studied Biology at Fu-Jen Catholic University and then went on to receive my master degree in Molecular Biology from Tsing-Hua University.  Once again, with scholarship provided by the University of Texas at Dallas, I finished my Ph.D. degree in Molecular Biology.  After having worked in Pharmaceutical industry until 1999, now I teach in Claremont, California at Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences with research interest in the area of drug discovery for infectious diseases. 

Thanks to the help from Mr. Joe Ko and many other friends, in the fall of 2003 I started a Springbud class for 40 junior high girls in Xingzi, Jiangxi province. Again, I am thankful for being delegated as the Chairperson of Aspire Education Foundation, by its founder Ms. Yufen Yeh in May 2006, to carry on its mission.  Dear friends, please let’s start and/or continue our hard work together for “making a difference in rural China through education, one student at a time”.

Dr. Mia Fon-Chiu Chen, Vice President

I was born in Fujian China, but grew up in Taiwan. I had a happy worry-free childhood.  I received a BS degree from Fu Jen University in Taiwan, and a PhD in Pharmacology from University of Arizona.   Afterwards, I continued my postdoc training in University of California at San Diego and Salk Institute.   Currently, I am a Principal Scientist for Genzyme Diagnostics.  My husband owns his business; we have two healthy beautiful daughters.  We live in San Diego County and enjoy gardening activities.   We feel that we are blessed with opportunities, and would like to help those kids in rural China who are less fortunate.

Dr. Wenquing Wendy Tang, Treasurer

I was born in Shanghai, China, with a childhood memory bearing imprints of what happened during the “Cultural Revolution”. After high school, I settled down in a village in Anhui province to be “re-educated”. I was able to quickly adjust to the rugged living conditions there and soon initiated a program to teach village kids reading and writing at night after working more than ten hours in the field. Oftentimes, I had to give away goodies I brought from home to motivate these kids. Three years later, I entered East China Normal University in Shanghai majoring in Physics, and became one of the last class of college students “selected from workers, peasants and soldiers”.  I came to the US in 1982 with a scholarship from the CUSPEA (China US Physics Examination and Admission) program, and got Ph.D. in Physics and MS in Computer Science from Michigan State University in 1987. Since then I have been working at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, studying ocean atmosphere interaction using satellite remote sensing technique. Upon learning about what Aspire Education Foundation has accomplished, I was extremely moved, and my own experiences taught me how much help is still needed in the rural areas of China even today after thirty years.  I am honored to become part of this organization and to make my little contribution.

Dr. Peyyun Peggy Li, Board member

Also born and raised in Taipei, Taiwan, I was the youngest in a family of four children. My parents came from Jiang Su, China and moved to Taiwan in 1949 with the ROC government. I graduated from National Taiwan University, Electrical Engineering Department with both a bachelor and a master degree. I then got a Ph.D. in Computer Science from California Institute of Technology. Currently, I am working at Jet Propulsion Laboratory as a computer scientist.

As a mother of two children, I feel blessed that my children are raised in such a free and prosperous society that they can have the best education and unlimited opportunities. I have been actively involved with my children's school support groups hoping to make a small but positive impact to my children and to the community. I am inspired by Chen Chen's enthusiasm and unselfish love, thus would like to help to make the Aspire Education Foundation a vehicle to join many small forces into a big stream to enable more poor children in rural China to get better education.