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Fairfax, VA -- AASuccess 2009 Scholarship Award Ceremony was held at the Taste of Saigon Restaurant (McLean, VA) on Saturday, March 21, 2009. Every year AASuccess, a non-profit organization providing leadership development through community involvement, nominates a number of high school and college students with scholarship awards. The scholarship application is a competitive process and the students are required to describe volunteer activities with an emphasis on commitment, compassion, and unselfish desire to help others. For this year, AASuccess recognized three college and seven high school students from around the Washington, DC Metropolitan Area with scholarship awards. These students truly exemplified the act of giving back in our community.

In addition, AASuccess commended five AASuccess student members with awards for their hard work in helping the organization and its members throughout the past year.

Award Recipients meet with Scholarship Donors and Distinguished Guest Speakers

In many instances, a student will apply for a named scholarship and never have the opportunity to meet the person behind the financial support. AASuccess connects students and donors at its annual Scholarship Award Ceremony.

"I am proud to be a part of AASuccess and a part of the sponsorship and judging of the scholarship program. Last night’s event represented so much growth in just a short year for AAS! To watch and hear these young future leaders speak and interact was heartwarming. The stories touched me in ways that filled my own eyes with tears. (Emotions are the true sign of one who cares). Thank you for letting me be part of this. I had a conflicting wedding and chose to be part of this ceremony due to a belief that when one commits, commit 100%. Less is unacceptable", said Mr. Mike Eastman, Vice President of First Guaranty Mortgage Corporation (FGMC), one of the donors for the 2009 AASuccess Scholarship Fund.

In all, five scholarship fund donors attended the ceremony and met the scholarship and award recipients:

Dr. Vincent Nguyen (President, Vietnamese Medical Society of N.E. America)

Mr. Ameet Rawtani (Washington Pacific Group)

Ms. Kristine Phan (Fidelity Lending Group, Inc.)

Mr. Greg Welty (ReMax Choice/Welty)

Ms. Brigitte Le (Gallerie Brigitte, Inc.)

Distinguished Guest Speakers

Our Keynote Speaker, Dr. Roger Sabadinni, President & Scientific Co-Founder of Vaxiion, and Founder, Vice President, & Chief Scientific Officer of Lpath, offered inspiring words for the students, reflecting on the many challenges he faced and overcame to achieve his goals as a person whose family was affected by the Holocaust.

Ms. Tu-Anh, Fashion Designer, Artist, Beauty & Style Coach, received rousing applause for her motivational remarks as guest speaker. Virginia State Delegate, Steve Shannon, offered words of encouragement to the scholarship recipients whose families were in attendance. Former Virginia Attorney General, Robert McDonnell, congratulated the recipients not only for their scholarship, but also for their dedication to community engagement and advanced education.

SCHOLARSHIP & AWARD RECIPIENTS

Grand Scholarship Recipients

Park, Alice Virginia Tech

Tran, Anthony Thomas Jefferson HS

Scholarship Recipients

Cheon, Byron University of Virginia

Tran, Jennifer University of Virginia

Do, Elizabeth Falls Church HS

Nguyen, Trang Falls Church HS

Monero, Mirella Saldana Jeb Stuart HS

Nguyen, KhanhMi McLean HS

Outstanding Award Recipients

Tran, Phuong Virginia Tech

Nguyen, Kendra Northwood HS

Recognition Award Recipients

Cheon, Byron University of Virginia

Do, Elizabeth Falls Church HS

Nguyen, KhanhMi McLean HS

Pham, Minh Jeb Stuart HS

Our Greatest Appreciation to the following Distinguished Judges:
Ms. Melissa Chern, Mr. Mike Eastman, Ms. Trang Huynh, Mrs. Kaye Kory, Ms. Ching Lam, Ms. Bich-Phuong Nguyen, Ms. Irina Nguyen, Dr. Lan Tu, Mr. Greg Welty, and Mr. Joseph Woitach.

About Asian American Success

Formed in 2006, AASuccess continues to provide young Asian American and other minority high school and college students with leadership development and social networking opportunities to become active leaders in the community. We aim to partner career professionals with the students to help guide them toward leadership positions. AASuccess students are challenged as leaders to make significant contributions in their local communities and are afforded mentoring and leadership training, internships and scholarships, and access to in-depth personal and career resources through AASuccess’ network of member professionals and businesses.