- The article was originally posted on caifuglobal.com
Angela A. Chao, Deputy Chair of the Foremost Group, was the natural choice for Caifu Magazine’s inaugural Education Issue. A graduate of Harvard Business School, an accomplished businesswoman and entrepreneur, and a member of a unique family with an inspiring immigration and success story, Angela’s perspective on education is worth lingering on. Together with Sara Donelly, writer for Caifu Magazine, she discusses a variety of issues, academic excellence, philanthropy, immigration and gender included. Here are a few highlights from their fascinating conversation.
The Importance of Education
Education is something one can take anywhere and everywhere, Angela explains when asked about her educational heritage and personal views. It is a key to empowerment and success in life, a tool one achieves and then carries and uses throughout one’s life. This is one of the formative messages Angela Chao received from her parents who persevered through many challenges, in China, during their journey to the US and when building their family and business. It is this philosophy that guided Angela through important life choices. However, while emphasizing the importance of education, Angela also points out how important it was for her parents to remind her that it is not a goal in itself but a means to an end, a valuable tool. The central part education played and continues to play in the lives of the Chao family members is the foundation for much of their philanthropic activity.
The Ruth Mulan Chao Center
The Ruth Mulan Chu Chao Center and the Ruth Mulan Chu and James Si-Cheng Chao Family Fellowship Fund were funded by a donation granted to Harvard Business School by Chao family foundations in 2012. The center, which is named after Angela’s mother, is the first Harvard building to be named after a woman and the first building to be named after a person of Chinese descent. Angela speaks of the significance of this gift to her family’s life-long mission of facilitating academic achievement, providing educational opportunities to those who would not be able to otherwise afford it, and advancing the status of the Chinese people in the US and across the world. She describes her mother as a woman who was guided by strong values of sincerity and integrity, a woman who constantly worked for positive change, advocated for education and made an effort to nurture and strengthen the cultural ties between America and China. The center and the fellowship are an expression of her valuable legacy.