Several Asian culture groups recently partnered with the Asian Caucus of Boston College to celebrate the naming of the Asian American Scholarship.

In order to bring more awareness to the student body, the clubs organized a rally in the Middle Campus quad and decorated the campus with yellow balloons, posters, and banners to commemorate the official naming of the Corazon and Benigno Aquino Scholarship.  Members of Asian American clubs also handed out yellow ribbons, flyers, and stickers of Corazon and Benigno Aquino.

“It’s great that the scholarship is finally named, since it has been awarded for over ten years.  I’m thrilled that it finally got named my senior year,” said Helen Wu, a senior at Boston College.

Although members of Asian American organizations at Boston College are pleased that the scholarship has received a name, grievances were also expressed at the rally.

“The naming of the scholarship was a collaborative effort between the Asian American clubs and the university.  It would have been nice if the university did more to announce that it has been named, rather than simply leave it up to us,” Helen Wu explained.

The Asian American Scholarship Committee, or AASC, established a formal process for naming the Asian American Scholarship last May.

“Great care was taken to include the undergraduate student body, faculty, and administration’s voice in this process,” explained Jennifer Liao, president of the Asian Caucus.

The AASC created a website for the greater Boston College community to nominate candidates for the scholarship to be named after.  According to the AASC, nominations had to have either a direct connection to Boston College, or an indirect connection, such as a person who demonstrated a lifetime of adherence to Boston College’s mission.

The website received eighty-eight nominations, and after much deliberation and debate, the AASC presented five nominations to Father Leahy, SJ, president of Boston College.

It was then decided that the scholarship would be named after Corazon and Benigno Aquino, two famous Filipino political leaders who’s lives display a commitment to social justice.

“The Aquinos’ story is a call to action that we must live our lives not in service of ourselves but to the people around us,” expressed Jennifer Liao.

Benigno Aquino was a Filipino senator and governor who was fiercely opposed to Filipino president Ferdinand Marcos, who was known for despotism, corruption, and human rights violations.  Aquino spent three years in self-exile, when he moved to Newton, Massachusetts, the very city Boston College is located in.

Upon returning from self-exile, Benigno was assassinated by President Marcos’s government in 1983.

Following her husband’s death, Corazon Aquino entered the political arena, campaigned against Marcos’s government, and was elected to the presidency by the people of the Philippines.  She was the first woman to hold the office, as well as the first popularly and democratically elected female president and head of state in Asia.  After her term ended in 1992, she remained politically active until her recent death on August 1, 2009.

Students were encouraged by the Asian Caucus to wear yellow in order to celebrate the naming of the scholarship.  The organization chose yellow because it is significant to Corazon and Benigno Aquino’s efforts: Corazon Aquino wore yellow after her husband’s assassination and during her heroic presidential campaign.  The color yellow symbolizes the Aquinos love for Filipinos and their understanding that social justice was more important than their own personal comfort or desires, according to posters handed out by the Asian Caucus at the rally.

“Corazon and Benigno were model examples of living for others,” said Jennifer Liao.

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