Chinese-American Bearcats have a chance to be named as the first recipient of a new scholarship at the University of Cincinnati.

An up-and-coming scholarship fund aimed at aiding Chinese-American — and eventually all Asian-American students at the University of Cincinnati — was recently approved and is now in the process of gaining funding.

The architect of the scholarship is Jeff Guo, a professor in the James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy at UC. Guo also serves as the president of the Society of Chinese-American Professors and Scientists [SoCAPS] Cincinnati chapter, an on-campus group representing more than 200 Chinese-American professors and scientists.

In the beginning, the scholarship will be available to only
Chinese-American, undergraduate or post-graduate, students with either permanent U.S. citizenship or a green card due to a small amount of original funding, Guo said.

By only offering the scholarship to students who plan to stay in the
country after graduation, Guo said he hopes the scholarship will serve as a tool for building pride in the community and the country.

“This scholarship is to promote UC and to make our younger generation, Asian-American or Chinese-American, proud to be American,” Guo said. “That’s our goal.”

Funding will originally come from members of the SoCAPS Cincinnati chapter, but will eventually be extended to successful Chinese-American business owners with ties to UC.

“We hope more people will make a donation to the scholarship fund,”
said Mei Tang, one of two co-chairs for the SoCAPS scholarship program and director of the psychology graduate program in the College of Education, Criminal Justice and Human Services.

Once the program has adequate funding, the scholarship will hopefully be extended to all Asian-American students at UC, Guo said.

A committee within the SoCAPS group will be responsible for recommending a candidate for the award and submitting the recommendation to administrative officials for approval, Guo said.

The requirements for receiving the scholarship are not yet official, but Guo said there will be more of an emphasis on rewarding community service as opposed to grades or scholarly merit.

“Certainly, to be recruited by UC, they are already smart enough,” Guo said. “This is to promote community service. If there are two or three [students] competing for one position, then we may add merit as one of the criteria, but that is certainly not the major criteria.”

University officials authorized the SoCAPS scholarship fund on Oct. 17, 2011, Tang said. The current goal for the program is to award the first scholarship, worth $1,000, in March 2012.

Due to uncertainty in future donations made to the fund, it’s impossible to say when the next scholarship will be awarded and if the amount of money awarded in the future will increase, Guo said, but those involved with the program are optimistic.

“I hope this is a small seed that we planted and it will grow bigger and bigger each year,” Guo said.