During the spring of 2005, a group of second year MBA students saw the need to create a scholarship to encourage the best and brightest Chinese students to attend Darden.
>As part of their second year gifts, these students contributed funds towards the establishment of an endowed scholarship fund, now known as the DARDEN CHINA Scholarship. Dr. Laurence Franklin, a visiting professor at the Darden School and a long time resident of Hong Kong; his wife Wei-ching Kwong Franklin; his brother Dr. Sterling Franklin, an attorney in the Los Angeles area; and the late Dr. Carl M. Franklin, a 1948 University of Virginia Law School graduate, endorsed this effort by providing personal guidance and financial support through the Morris S. Smith Foundation. The Darden School Foundation has also pledged matching gift support.
>In recognition of these generous contributions, the Darden School has designated a student study group room the "DARDEN CHINA Scholars Study Room." A separate plaque recognizing the individual contributors has also been installed.> >
The Purpose of the DARDEN CHINA Scholarship
The scholarship is intended to attract the best and brightest students from Greater China to Darden and to provide financial support for first year MBA students who have accepted admission to Darden. This support will be renewed during the recipient抯 second year if the student is in good academic standing.
A DARDEN CHINA Scholar can be of any race, culture, or gender. For first year MBA students, the DARDEN CHINA Scholarship shall be awarded, taking into consideration financial need, with the preference for a student from the "Greater China" geographic area, defined as the People's Republic of China, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Macao, Taiwan, and the Republic of Singapore. If the first preference for this scholarship cannot be met, then the second preference shall be for a student from the Asia Pacific geographic area.
In the fall of 2005, the first DARDEN CHINA Scholarship was awarded to Yi Song, an entering first year MBA student. Yi Song is from Shenzhen City in the Guangdong Providence of China. >> | 
