Sun-Wright Star Scholarship Award: Voices of Connection

The Sun-Wright Star Scholarship Award celebrates students who exemplify the spirit of global understanding through education and cultural exchange. Each year, the award recognizes young people who bridge communities, challenge perspectives, and inspire dialogue across borders.

In 2023 and 2024, two remarkable students — Miranda Gao and Madison Chen — were honored for their leadership and openness in connecting cultures through firsthand experience. Their reflections remind us that friendship and empathy can turn difference into understanding.

2023 Sun-Wright Star Scholar: Miranda Gao

Sun-Wright Cultural Exchange Program — Japan

I’m a student leader in the Sun-Wright Cultural Exchange Program. In 2023, I helped guide a group of Chinese students on a trip abroad to Japan. Before then, I had been teaching English online to a Japanese student, and we finally met in person during the visit. We shared our languages and cultures with one another, and I also introduced American high school life to her classmates. Visiting schools in Tokyo and Osaka has helped me understand Japanese traditions more deeply, and this experience has also taught me how powerful friendship and openness to other cultures can be in bringing people closer across countries.

2024 Sun-Wright Star Scholar: Madison Chen

Sun-Wright Cultural Exchange Program — Colombia

Every time I think back to the trip in Colombia, I feel grateful. Not only because I made friends from different places, but because the experience completely changed the way I see the world. Before going, I thought of Colombia as unsafe, poorly educated, and full of drugs. But when I actually arrived, that picture broke apart.

In Chinchiná, a coffee town in the mountains, I saw kids running hard across the soccer field. For them, every game was a chance to be noticed by a scout or sponsor who might pay for their schooling or even give them a path to the U.S. for better opportunities. A lot of the athletes were girls skating around the track, fighting just as hard as the boys. They wanted to be the first across the line, and maybe the first in their families to go to college.

Later in Manizales, I visited an international school where students spoke passionately about the future. They followed world news, asked sharp questions, and dreamed of becoming lawyers or climatologists to help their country.

Colombia is still developing, yes. But in its green mountains I didn’t just see poverty or problems. I saw small flowers forcing their way through the soil, growing toward the light. That image stays with me: resilience, hope, and determination blooming where many people least expect it.

Their journeys remind us that every conversation across cultures is a spark of light — and together, these sparks form the constellation of a more compassionate, connected world.

We invite more students to join this effort, to explore beyond borders, and to become part of the growing community of Sun-Wright Stars who are lighting the path toward a more open, compassionate world.