A smart and meaningful investment

CSE alumnus funds two scholarships—to honor his wife and benefit students

September 7, 2021

Chieh “Jack” Ouyang had his sights set on one goal when he moved to Minnesota from Taiwan in 1958.

“I had a bachelor’s in civil engineering and wanted a master’s,” said Ouyang. “But at that time, Taiwan had no graduate schools.”

He decided to attend the University of Minnesota at the urging of former classmates who were studying there.

“The U was very friendly to students from Taiwan,” he recalled.

In 1959, I-Fei Tsai took a similar path. She left Taiwan to do undergraduate work in mathematics at the University of Oregon, then moved to Minnesota—where the couple married and raised three children.

Ouyang earned his master’s in civil engineering from the College of Science and Engineering (then Institute of Technology) in 1960. I-Fei received her master’s in mathematics at the U of M in 1963 and went on to teach math at Century College (formerly Lakewood College).

In his first engineering role in the United States, Ouyang served as a structural engineer for the Minnesota Department of Transportation. There, he helped design several local bridges and assisted with the creation of I35W between the Twin Cities and Duluth. He later spent the majority of his career with 3M Company, including building and maintaining structurally sound plants for the company in earthquake-prone California.

Gifts in perpetuity

After retiring, the couple began making undesignated gifts to their alma maters.

“Then I-Fei talked about wanting to direct money to each university in our will,” Ouyang, said.

When his wife passed away, he moved forward with that plan. The University of Minnesota held a special place for both of them, not only because they went there but their children—Julie, Michael, and David—are alumni as well. As a family, the Ouyangs' degrees earned on the Twin Cities campus span civil, chemical, mechanical and electrical engineering, mathematics, medicine, and law.

In fall 2020, Jack Ouyang set up two scholarships in CSE to support students in civil engineering and mathematics. Both are funded with annual IRA qualified charitable distributions.

“I’m required to take minimum distributions every year,” Ouyang explained, “so this was an opportunity to put those funds toward something meaningful to me.”

He also included a gift in his will to fund the Ouyang scholarships in perpetuity.

Ouyang hopes the scholarship support will give students the educational foundation on which to build their career and future work opportunities.  

“I'm grateful to be the first recipient of the Ouyang Scholarship,” wrote Fadila Zidani, a senior majoring in civil engineering, in a letter following a Zoom meeting with Ouyang. “It means a lot that you put forth the effort not only to ease my college financials, but to also get to know me. I love talking about things I'm passionate about like civil engineering and Engineers Without Borders. So thank you for giving me the chance to do that.”

“I hope you saw the impact your contribution had on my education,” Zidani added. 

CSE seniors Tomas Miguieles and Ivan Contreras Dalal also received the 2020-21 Chieh and I-Fei Ouyang Scholarship in Civil Engineering. Nhung Pham, a junior majoring in math and computer science, holds the inaugural 2021-2022 Chieh and I-Fei Ouyang Scholarship in Mathematics.

Learn more

For more on Zidani and her University of Minnesota experiences, watch her CSE Student Voices video.

Learn how you too can create a scholarship and leave a legacy at CSE endowed scholarships.

If you’d like to support students at the University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering, visit our CSE Giving website.