Why are we here?

As we have begun building the Kiang Foundation, I have heard some version of the same story again and again from Shun's former students.

“He saw me.”

For some, remarkably, it was the first time they remember feeling truly seen by a professor — or by someone who believed their ideas mattered.

I knew this quality in Shun and saw it in action many times. A colleague once told me about the moment she got excited about an idea in front of him — how he took both her hands in his,  like the idea itself was something to hold onto. 

"Can you imagine," he'd say — pushing your idea into a realm of possibilities. He had this way of knowing when someone needed room to sit with an idea and when they needed a push — you could be turning something over for weeks and he'd just wait, and then other times he'd practically finish your sentence for you before you'd worked up the nerve to say it yourself.

Hearing his students describe what that meant to them has helped me understand something larger about the legacy we are trying to carry forward.

Shun didn't simply tell people their ideas were important. He looked for ways to help those ideas go somewhere — encouraging students to submit their work to conferences, presenting alongside them, thinking through graduate school and career decisions with them, worrying over whether they could afford the airfare or the hotel. He introduced them to people, places and experiences that might expand the way they saw the world.

One of those students, Dr. Jacob Crystal, recently described the experience. "For me, it was surreal that someone else thought that my ideas were worthy of sharing." Jake was mentored by Shun and ultimately became a peer of his. Jake's story is deeply personal and representative of something we’ve heard from many people who learned from, worked with, and knew Shun. 

Seeing potential in people, and helping create the conditions for it to grow — that idea has become central to what we are building.

From an idea to an organization

When we began talking about creating something in Shun's name, we knew we wanted more than a memorial, we wanted to continue something he had started.

We said the Kiang Foundation exists to support curious, critical thinkers who connect ideas in original ways, pursue questions that might otherwise be overlooked, and share what they discover generously with others.

We’ve taken important steps toward making that idea durable. The Kiang Foundation is now formally established as a nonprofit organization and has received federal recognition as a 501(c)(3) public charity. We have assembled our initial board and have been putting in place the operational foundation that will allow us to grow responsibly.

There has been a great deal of paperwork, planning and infrastructure involved, but none of that is the point — it simply makes the work possible.

Our first grant program is underway

At the end of this Summer we launched our first grant program in Oklahoma, where Shun taught starting in 2018 and where many of the relationships that inspired this work began. Our initial focus is helping graduate students overcome the financial barriers that can prevent them from presenting their work at academic conferences. It's a deliberately specific starting point.

Conference participation mattered enormously to Shun. He believed ideas became more interesting when they moved — between people, disciplines, institutions and communities. He also understood that something as ordinary as the cost of a flight or hotel room could determine whether a student had access to those exchanges at all.

Our first grant cycle is now underway, and we expect to make our first grants this fall for students traveling in November. There will be much more to share as the program develops. We will provide a full update on our first applicants, what we are learning, and where the program is headed. For now, it feels important simply to say: the work has begun.

Thank you for being here at the beginning

Many of you reading this have already played a role in getting us here. You have donated, offered advice, made introductions, shared our work, encouraged us, or simply told us stories about Shun that have helped us understand more clearly what deserves to be carried forward. Thank you.

We are still very much at the beginning. We have our first program and ideas for more. We don't yet know every program the Kiang Foundation will offer, but we will continue to learn before assuming we have all the answers.

One thing we are clear about is the kind of organization we want to become — one that notices interesting people and sponsors ideas that might otherwise be overlooked, that removes barriers when modest support can make a real difference, and that connects people across disciplines and communities who might not otherwise find each other. Above all, we want the people we support to know that somebody sees what they're trying to do, and believes it's worth pursuing.

Shun gave that gift to people throughout his life. The Kiang Foundation exists to keep giving it.