2016 Harold R. Mortenson Endowed Scholarship Fund Recipient

Biography: Jiahua Li is junior at UCLA with a major in Business Economics and a minor in Mathematics. She was born in China and raised in Markham, a city just north of Toronto, in Canada. She moved to the United States in 2014 to attend UCLA. Throughout her undergraduate career, Jiahua has developed an interest in business and finance. She interned at a Venture Capital firm called JUMP Investors last year. This past summer, she was a fixed income analyst intern at the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in China. With a deep passion for sports and leadership, she actively competed for UCLA’s fencing team and dragon boat team. She served as the fencing club President and women’s foil Team Captain.

Future Plans: Upon graduation in June 2017, Jiahua will attend University of Toronto to complete a 1.5-year degree in Masters of Financial Economics. She plans to pursue a career in Corporate Banking. However, she hopes to keep her options open over the duration of her Masters program and explore other careers in finance and banking.

What does the scholarship mean to me?: It is a great honor to receive the Harold R. Mortenson Endowed Scholarship award as recognition for my academic achievements. I am deeply grateful for the generosity and support of Mr. Harold R. Mortenson. The scholarship will significantly reduce my financial burden and allow me to focus on my academic and professional development during my final quarters at UCLA. This recognition of my academic achievements fills me with motivation to continue seeking out new challenges and upholding myself to high academic standards. I would like to thank my family, friends, professors, teammates, and coaches and many others, who have made my achievements possible with their support. I will continue to work hard so that one day, I can pay it forward to the next generation of Bruins.