2005 Professor Harry Simons Endowed Undergraduate Scholarship for the Study of Accounting Recipient

Biography: Trang Le was born and raised in Da Nang, a small province of Central Vietnam. She is the youngest of seven children. Trang studied and received her high school diploma at the most prestigious High School in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, Le Hong Phong High School. During her studies in Vietnam, she received many National Academic awards, including an award in the National Gifted Student Competition. In 2000, she decided to move to the United States with the hope to find further opportunities for higher education and to reunite with her brothers and sisters. She came to UCLA in 2004 majoring in business economics and a minor in accounting. In her free time, she enjoys listening to music, go to movies, and volunteer in community work.

Future Plans: Although she was raised in a family where both of her parents and a brother are doctors, she never found medicine appealing to her. Instead, she was captivated by the business aspect of her parents’ clinic. Her current goals are to obtain a Bachelor of Arts in Business Economics with a minor in Accounting and to work for an accounting firm like KPMG, where she did her internship during the summer of 2005. Trang’s long term academic goal is to pursue an MBA degree at the UCLA Anderson School of Business. Ultimately, she hopes to open her own accounting firm in the future.

What does the scholarship mean to me?: I am very fortunate to be the recipient of this wonderful scholarship. Having the scholarship reduces my financial burden and affords me more time to focus on my studies, rather than having to find work. More importantly, the scholarship reinforces my decision to pursue a career in business economics and also serves an encouragement for me to strive harder in my academic endeavors.