Andrew Hung ’06 Wins Top Award from Stanford

PA English teacher Gregory Wilkin attends ceremony in recognition of his “influential guidance” during Hung’s high school years

May 07, 2010 —During an awards ceremony held on Saturday, May 1, 2010, Stanford University presented Phillips Academy alumnus Andrew Hung ’06 one of its highest university-wide honors, the J.E. Wallace Sterling Award for Scholastic Achievement. The award was presented to the Stanford senior in recognition of his academic scholarship as well as the depth of his contributions to the university.

Attending the ceremony in Stanford, California was Phillips Academy English instructor Gregory Wilkin, who was invited by the awards committee in recognition of the profound influence he had on Hung’s scholastic career. Wilkin served as Hung’s house counselor for three years at Andover, and during that time, said Hung, “I had the opportunity to learn a lot from my many conversations with him on topics ranging from music to literature to basketball. Having arrived at Andover from living abroad, I appreciated how Dr. Wilkin served as an informal mentor to me and helped me adjust to life at Andover, academically and outside of academics.”

Wilkin, in turn, said, “It’s no surprise to me that Andrew Hung is being honored by Stanford as a student and as a citizen. No proctor I ever had in my decades in the dormitory ever got to know new kids faster and better than Andrew. Even as a tenth-grader, he was sufficiently prepared, and sufficiently curious, to draw into conversation anyone of any age on any topic. He could talk toe-to-toe with the most irredeemable sports-aholic get-a-lifer; he could talk with the pianists and string players about Brahms, the guitarists about Hendrix; French, dance, chaos theory, game theory, Yeats, musical composition, the fine points of shooting threes.

“The best thing” added Wilkin, “was that Andrew cared deeply about how other people were doing and how they were getting along with each other, and he came up with inspired ways of making things better. I can’t wait to see what’s next for him.”

Hung will graduate from Stanford in June with a B.A. in Economics and an M.S. in Financial Mathematics. During the award presentation, Professor John Shoven, Director of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, praised Hung for being the best student of economics he has had in 37 years.

While at Stanford, Hung not only wrote music and played guitar in his band, Ampersand, but also served as the COO of Stanford Finance, a student-run organization that provides training and mentoring to Stanford undergraduates interested in finance. Hung also competed across the nation with Basmati Raas, an award-winning dance team at Stanford, and wrote for the Stanford Chaparral, the university humor magazine.

Following graduation, Hung plans to join the Investment Banking Division at Goldman, Sachs & Co., working on mergers, acquisitions, and corporate financings in the technology, media and telecom spaces.