1993-1994 Outstanding Service Award Recipient

Dr. Hua-Shan Chi

Dr. Chi is a senior Labor economist at the U. S. Department of Labor. He earned his Ph.D. in economics from Cornell University In 1975. Dr. Chi has been actively associated with the TYAF since 1983, the year in which TYAF was restructured. He served as board director In 1984-86 and in 1988-90, as principal of the Washington D. C. Taiwanese Language School in 1985-86, and as chairman of the Board of Directors in 1988-89.

During his tenure as principal of the Taiwanese Language School, Dr. Chi’s leadership won the support of the TYAF board of directors and membership. Our united community efforts enabled our school to 1) have a record high number of student enrollment – about sixty children enrolled; 2) provide our adults with Taiwanese language classes; 3) initiate jointly with Taiwanese Women Club in the 1986 mother’s day celebration dinner party – which has become a joint annual event of these two community organization since then; and 4) promote the practice of employing our older children to teach and to lead our younger children in music and folk dance classes — as a result, our children were provided with an opportunity to foster their leadership, to interact together, and to contribute to other groups within and outside the Taiwanese community.

In October 1988, TYAF’s application for continued inclusion in the 1988 Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) was rejected. Only then, we realized that our TYAF’s tax-exempt status had never been properly filed with the IRS. As board chairman, Dr. Chi worked effectively to submit a new application to the IRS. Our application went through a lengthy legal process due to the strict government policy on qualifications. As a consequence, professional assistance became Inevitable and the board he chaired supported his recommendation to hire a lawyer. He conducted a search for a lawyer both within and outside our community. At the end, Mrs. Lawless was hired to help us. By May 1989, while the case was still pending, the 1989-90 Board of Directors was formed to lead `YAP. Dr. Chi agreed to continue work on our IRS application under a request from Mrs. Jenny Fang, the new board chairperson. One year later, in June 1990, we finally obtained tax-exempt status from the IRS for our `YAP just in time for inclusion in the 1990 CFC. Working together with Dr. Chi and other TYAF staff, Mrs. Lawless was so moved by our devoted people that she donated all of her earned legal fees to TYAF, and has become our close friend since then.

Donations collected through CFC have provided crucial financial resources which have supported our TYAF programs since we obtained our tax-exempt status from the IRS in 1990.