Pictured above: (From left to right) Jay Stroman, CEO of the USF Foundation, Connie Leung, Tony Leung and Irene Hurst, director of operations, USF Center for Analytics and Creativity.” caption for the scholarship story.
Courtesy of USF
By Aubrey Carr
The University of South Florida recently received a $1 million donation to establish the Leung Family Scholarships in support of low-income and migrant students graduating from Hillsborough County high schools.
Gifted by Connie and Tony Leung, the scholarships will be given annually beginning the 2022-2023 school year. At least four recipients will be awarded the scholarship, each receiving $10,000 to be used toward tuition at USF.
“We are grateful to the Leungs for their foresight and generosity in establishing this scholarship,” USF Interim President Rhea Law said in a press release. “The Leung Family Scholarship will make the dream of a college education possible for students who may not otherwise be able to afford one.”
The Leungs’ donation was inspired by the support the Hillsborough community showed during the early days of their business, Sanwa Food Group.
Founded in Ruskin in 1981, Sanwa Food Group had humble beginnings farming Chinese cabbages and melons in a mostly rural part of the state. Now, Sanwa has evolved into a regional food distribution company featuring warehouses in Tampa and Atlanta.
“We did all our business for the first 30 years in south Hillsborough County, farming in the area,” Tony Leung said. “We wanted to give back to the area that invested in us.”
This donation isn’t the first investment the Leung family has made for the USF community.
In 2009, the couple established the Leung Global Experience Scholarship, a scholarship that subsidizes study abroad experiences for students, which they endowed in 2011 and designated for Muma College of Business students in 2016.
Like the Leung Family Scholarship, the Global Experience Scholarship had a personal connection to the Leungs. Connie and Tony Leung are both Hong Kong natives and met while studying abroad at Guelph University in Ontario, Canada.
“We are thankful to the Leungs for investing in the community — and especially the students in the community — they have called home all these years,” USF Foundation CEO Jay Stroman said.
