Each year, faculty in the College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) come together to select an outstanding student in their program to receive the honor of being named as their program award winner. Students selected for this award embody the very best of their program: they excel in their studies; they demonstrate leadership in classes and internships; and they have a genuine and tenacious passion for their discipline.
This year, faculty in the Sport and Recreation Studies program have selected Cheng Han Yang as the Outstanding Graduate Student in Sport and Recreation Studies. Congratulations, Cheng!
Q & A with Outstanding Graduate Student in Sport and Recreation Studies, Cheng Han Yang:
What academic accomplishment are most proud of?
The first one is the 13-case study that I have done in Dr. Chalip’s Sports Operation, Venues, and Event Management course.
The second one is my internship project with the Mason Recreation fitness department since my internship style was so special and I achieved more career goals than I originally planned. I was awarded the best Employee of the month in the first month I worked, then the best Employee of the semester in Fall 2019, and the best Employee of the year in 2020.
What organizations/affiliations have you been involved with while at Mason?
The Mason Recreation Fitness Department from 08/26/2019 to 05/13/2020.
What are your plans after graduation?
I have applied for the Optional Practical Training (OPT) for after-graduation and expect to work in the fitness industry especially in being a trainer position. I would like to gain more training techniques and related-fields knowledge in the U.S.
What is your favorite memory in CEHD or your favorite part of being a CEHD student?
As an international student, my favorite part is that CEHD provides tuition discounts for its students. I am very grateful for this. Also, the professors are very kind and always looking forward to helping students especially in my program.
What advice do you have for fellow CEHD students (especially those that are not graduating yet)?
Spend some time on thinking about career goals, researching information in your interested fields as well as reading information not in your interested fields, combining different information into ideas that may be useful or innovate in your interested fields, and then put those ideas into the course works/assignments to make connections between what is learned from the academic side and the real world.
Remember to build-up networking in daily life. It really takes time to practice it no matter the skills of connecting to others or maintenance of the network with others.
Is there anything else you would like to share about yourself?
I am an international student from Taiwan which is a really beautiful country. Contact me if you come to Taiwan, I will show you around since I am an outgoing person and like to make all kind of friends. The variety of foods in Taiwan will make you impressed. I also like scuba diving, free diving, climbing, and many exercise activities, so contact me either here in the U.S. or when you are in Taiwan.
Find me on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidyang1992/), Facebook (David Yang).