Eve Carson, and the death of one of our own

The tragic death of UNC's student body president, Eve Carson, has dominated the local news headlines the last couple of days. The death of a student is no doubt a terrible thing; losing your student body president somehow seems to magnify it.

Her loss got me thinking about one of our own student body presidents who lost their life far too soon, Jenny Chang. Jenny lost her life on April 29th of 2006, not at the hands of a criminal, but to an aggressive breast cancer that took her at the age of 28.

I should state up front: I did not know Jenny very well. She, by virtue of being part of student government, had her office in the same building as us media nerds, and she would spend time in our offices at Technician from time to time. This was, for the most part, the extent of my interaction with Jenny.

But one did not have to know Jenny well to know she was something special. She--like all born leaders--had the ability to command the attention in a room. She wouldn't dominate a conversation heavy handedly, but in a matter of minutes she could drive whatever was the discussion at hand. It was effortless to her, and it made her the perfect person to run for, and win, student body president.

Since I didn't know her as well as others, I'll point you to www.changgang.org for a better description of her and her life story. Here's an excerpt:

Born in Taiwan, Jenny’s family moved to Raleigh when she was three. Jenny grew into a vivacious young woman who was among the first Park Scholars at NC State University, a Caldwell Fellow, student body president, senior class president, and dean’s list student, graduating in 2000 with a degree in biochemistry and minor in economics. She was also awarded a Truman Scholarship. After graduation, Jenny worked on Capitol Hill with US Reps. David Price (NC-04) and Carolyn Maloney (NY-14).

Her website, in fact, was born out of her desire to face her breast cancer head on. She literally traveled the world speaking out on the danger of breast cancer and the steps to fight it.

I could go on and on about people like Jenny, and Eve, who are able to make such a profound impact in such a short span of life. I'll just conclude by saying that we lost a great one in 2006, and I hate that I didn't take the time way back when to get to know her better.