2021 Distinguished Young Alumni Awards
Washington and Lee University is proud to announce this year’s Distinguished Young Alumni Award winners. We celebrated the recipients during the Young Alumni Weekend, October 22 – 23.
Yuan Liu ’11Yuan Liu ‘11
Yuan entered W&L from China on a full scholarship. Lexington was his first visit to the United States. He did what the University hopes all students will do; he tried many different things. He studied abroad in Japan. He participated in the fencing club and in the Washington Term program, he was a member of the Williams School Investment Society, and he was in ROTC. Yuan was a volunteer for the Student Association for International Learning and a member of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity. His work in the Journalism School gave him the first paycheck of his life.
Yuan embraced and affirmed the value of the W&L network. In his junior year, he was an intern at a Dallas-based mutual fund, thanks to the help of a W&L parent. He completed another internship at Washington Research Group, thanks to the introduction of his roommate’s father. After graduation, Yuan worked at technology firm Presidio Networks, then at Greenspring Associates, a Baltimore-based venture capital firm, for three years. He credits both of those job opportunities to the W&L alumni network.
In Baltimore, Yuan was involved in the alumni chapter, with the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra as a board member, and as a member of the Maryland Club. Yuan gave back by hiring W&L interns and analysts during his work in Baltimore.
In 2014, Yuan moved to Beijing to join ZhenFund, a new angel investment firm. He has met and helped thousands of entrepreneurs and led several successful investments into early-stage startups, some of which later grew into ‘unicorn’ companies. By 2019, Yuan had been promoted three times, rising from Associate to Managing Director at Zhenfund. He was recognized in 2019 as one of Forbes’ “30 Under 30” in Asia Finance and VC.
Caroline Bovay Meric ’11Caroline Bovya Meric ’11
As a student, Caroline was active in the Outing Club, Adopt-A-Classroom Literacy Campaign, and Kappa Alpha Theta. Upon graduation, she worked for the University as Associate Director of Annual Giving, serving as the staff liaison for Class Agents from the classes of 1941-1989. Caroline cultivated young alumni leadership donors and hosted a series of Annual Fund engagement events.
Caroline decided to pursue a Master of Science degree in Geological Sciences from The University of Texas at Austin. Since graduation, Caroline has worked for Chevron in a variety of roles in the Gulf of Mexico business unit, from exploration to development to operations geology. She has taken on cross-functional assignments including business planning and Gulf of Mexico Shelf assets divestment. In her current role, she works with both technical professionals and leaders to reduce the operating expenses and carbon intensity of the business.
Most recently, Caroline contributed to an enterprise effort to characterize Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage opportunities in the Gulf Coast region, ahead of the announcement of Chevron New Energies and the CCUS business line. Caroline is an advocate for advancing opportunities for women at Chevron. She finds time to volunteer for STEM educational events, Second Harvest Food Bank, and Rebuilding Together New Orleans.
Giving back to Washington and Lee has been a constant for Caroline. She has served as a chapter leader in the Rockbridge and New Orleans alumni chapters, as a Class Agent, as a reunion committee member, 10th reunion co-chair, and on the Williams School Young Alumni Council.
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