Echo Huang College of Business Scholarship for International Students
Fang Echo Huang graduated with a bachelor’s in accounting from WSU in 1995, just three years after coming alone with $800 in her pockets to the U.S. from Shenzhen, China to pursue further studies. She graduated summa cum laude, and was on the Dean’s list every semester. She was the recipient of the WSU College of Business scholarship, WSU Alumni scholarship, and Minnesota Governmental Accounting scholarship. Along with being active in the International Students Club and cross-cultural activities, such as introducing Chinese culture to the local community, she was also treasurer for the Malaysian American Chapter in Winona. She speaks Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese, and Hakka.
After graduation, Echo started as a cost accountant at West Publishing Company, and within five years had passed her CPA and CFP exams and began her job as financial advisor for RSM McGladrey in Minneapolis. Three years later, she joined LPL Financial, where she started her own financial services business, which grew to manage more than $20 million in less than three years. She became partner of The Advocate Group, LLC located in Minnetonka in 2005, where she worked as a financial advisor delivering financial planning and investment management to many Fortune 500 executives and their families. In October 2009, Minnesota Law & Politics Magazine named Huang as a Trusted Financial Advisor. She obtained Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) in 2016. In March 2015, Echo started her own company Echo Wealth Management in Plymouth, Minnesota and as of January 8, 2018, she managed over $73 million for 56 households. She has served on the Board of Financial Planning Association-MN Chapter, and WSU Alumni Board.
Along with her hobbies of playing piano, traveling, reading and gardening, Echo is also a competitive ballroom dancer, competing in Pro-Am International Latin and International Standard Silver Level events. She has a daughter Nina and currently resides in Plymouth, MN with her husband Daniel Brown.
Echo chose to create this scholarship specific to international students because of the great challenges international students face when trying to get financial aid or loans abroad. During her studies at Winona State, she worked hard on her schoolwork, and took part-time jobs during the school year and the summer to make ends meet because she was not eligible for any need based financial aid. Echo remembers how hard it was to work minimum wage on campus at $4.25/hour and try to support herself and pay for tuition and books with no access to loans, all while making the Dean’s list every semester. She wished at the time that she could have obtained just a small student loan, but it was not available to foreign students. She was finally able to obtain three scholarships in her final year after she overcame the burden of figuring out where and how to apply. The three scholarships, totaling $1,800 in the final year, were absolutely instrumental in helping Echo finish college earlier by taking more classes during the summer. Since putting her WSU education to work in business, Echo now wants to help one student per year who can demonstrate a financial need and who has a clear goal of pursuing a higher education in business. With this scholarship, Echo is determined to change the life of one international business student per year.
Scholarship contact is Echo.