UCLA Fielding School of Public Health student Grace Chang receives Academic Excellence Award

A UCLA Fielding School of Public Health student has been recognized for academic excellence at the school, one of the top public health graduate schools in the United States. 

Grace Chang, set to graduate this month with her bachelor of science in public health, received the Kim-Farley Family Award for Academic Excellence in Public Health at UCLA Fielding’s 2025 Student Academic Honors and Awards Ceremony. The award goes to undergraduate public health majors – both BA and BS programs - with the highest cumulative GPAs at the end of the winter quarter in their senior year; Chang’s cumulative GPA at UCLA is 4.0. 

“My interest in public health is aging — with the population of older adults rapidly increasing in the U.S., and across the world, I'm dedicated to promoting healthy aging,” said Chang, who considers Rocklin, California, just outside of Sacramento, as her hometown. “Growing up in a multigenerational household led to my interest in research surrounding geriatrics and population health, so after graduation, I hope to attend medical school and continue in this area, ultimately serving a local health department as their medical officer.” 

The awards are funded by an endowment from the family of Dr. Robert Kim-Farley, professor-in-Residence with joint appointments in the departments of Epidemiology and Community Health Sciences at the UCLA Fielding School, and his spouse, Han Ju Kim-Farley, also a public health expert. Along with her academic achievement at UCLA, Chang has served as vice president of Students for Community Outreach, Promotion, and Education (SCOPE), volunteer patient health advocates who work with patients in the UCLA Health system hospitals in southern California. 

“The intent of these awards is to support our undergraduate students with interest in serving in public health agencies, who may often be first-generation college students, whether they are going on to a medical or doctoral program or not,” said Kim-Farley, who served as director of the Division of Communicable Disease Control and Prevention at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health from 2004-18. “It is really designed to support bringing the brightest of our students into the public health workforce, and my wife and I are very pleased that Grace, with her combination of academic excellence and community service, is one of the first honorees.”