Alice Fong Yu
Educator
Alice Fong Yu (1905-2000) was born in a California mining town. She was bullied in the schoolyard because of her Chinese heritage. In the beginning, Alice was not admitted to San Francisco State Teacher’s College because Asian Americans were not allowed to teach in public schools. The new principal of Commodore Stockton School, now known as Gordon J. Lau Elementary, was in need of a Chinese speaking teacher and hired Alice just as she graduated from Teacher’s College in 1926. She became the first Chinese American public school teacher in San Francisco. In her honor, the nation’s first Chinese immersion school was named Alice Fong Yu Alternative School in 1996.
(Portrait by Cynthia Ashton, SFSU 2013)