Student Receives Rosenbloom Award

Third-year student Grace Tang is this year’s recipient of the University of Virginia School of Law’s Rosenbloom Award.

The award, bestowed annually, was established by Daniel Rosenbloom ’54 to honor students with a strong academic record who have significantly enhanced the academic experience of other law students by volunteering support and assistance.

“The Rosenbloom Award seems custom-made for Grace. She has given her time to help others with academics and personal growth,” said Sarah Davies ’91, assistant dean for Student Affairs. “When COVID-19 struck, Grace started baking for her classmates to help them keep their spirits up, and she regularly checked in with people to make sure they were OK. She is compassionate, kind and resourceful. We are lucky she has been a part of our community during this very trying time.”

Tang, who hails from London, Ontario, double majored in biotechnology and accounting, and received a master’s of accounting from the University of Waterloo before going to law school.

Roommate Kolleen Gladden ’21 said their apartment had been a hub for students seeking guidance, especially for LL.M. students who, like Tang, are living abroad. When Gladden became ill during their first year, she recalled how Tang helped her study when reading was difficult and assisted in administering treatments.

“I am so fortunate to be in good health now, and I could not have done it without Grace,” Gladden wrote in nominating Tang. “Throughout our three years, we have taken classes together and have always studied for them together. My parents refer to Grace as a ‘guardian angel,’ and I cannot echo that sentiment more.”

Professor Andrew Hayashi said Tang excelled in his Federal Income Tax and International Tax courses. She also conducted an independent study under Hayashi’s guidance and authored a paper on how countries coordinate their taxpayer residency rules.

“Grace’s extraordinary generosity to her classmates — particularly those in the midst of academic, personal, emotional, and health challenges — deserves recognition,” he wrote in nominating Tang. “By being a friend, counselor, cheerleader (and baker) for so many of her classmates, Grace has enabled many of our students to succeed during an especially challenging and emotionally fraught year.”

In 2020, she was recognized as an “Unsung Hero” by Student Affairs and the Student Bar Association for making a difference in the lives of her peers and in the greater community during the pandemic.

Tang is a Karsh-Dillard Scholar who has served on the editorial board of the Virginia Tax Review, as scholarship chair and member at large with Virginia Law Women, as vice president of professional development of the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association and as an editor with the Virginia Law Weekly. She was also a research assistant for Professors Rich Hynes and Sarah Shalf ’01.

Tang said coming to Virginia from Canada was “a leap of faith” that she’s glad to have made.

“I’ve always admired UVA’s selflessness and genuine sense of community,” she said. “Even before coming to the Law School, people have been generous with their time and guidance. Everything that I’ve done has been an effort to pay that kindness forward and to continue UVA’s tradition of supporting one another. It means the world to me that I made a positive difference in other students’ experience here. I’m happy I was able to give back to a community that gave so much to me.”

After graduation, Tang will work at Latham & Watkins in Washington, D.C.