Momentum Award: Hanyin Cheng

"You live for 80 years, but you really only experience six minutes of magic, and I think that’s true. The coming together of Splash was that moment that was really magical for me,” explained Hanyin Cheng, the man behind BC Splash, and the recently established organization Education for Students by Students (ESS).

Cheng, A&S ’12, described by friends as the “Splash God,” said that the BC Splash story started when he was in high school. “I attended the MIT Splash program, and I really, really enjoyed it. I looked up to all of my teachers who were undergrads, because I think when you are a high school student, any older college-age student you meet is like your hero,” he said. “I just wanted to emulate them as a high school student.”

The experience stuck with him, and he didn’t want it to end there, so he set out to bring Splash to Boston College. “It took a while for the idea to formulate in my mind and for me to find a platform to build it on. I just started talking,” Cheng said. “I was probably really annoying during that period because Splash is the only thing I talked about with everyone. I was obsessed.”

This passion became a reality for Cheng during his sophomore year, when his status as a UGBC director gave him the platform to launch the inaugural BC Splash. “It was very successful that first semester, and from there, it’s just sort of grown,” he said. “It’s doubled every single time, growing from 250 students to over 800. The growth we’ve seen I think is a testament to how well the organization is run, and it’s just been amazing, an amazing ride.”

A key component of BC Splash is using student interests to create a wide-ranging curriculum, but Cheng challenges students to be creative in this venture. “One thing I always tell my team when we’re recruiting for teachers is, we are asking students to think about if they could teach anything in the world, what would they teach? And I think when we ask students that question, we’re really asking, in an alternative way, what are you passionate about?”

Cheng does not view passions as black and white, or even ordinary. He strives to create a community whose breadth of passions exhibit the bold and distinct personalities of BC students. “We sort of put a mask on every day when we wake up, in that we try to fit in with our friends and our social groups, but we’re not necessarily being who we actually are,” he said. “We might think, ‘Yeah, I have a special interest in math or chemistry or something, but I can’t really let my friends know because they will think I’m a nerd and it’s not cool.’ Splash is a day for students to take off that mask and really embrace their interests and passions.”

Cheng’s primary concern during the early days of BC Splash was rushing through the vital growth period of the young club. He offered strong support and nurtured the group through its early stages to give it the strength it has today. “Among all of the universities who have offered Splash, we are the fastest growing one—we’re not the biggest yet, but we’re the fastest growing,” Cheng said. “We’re really focused on the quality more so than the quantity right now.”

Striving to encourage his fellow students to share their passions with other people, Cheng wanted to expand this community of people who were truly interested in sharing ideas. BC Splash marked the beginning of this effort, but Cheng took it a step further as a founder of BC Talks. “BC Talks, which is awesome, its basically our own rendition of a TED Talk, putting the spotlight on students who have had amazing experiences here at BC or have done amazing research,” Cheng said. “Our vision with that is to create a huge online archive of students sharing their experiences. Imagine being able to go to a website and being able to watch BC students talking about what they love.”

Cheng’s passion for cultivating and spreading the ideas of students does not solely fuel his success. Ever since he entered BC as a freshman pursuing a double major in economics and computer science, he’s proven his leadership ability. A member of the Shaw Leadership program and Tech Trek alum, Cheng has worked closely with John Gallaugher, a professor in the Information Systems department. Gallaugher and Cheng’s mentor, who describes his protege as a “leader among leaders.” As a leader, Gallaugher said, “Hanyin has no ego in the game, which is rare in a driven, type-A personality. His clear interest in doing what’s right at all costs makes it easy for people to get behind him. He’s provided a platform for the excellence of others to shine.”

With BC Splash and BC Talks flourishing and offering new opportunities for more projects in student thought, Cheng spearheaded a plan to create a new umbrella organization that catered exclusively to these projects. “Moving out of UGBC was a necessary move, because I didn’t really see Splash fitting into the existing structure at UGBC, and I wanted to be able to select our own leadership.”