Kelsey & Benming

Wedding Bells for Kelsey

BY EMMA SHAINWALD ‘20, APIA major Staff Writer

Bennming “Benny” Zhang is a well known name on campus. Like a local celebrity to many of us, he graduated as a self-design Asian & Pacific Islander American studies major in 2016 and has become a longtime supporter of the program since. It’s only fitting that Zhang wrote his honors thesis on Arthur Matsu. Both have carved out their own legacies at William and Mary, Matsu as a star football player and the first Asian American on campus, and Zhang as the youngest and first Asian American council member ever elected in Williamsburg. Now, there is cause for new celebrations as we announce Zhang’s recent marriage to Kelsey Zhang.

Thank you for taking the time to speak with Art & Hatsuye. We’re so excited to congratulate you and hear more about your wedding. Can you share the story of how you two met?

Kelsey Zhang: I had a crush on him when we started law school, but I was way too shy to ever make a move. He noticed me at the end of the spring semester of our first year and we met at a Christian Legal Society Bible study. We became good friends for about 7 months and then started dating in the fall.

How did the proposal happen?

Benny Zhang: We knew we were going to get engaged before spring break. In the last week leading up to spring break, Kelsey knew one of those days was it. We shared a Google calendar together, so I blocked off a random time

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every day and convinced her to think it was going to be at the latter half of the week. Actually, I proposed to her that Monday. That Monday, I took her to the same table at Aromas where we had our first coffee date, and took her on a route to the big oak tree in Colonial Williamsburg. One of our classmates hid in a bush and captured the video and pictures when I dropped to one knee and proposed.

How did your families react to the proposal?

KZ: Very supportive! Benny was really good about looping in my family to the whole process, so they felt like they were gaining a son. I think one of the

best signs of support was from my 91-year-old grandfather. He is very protective of his granddaughters, but when we called right after Benny had proposed, he was so excited and told Benny that he loved him.

What have you enjoyed most about seeing your families coming together and building relationships with one another?

BZ: Everyone got along really easily. Both our moms, who have big personalities in their own rights, got along the best. It’s been cool to see how similar their personalities are, notwithstanding sociocultural differences.

& Benming

Weddings are a huge event, there’s a lot that goes into organizing one. Can you share what the wedding planning process was like? Did you enjoy it and can you talk about the ceremony and how it felt for both of you during the big day?

KZ: Being a law student and planning a wedding was pretty extreme, and definitely took me to a whole new level of stressed out. My mom did most of the work and was the best wedding planner in the world, but there is a give and take when it comes to doing all of the work for your own wedding. There is a lot of stress involved, but the result was a super-personalized day that was very “us.”

Photos courtesy of Kelsey and Benming Zhang.

In honor of your most recent contribution, everyone with a connection to the program celebrated together, including Kelsey and your inlaws. Kelsey, how did it feel for you and your family to be introduced to the program and our APIA studies family?

KZ: For me, it was just really special to have received such a warm and genuine welcome from everyone. I didn’t go to William & Mary for undergrad, so I didn’t expect everyone to make me and my family feel so included. It is such a great feeling to be welcomed into such an amazing group with open arms.

As you know, our APIA Studies program is keen on building a family for everyone involved, how did your professors and mentors react to your wedding announcement?

BZ: Everyone was incredibly supportive! Especially my long-time mentors who have known me and observed my personal growth over the years - it was a special moment to share the good news with them.

We here at APIA want to congratulate you both for the happy occasion, and we’re grateful that you’ve been such an active member of the community. Knowing that your family foundation is one of the longtime supporters of the APIA program, can you speak more about your commitment to the program?

BZ: Speaking on my family foundation, we will continue to support the program, and most importantly, its students and faculty, in significant ways possible. We believe that there is a space at William & Mary to foster and to nurture an Asian American Studies program for the whole nation to look to. We endowed a faculty research fund named after my mother, Jinlan Liu, who has shaped my life in every way imaginable. By supporting faculty research, APiA studies can advance relevant and noteworthy developments in APIA academia that go to retaining and recruiting more professors to join the movement and program. At the end of the day, all of my family foundation’s efforts can be boiled to a single philosophy: so that William & Mary APIA majors may have an impactful and enduring experience as I had as a APIA self-designed major.

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