Jay Chen Biography

By Jay F. Chen

A biography of Board President Jay Chen

He has made college accessibility a focal point of his first term, and has aggressively connected the needs of students with underutilized resources in the community to dramatically improve college access at little to no cost. His free college application forum is now in its third year and has been attended by more than 1000 parents and students. His college application review program pairs seniors with recent graduates of Harvard and other top schools for free one-on-one application advice; participants this year were accepted to Cornell, Johns Hopkins, Berkeley and NYU. He has also created free SAT preparation classes at all four of his high schools.

Jay is proud of his role in expanding foreign language offerings at the elementary and middle school levels. His support for Mandarin Chinese language classes met unexpected opposition from protestors who claimed it was the equivalent of teaching Communism; his successful battle to keep the program resulted in international media attention and interviews with The Los Angeles Times, NBC, The Associated Press, BBC and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

He is currently the Board President for the La Puente Valley Regional Occupation Program and serves on several other boards including the San Gabriel Valley YMCA, and the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies.

Jay graduated from Harvard University with a degree in Social Studies and a minor in Latin American Studies, and was awarded a Harvard-Yenching Fellowship to Peking University. Fluent in Spanish and Mandarin Chinese, Jay was a management consultant with Bain & Company and Technoserve, and has worked in Central and South America as a travel writer for Let's Go publications. A real estate professional, he manages a diverse portfolio of commercial properties in Southern California. Jay is also an officer in the United States Naval Reserve.