A student-led fundraising campaign by the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) Crew team grew into a beautiful tribute honoring Amanda “Mandy” (Smith) Chung-Fat ’04, bringing together students and alumni for a day of remembrance and celebration.

When the Crew team needed a new racing shell to compete with, they decided to work with RPI’s Institute Advancement office to launch a fundraising campaign, and Crew alumni quickly stepped up when they heard. Seeing an opportunity to help the current members while honoring their teammate who passed away in 2023 after a battle with cancer, close friends of Mandy made lead gifts in her memory. Their generosity inspired the broader RPI community, leading to contributions from alumni, students, parents, and friends, resulting in 81 donors and $55,500, exceeding the students’ goal by $10,000.

“When we started this campaign, we just hoped we could raise enough to help the team,” said Henry Rogers ’25, an RPI Crew alumnus who got the project up and running last year before graduating in May. “We never expected we would get to be a part of something so meaningful. Seeing Crew alumni return, hearing their stories and telling them ours, it’s been really special.”

To celebrate and pay tribute to the person who inspired this generosity, current and past Crew team members came together with the broader RPI community for a boat naming ceremony. Those in attendance shared food, drinks, stories, and heartfelt toasts. Alumni and student-athletes then took the new boat, named “Memory of Mandy ’04,” on its maiden voyage, leaving seat seven, Mandy’s seat, empty in her honor. The event created a meaningful bridge between generations of RPI rowers, connecting past experiences with the present team.  

“Mandy was magnetic — she drew everyone in,” said RPI Crew alumna Diana (Lauring) Ostberg ’05. “She loved Crew and was the fiercest competitor, even while making us laugh at 5 a.m. practices. It means everything to my teammates and me to be able to help the current team in Mandy’s memory.”  

Mandy was a Chemistry major at RPI, and after graduation she started her career at Saint-Gobain Abrasives. She later moved to Paris where she fell in love and started a family, becoming a mother of two boys.

This ceremony, and the whole fundraising project, are testament to who Mandy was and the impact she had on others. Her legacy lives on not only in the boat named in her honor, but in the lasting mark she had on her community, and the continued generosity it inspired.