The Daja Wangchuk Meston Greenberg '96 Endowed Scholarship was created this summer to honor the memory of a deceased alumnus who served as an advocate for the Tibetan people in his lifetime.Daja, referred to as "Wangchuk" during his time at Brandeis, was raised by Tibetan monks and graduated cum laude in 1996 without having prior formal instruction before enrolling, according to an Aug. 5 BrandeisNOW press release. Daja's family members contacted the Office of Alumni Relations this summer to establish a scholarship in his name after he took his own life on July 11.

Director of Alumni Relations Raquel Rosenblatt said in a phone interview with the Justice that the scholarship will become active once it reaches a $50,000 endowment level. When the scholarship becomes active, it will support an undergraduate student with financial need who plans to study Peace, Conflict, and Coexistence Studies, the same path of study Daja followed during his time at Brandeis.

"The family views this as the best way to promote Wangchuk's ideals and forever have a legacy for him," said Rosenblatt. Rosenblatt described Daja's ideals as "a commitment to social justice and righteousness for everybody."

Years after Daja's graduation, faculty and staff at Brandeis still remember his contributions to the community. Prof. Gordon Fellman (SOC) remembers him as an unassuming, talented student.

According to Fellman, the two began working together for a conference on Tibet that was held at Brandeis when he was a student at the University and maintained a strong relationship as Daja began taking classes with Fellman in the Sociology department. His wife, Phuntsok (Kim), also graduated from Brandeis in 2005.

Throughout his life, Daja worked to advocate for the Tibetan people as a part of the Boston Tibetan community, traveling to Tibet for a number of often dangerous fact-finding missions. This led to a trip to Tibet, which led to his imprisonment and torture by the Chinese government, according to the press release.

Before coming to Brandeis, Daja worked to educate himself and submitted a 1981 People magazine profile as a child titled "For an American Boy-Monk in Nepal, the Path to Buddhism Began in Beverly Hills" in lieu of an application to the university in 1993.

In his memoir, published in 2007 and titled Comes the Peace: My Journey to Forgiveness, Daja described the early years of his life, including his entering a Buddhist monastery at age six, where once ordained, he was given the name Wangchuk.

According to the BrandeisNOW press release, is survived by his wife; a baby daughter, Jasmine; his father, Larry Greenberg; his mother, Feather Meston; a niece; a nephew; an uncle; an aunt; and seven first cousins in addition to a legacy of a deep commitment to social justice.