Moung Kyaw: Colgate’s first international student

Moung Kyaw,¹ Class of 1868, was one of the university’s first international students and the first of Burmese origin.

Born on March 5, 1843, in Myanmar, also known as Burma, he journeyed to the United States at the age of 16, probably at the encouragement of Baptist missionaries from central New York. Shortly thereafter, he converted to Christianity and enrolled in the Grammar School (later known as Colgate Academy) in 1864. He continued on to the undergraduate Scientific Course, from which he graduated in 1868.

Kyaw made a name for himself as a popular speaker at religious and anthropological lectures throughout the northeast, where he was regarded as having a “pleasant address” and “speaking [the English language] with perfect facility.”² He was also a featured speaker at his August 1868 commencement exercises, where he gave a speech noting his passion for the Christian faith and his wish for progress in Burma.

After completing the collegiate course, Kyaw enrolled in the Theological Course, but did not graduate. He married Mah Shway Mai, a Burmese woman, in Chicago in 1869, then returned to his native country to serve as a missionary on the island of Belloo Kyan.

In a letter to a friend written in 1876, Kyaw relates that he is “homesick” for his college and for the United States, although he was perhaps somewhat comforted by the piano and two canary birds that he had brought back with him.³ Kyaw contracted tuberculosis and passed away in Henthada, British Burma, in 1883, leaving behind a legacy of Christian devotion infused with Colgate University spirit.

Today, with nearly 10 percent of the student body being international, the Office of International Student Services celebrated Kyaw’s legacy and 150 years of international student presence with a Japanese tea ceremony demonstration by Professor Yukari Hirata at Reunion 2018.

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