“I had just left a lab on Science Hill with a friend during my senior year,” Liana Leung ’97 remembers. “Snow was falling in a quiet hush all over campus. I felt a profound sense of appreciation for all that Yale had done—for the way it had changed me and for the special friends it had brought into my life.”

Now a physician, administrator, and medical educator at NYC Health+Hospital/Queens in Jamaica, New York, Dr. Leung had that feeling in mind when she recently created a charitable gift annuity (CGA).

“There are many ways to show gratitude for Yale,” Dr. Leung says. “I give back by interviewing applicants to Yale and by letting Yale students shadow me in my professional life.” To ease the transition of incoming Yale College students, Dr. Leung also recently participated in a 1stGenYale alumni panel for First-Year Scholars at Yale. “When a friend told me about CGAs,” she adds, “I was immediately intrigued by this way of donating to Yale.”

Dr. Leung has set up a flexible deferred CGA for general university purposes. She is deferring the income from the annuity to maximize her payments later. “I was happy to learn about the many benefits of planned giving for someone in the middle of their career,” Dr. Leung notes. “I like that the flexible CGA lets me choose when I can begin receiving payments, and that the longer I wait, the greater the payments become.”

“Yale has done so much for us all,” she continues. “The faculty, for instance, really care about and nurture their students. Jane Levin ’75 PhD taught me how to read critically and express myself in writing, which has been invaluable. Through giving, we can show our gratitude for the amazing support of Yale faculty like Ms. Levin and the wonderful opportunities in life that Yale has given to us.”