Sung Vong-Tsung of China was admitted at the age of 16 to the Athens College for Women as the first Asian student.

Vong-Tsung was born in 1893 in the Jiangsu-Shanghai region of China to Christian parents. Her father was a Baptist minister and her mother was an educator at the Davidson School in the city of Suzhou, which was operated by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

Vong-Tsung attended the Davidson School where Methodist Missionary and Educator Virginia Atkinson of Alabama was believed to have encouraged her to study at the Athens College for Women.

When she arrived at Athens, Vong-Tsung was proficient in English, mathematics, history, and the Bible but needed work on science and Latin.

During her sophomore year, Vong-Tsung was elected president of her class and served on the staff of the Athenian.

Vong-Tsung became proficient in classical piano performance and the decorative arts while at Athens and was said to have had a fine voice.

She graduated in 1914 after four years at Athens as the first Asian to graduate from any college in Alabama.

Vong-Tsung received the Medal for Highest Scholarship at the conclusion of her senior year and went on to take classes at the George Peabody College in Nashville, eventually returning to China after the summer term.

After returning to China, she taught at the Davidson School until 1917. Some time following the Davidson School, she began training future educators at the Peking Teachers’ College for Women and married a professor at the Peking National University.

There is no record of her life beyond 1927.