A poverty-ridden childhood and gratitude to the many teachers, friends, and relatives who helped her escape it has led Sunny Isles real estate investor and realtor Fang Oliver to establish the Love Never Dies Scholarship for students at Florida International University who shared her experience of homelessness. Fang, whose name pronounces as "fong" and means "fragrant" in her native language, was born in a poor village on the island of Taiwan to a father who valued happiness over financial success. She had to switch schools seven times before her twelfth birthday as her father moved the family from town to town in search of short-term jobs as a street vendor, janitor, or doorman.

Far from resenting her father, Fang considers him a hero. "He wanted a simple, happy life for us. While that didn’t work so well when I was growing up, today he is always smiling, always happy. He was homeless for most of his life and chose to live in a small shack in the mountains without electricity, gas, or running water, but, because he knows that happiness comes from within our soul and not from possessions, he considers himself one of the luckiest people in the world."

Her father’s philosophy has become the bedrock of Fang’s own happy, optimistic outlook on life, but that doesn’t erase the anguish she felt as a child. Fang’s family was always short of money and was sometimes left homeless. Fang still remembers the embarrassment she felt when begging loans from relatives to satisfy teachers who asked for late school fees and landlords who banged on the door demanding the rent. Fang began working when she was seven to help support her family, first selling cotton candy and then, when she was ten, in a shoe factory. Although she was happy to be able to help her family, she was petrified that she might have to move into the factory’s dark, crowded dormitory. These fears made Fang vow that one day she would rid herself of poverty and debt forever.

Her determination was reinforced by advice from her grandmother. During those times when Fang had to move in with her, their meals would consist mostly of just rice flavored with soysauce. Her grandmother convinced Fang to save the occasional bit of chicken for last, no matter how much Fang hungered for it. Referring to a Chinese proverb that one must be able to "eat bitterness" (that is, to work long hours and sacrifice short-term pleasures to become successful), her grandmother would say, "Leave the best part for last and your bitter childhood will become a sweet future." Fang spent the first three decades of her life "eating bitterness," throwing herself into her work and studies to secure the "sweet" future she now enjoys.

Fang’s sacrifices began to pay off when she passed Taiwan’s incredibly difficult college entrance exams. She won many scholarships and earned her living expenses by teaching English, which she continued to do after she graduated. In 1999 she was admitted to Columbia University in New York City, where she earned her masters degree in education. Her relatives helped as much as they could, providing loans for part of her tuition. She then pursued her doctorate while teaching children with special needs in Edison, New Jersey and English as a second language at a nearby community college. Fang was dedicated to education for thirteen years.

While Fang’s many devoted, compassionate teachers inspired her to become a teacher, her childhood experiences of poverty and homelessness instilled in her a fascination with homes and a burning desire for financial security. In the little free time she had away from her teaching and studies she surfed the web to learn about real estate. She bought her first piece of real estate -- a small vacant lot -- with $2,000 she had managed to scrimp together. One successful investment followed another, and so in 2004, Fang temporarily set aside her teaching career so she could realize her dream of financial independence (she expects to return to teaching in a few years after retiring from her new life as a real estate investor and realtor). She and her husband Keith Oliver moved from New Jersey to an ocean front condominium in Sunny Isles, near Fort Lauderdale and Miami, where six Trump Towers are built. 

Fang understands that life is short and fragile, and that money is important but doesn’t last forever. She wishes to help students who, like her, had been homeless so they won’t have to suffer the humiliation of begging tuition from relatives or shoulder the burden of student loans. Fang’s Love Never Dies Scholarship will pay their tuition at Florida International University, which is managing the scholarship as part of its FIU Foundations program. Scholarship recipients will be free of financial worries, allowing them to focus on their studies, work hard, become successful, and make their own contributions to society, as Fang has done.

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