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In 1971, Susan Phillips, then an English major at UVIC, decided on a whim to take an introductory course in Japanese.  It changed the direction of her life.  She won a Rotary scholarship to spend the following year at Keio University in Tokyo, where she developed a growing fluency in the language.

From there she embarked on an M.A. program in Japanese literature at UBC and, in 1975, was awarded a Mombusho scholarship to go back to Japan for two years to pursue graduate research studies at Nara Joshi Dagaku (Nara Women's University), before returning to UBC to complete her Masters thesis.

Her ability to speak, read and write Japanese fluently led to a career working in that language.  Among other things, she co-authored a Japanese biography of the writer Tamura Toshiko and was a producer of Japanese programming at CBC Radio International, a director at the Asia Pacific Foundation and an independent writer, producer, translator, interpreter and director on many media projects.    

Susan died in 2014.  She never forgot those who helped her along the way and returned the favour by helping others. This prize is in honour of her memory.