Chie-Youn Shih, CCAS BA ’96, SMHS MD ’99 and Heather (Hopkins) Shih, CCAS BA ’98
Although Heather and Chie lived a floor apart in Crawford hall, they first met on the intramural volleyball court.
“Chie was the captain, and he was really nice,” Heather said, but it wasn’t until later in the season that he grabbed her attention. Heather was injured during the semi-finals, and when Chie became very attentive and concerned for her well being, love was sparked.
They started dating on Dec. 1, 1994, when she was a freshman and he was a junior.
The two shared many interests apart from volleyball.
Chie was born in Taiwan and moved to Pennsylvania when he was 6 years old. He chose GW because he was accepted into the seven-year B.A./M.D. program with a scholarship and because of the school’s proximity to downtown D.C., Capitol Hill and the Smithsonian. Heather was born and raised a Marylander and had a life-long love for all things D.C., especially the Smithsonian. She also received a science scholarship and was eager to study at GW.
When not visiting the Smithsonian (which they did almost every day), the two spent afternoons at the National Zoo and Rock Creek Park. Chie also recalls his 2 a.m. runs around the Jefferson Memorial, and Heather remembers the city in snow: “The whole place shuts down, and it’s silent, white, and beautiful.”
After graduating, the two lived in New York City, while Chie did his residency in pediatrics at LIJ, and Heather got a master’s degree in oceanography with a subdiscipline in radiogeochemistry. The two were married on Oct. 26, 2001 in Walt Disney World, Fla., and honeymooned in Tahiti. Then they moved to San Francisco, where Chie completed his fellowship in pediatric critical care at UCSF, and Heather worked for an engineering firm.
Today, the Shih’s live in Norfolk, Va., where Heather is a stay-at-home mom, “trying to raise two monkeys,” (sons, Hunter, 5, and Connor, 16 months), and Chie is an attending physician in the pediatric intensive care unit and partner at Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters.
