By Julie Shapiro
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
LOWER MANHATTAN — Albert Capsouto, a TriBeCa restaurateur and community leader, never met Szeyin Lee, the Stuyvesant High School senior who won a scholarship in Capsouto’s memory last week, but they would have had plenty to talk about.
Both Capsouto and Lee came to America when they were young — Capsouto from Cairo by way of Lyon, France, when he was five, and Lee from Hong Kong when she was 12.
Both attended Stuyvesant, one of the city’s most selective high schools, where they found community and grew into strong students. And both volunteered at New York Downtown Hospital.
In recognition of those parallels, Capsouto’s family presented Lee with the first annual Albert Capsouto Memorial Scholarship last week.
Capsouto, a Community Board 1 member and co-owner of TriBeCa bistro Capsouto Frères, died suddenly of a brain tumor in January at the age of 53.
After his death, Shimon Zlotnikov, a close friend, donated $5,000 to Stuyvesant to start a scholarship fund in Capsouto’s memory.
Lee, a Brooklyn resident bound for Scripps College in the fall, is the first recipient of the award. She said in her application that the $1,000 scholarship would help as her family struggles to pay for college.
While maintaining an A-minus average at Stuyvesant, Lee co-founded the school’s Asian Cultures Club, volunteered as an office assistant at Downtown Hospital and tutored recent immigrants at the Brooklyn United Chinese Association. Lee also participated in a Columbia University program that teaches high school students about local politics and education reform.
She has not decided on a college major or a career path but is interested in cognitive science, economics and Asian studies.
"I am looking forward to give back to the community with what I learned and uphold the spirit of Mr. Capsouto," Lee wrote in a letter to the scholarship donors.
