Whenever singer Taylor Roberts visited Washington, D.C., on tour with his band, he stayed with his friend Jenny Chang, who, on one of Roberts’ trips to the city, decided to take Roberts on a midnight tour of the National Mall.

“The Capitol building always looks amazing at night,” Chang told Roberts.

Chang, along with Roberts and his band, packed into two cars, one of which carried all of the band’s gear — drums, guitars, speakers, amps, everything.

As they pulled up near the Capitol, the tiny caravan suddenly found itself surrounded by blue lights and shouting policemen. But all Chang could do was laugh.

“The police thought our trailer of gear was full of explosives or something,” Roberts said. “But Jenny just thought it was the funniest thing she had ever seen.”

As dangerous as the situation might have been, Chang found a way to make it into an adventure. But her friends and family know it as just another example of Chang’s unique personality.

“The best word to describe Jenny would be outrageous,” Cira Merwin, a close friend and motherly figure to Chang, said. “If there was something crazy to do she would do it, as long as it didn’t get her in too much trouble.”

Memories such as this one brought out over 100 people to Raleigh Friday to remember Chang, a former student body president who passed away April 30 after a four-year struggle with breast cancer.

Chang served as N.C. State’s student body president during the 1998-1999 school year, her junior year, after being a member of the judicial board her sophomore year.

Those who worked with her said Chang met the challenge of being the school’s first Asian student body president, using her natural leadership skills.

Being a pioneer for an esteemed position comes with certain difficulties, but Chang fought through criticism by making connections and taking action.

“She made friends with University leadership. They respected her like they’ve respected very few people,” Michelle Tam, Chang’s best friend, said. “She took a lot of personal attacks, but she grew a thick skin and because of it she earned the respect of a lot of people. She was a great leader and a milestone for N.C. State.”

Tam and Chang met when they were four years old. They went to high school and college together and were still able to see each other after college, as Tam works in Maryland and Chang worked with Representative David Price and later Representative Carolyn Maloney in D.C.

“We had a lot of common interests — we were basically the same person,” Tam said. “But we did things completely differently.”

One of those things was a sense of style. Chang was known as someone who could find the cheapest clothes, put them together, and make them work perfectly.

“She was very stylish in everything she did,” Tam said. “She was a bargain shopper and she could pair two pieces of clothing together like no one else.”

Merwin also cherished Chang’s sense of style. The two went shopping at one of their favorite shoe stores every time Chang made the trip from D.C. back to Raleigh.

“We’d go to DSW, and she would never buy anything for full price,” Merwin said.

Friends who attended the service mourned the loss of Chang, but remembered the way she made them laugh and the time they spent with her.

“When my sister and [Jenny] and some friends came back from the fair one year, her and Jenny and their friends had their faces painted, had tons of candy and were all laughing and having a great time,” Stephanie Keto, a friend of Chang’s, remembered.

Chang left behind her husband Dominique McCoy, whom she married May 29, 2005. When the two married, Chang had already been through numerous methods of treatment, including a double mastectomy, radiation and chemotherapy and several clinical trials.

But McCoy went through the treatments with her, doing everything he could to learn about the disease; they fought it together.

“Everything she went through she was a fighter, and Dom was with her through it all,” Merwin said. “He was a totally devoted husband.”

Chang passed away at only 28-years-old, and because it outraged her that nearly 41,000 women a year die of breast cancer she consistently came back to Raleigh to speak on the issue.

On May 16, Representative Price addressed the House of Representatives in Chang’s honor.

“One of the things that made Jenny such a remarkable young woman was her grace. She confronted death in the same way she lived life: with candor, with faith and without mincing words,” he said. “It stuns us that she is gone, but her legacy of courage, honesty, kindness and purpose rekindles our efforts and inspires our leadership. We will do better in her name.”