Seven Harvard students and alumni are preparing for a year of postgraduate study at one of China’s top universities after being named Schwarzman Scholars on Thursday.
The Schwarzman Scholarship, which was founded in 2015 by Blackstone CEO Stephen A. Schwarzman, selects up to 200 scholars annually to complete a fully-funded one-year master’s program in global affairs at Beijing’s Tsinghua University. This year, the fellowship received its highest number of applications to date, with an acceptance rate of 2.6 percent out of more than 5,800 applicants.
Of the 83 universities represented in the 2026-27 Schwarzman Scholars class, Harvard and New York University had the second largest number of winners, with Stanford University leading the rankings with eight affiliates selected.
Jamaal N. Willis ’25 had just landed after a twenty-hour flight to Thailand when a Schwarzman Scholar representative told him that he had been selected.
“She called me in the customs line as I was going through, and I just started screaming,” Willis said.
Willis, who holds dual citizenship in the United States and Jamaica, said he hopes to use his scholarship to study how countries in the Caribbean can build relationships with global superpowers like China — and how the region can learn from China’s economic development.
“The Caribbean needs some kind of strategy going forward,” he said. “That way, when the United States is at the table, or China, or the UAE, or whatever company it is from whatever country, they have something to go off of.”
Donia A. Elmansy ’23, another winner, said she wants to examine Chinese strategy in the technology sector, including the country’s approach to digital governance and incorporation of artificial intelligence tools.
“I’m excited to learn more about China’s technological development and how learnings from there can be applied to other global contexts,” she said. “I think this global affairs Master’s program is the perfect way to do that.”
She’s also looking forward to living in Beijing.
“I’ve never been to China,” she said. “I’m excited to learn more about a part of the world I haven’t had much exposure to.”
Jiajie “Angel” Zhang ’26 said she wants to investigate how Chinese border provinces navigate conflict between humans and wild animals and how China finances climate-related initiatives.
“I’ve been in the American education system my whole life, so I really want to have experience in also the Chinese education system,” she said.
Kaitlyn P. Tran ’26 said she hopes the program will equip her and fellow scholars with skills to bridge the gap between American and Chinese policymakers, particularly in areas like humanitarian aid.
“Especially when we take a look at the declining U.S. funding within the humanitarian space, it’s important to see what other global actors are willing to provide,” she said. “So much of what we discuss within policy issues revolves around the U.S.-China relationship, but to see that there are so few American students that actually go to China shows me that there is a disconnect.”
“I want to be one of those American students in China that is actually willing to immerse themselves in the environment, talk to Chinese policymakers, and really better understand what are the ways in which the relationship can become even slightly more collaborative,” she added.
Harvard College seniors Mira H. Jiang ’26 and Max A. Palys ’26, a former Crimson Editorial Chair, were also selected among this year’s Schwarzman Scholars, along with Weijing “Vickie” Liu, who graduated from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 2023.
—Staff writer Wyeth Renwick can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X @wzrenwick.