12 Harvard Affiliates Named Schwarzman Scholars

Twelve Harvard students were selected as Schwarzman Scholars Wednesday, tying a record set last year for Harvard’s largest cohort since the scholarship’s founding in 2015.

The program provides roughly 150 students annually with a full scholarship for a one-year master’s in global affairs program at Tsinghua University in Beijing. Its founder, Blackstone CEO Steven A. Schwarzman, described the Rhodes Scholarship as the program’s inspiration.

The selection process — which winnowed down a pool of nearly 5,000 candidates to select its 2025-26 class — included a written application, letters of recommendation, and an interview with a panel.

Harvard’s newly-announced Schwarzman Scholars, who include both undergraduates and students at the University's graduate schools, have interests ranging from public health to education and foreign relations. Many said they were drawn to the program by China’s growing profile in global affairs.

Maya S. Rosen ’25 aims to study science and technology governance — an area in which she said international cooperation would be increasingly important to addressing key issues, from climate change and disease management to the rise of artificial intelligence.

“These are sort of huge global issues that I don’t think will get any better without the US and China working together,” Rosen said.

Imaan Mirza ’25 developed an interest in China while conducting senior thesis research in her home country of Pakistan. From newspapers to restaurants and signs, Mirza was struck by evidence of the presence of the Chinese diaspora in Pakistan.

In the long run, Mirza wants to study — and shape — Islamic family law to advance women’s rights.

“I think China’s presence in the Middle East and beyond is just increasing exponentially,” Mirza said. “I really do think that in order to be a leader in the area, I just really have to understand how China is making its impact felt, at least through the lens of the legal sphere.”

Leo Gerdén ’25, a Swedish student with over a decade of experience in politics, said continuing his studies at Tsinghua will help him gain a richer understanding of Chinese culture — and “analyze and understand how China operates on the global stage.”

“Learning about China will be absolutely crucial in order to address any global challenge, whether it’s on security, on climate change, the economy or AI,” Gerdén said.

Gerdén added that he hopes his education will also expose him to perspectives outside economic centers like Beijing and Shanghai towards China’s developing countryside where the “next stage of the economic transformation” will take place.

Rural development is also a subject that intrigues Harvard Graduate School of Education student Jack C. Anderson, who has worked to address education inequality in Australia by expanding rural students’ access to technology and instructional materials.

“Something that really interested me about China was how they’re actively working to support tens of millions of their rural students and helping to bridge that education gap,” Anderson said.

Isabelle G. King ’25, who knew she wanted to continue learning Chinese and to attend graduate school, said that being a Schwarzman scholar was a “really amazing way to both get to continue studying and also go to China for the first time.”

But other students said they applied in part because of their previous experiences in China.

Sage S. Lattman ’25, a Crimson Magazine editor, and Eduardo Vasconcelos Goyanna Filho ’25 were encouraged to apply after teaching in China through the Harvard Summer Youth Leadership Conference, a program run by the Undergraduate Association for U.S.-China Relations.

Although some students, like Rosen and Mirza, have learned Chinese in the past, others have minimal experience.

“I think something that I find particularly fascinating about Schwarzman is that their goal is to bring in people who haven’t had much experience in China, nor experience with the language,” Vasconcelos Goyanna Filho said.

The program includes coursework in Mandarin and “deep dives” traveling across the country to expose students to local culture challenges and innovations.

“There’s really nothing quite like the scholarship in terms of gaining an understanding of the country, its culture and its people,” Rosen said.

The number of American students studying in China has significantly decreased across the last decade, dropping from over 14,000 in 2013 to 469 in 2023, with an especially steep plunge after the start of the pandemic.

“This is a really unique opportunity as an American to be able to spend time living and learning in a country which I think is of relevance to basically every geopolitical and domestic issue,” Rosen said.

—Staff writer Alexander W. Anoma can be reached at alexander.anoma@thecrimson.com.

—Staff writer Samantha D. Wu can be reached at samantha.wu@thecrimson.com.