Scholars

Shivam Shankar Singh is a data analyst, campaign consultant and author of The Asian Age bestseller “How to Win an Indian Election." He began in politics as a Legislative Assistant to Member of Parliament Fellow before moving on to manage data analytics for some of India’s largest parties in several state elections. Shivam currently runs a data consultancy and is an advisor to OurDemocracy.in, India’s largest political crowdfunding platform. He has served as a panelist on national television and writes for several news outlets. He plans to work on exploring policies aimed at fostering economic development.

Kuwar Singh is a journalist who reports on energy, environment, politics, and conflict in India. As a reporting fellow at The Kashmir Walla in Srinagar, he tracked the ramifications of India’s decision to end the partial autonomy of its largest Muslim-majority region. He previously worked as a reporter for Quartz India, where he wrote on the country's transition to clean energy and the impact of the climate crisis on the Indian people and resources. Kuwar studied journalism and film at Symbiosis International University, Pune.

Sadie Statman will graduate from Emory University with a degree in Sociology and Global Development. Having lived in South Africa and Zimbabwe, Sadie is passionate about international development. While at Emory, Sadie served as an Oxfam Change Fellow, was the General Body Coordinator for She’s the First, and conducted research on hydro-political conflict. Sadie interned with USAID’s Bureau for Africa, where she researched multi sectoral development, and the ACLU of Georgia, where she strengthened her public policy skills and advocated for voting rights. Sadie hopes Schwarzman Scholars will deepen her understanding of China’s role in international development in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Trenton Van Stone is a Daniels Scholar at the University of Southern California, pursuing a bachelor's degree in International Relations Global Business and Philosophy. He is the University of Southern California's youngest and first openly gay Student Body President. Trenton provides pro-bono consulting services to local nonprofits as a Director of Los Angeles Community Impact. Previously, he represented the United States at a business competition in Malaysia, was a USC Global Fellow in Hong Kong, and performed political research at Cambridge University. Moving forward, Trenton hopes to drive foreign investment as a mutually-beneficial means of improving communities.

Bryan Stromer studied Human and Organizational Development at Vanderbilt University. He is a Product Marketing Manager at Microsoft, focusing on brand strategy. Born with cerebral palsy, Bryan is a disability advocate and the founder of Microsoft’s Disability in Marketing group. Bryan’s leadership there ensures authentic representation of disability in Microsoft’s marketing. Bryan ultimately aspires to help companies recognize disability as a strategic priority. Bryan was awarded the 2020 Mr. ADCOLOR, a 2020 Forbes 30 Under 30 list-maker, and the Disability:IN 2019 NextGen Award.

Annie Sun studied Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and wrote her honors thesis on Nation Branding. At the University of Pennsylvania, she played a prominent role in mental wellness reform as Chair of the Penn Undergraduate Health Council. She also served as Captain of Penn Latin & Ballroom Dance and continues to compete in ballroom today. Annie is currently an Associate at L.E.K. and is active in pro-bono consulting, leading two project teams within her first year. Most recently, she founded Oraculi, a nonprofit mentorship organization that connects young STEM professionals with middle-school students.

Yucheng Tang is a senior journalist at one of the most influential Chinese magazines, Portrait. Before that, he worked for Southern Weekly, another leading newspaper in China, where he covered investigative news and was rated as the annual outstanding journalist. He graduated with distinction from Fudan University and majored in Journalism with an International Politics focus. During college, he received national scholarships, led the news department of campus media, and conducted fieldwork in rural China under a leadership-cultivation project, “Siyuan Project.” Yucheng has extensive experience with cross-cultural communication. He published his bylined article on The New York Times, demonstrating his ability to tell Chinese stories to the world. His ambition is to bridge China with the world through global journalism, improve the working environment of Chinese journalists, and build the professional community of journalists around the globe.

Mabel Kai Tong Tie is a senior at Barnard College studying psychology and education. Influenced by her seven years of service at her women and children’s shelter, Mabel advocates for vulnerable youth through college access mentoring, intake counseling, and leadership development tools. Mabel uplifts her peers as the Executive Chair of the Governing Board that oversees all campus clubs, and as a Student Executive of Community Impact that facilitates community service in the surrounding neighborhood. Mabel hopes to improve and help the lives of the world’s youth through education and social policy. She is from the United States of America.

Anathi Tshabe graduated from the University of the Free State, South Africa and holds a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B). She is a 2017 Young African Leadership initiative RCL alumna, a 2018 Hesselbein Global Academy alumna, and a 2019 World Youth Forum participant. She currently works as a Candidate Legal Practitioner at Webber Wentzel and is a 2019 African Law Firm of the Year Recipient at the African Legal Awards. She has experience in public law, dispute resolution and employment practices. She hopes that she can work as a policy and law developer, specializing in the protection of women and children’s rights in Africa. Anathi is from South Africa.

Denyse Umuhuza believes in the saying, "if you don’t have water, you dig a well." At 18 years old, she wrote her first book that was put on the global honor list by the IBBY two years later. Growing up, she didn’t have content she could relate to, so she created it, and in 2018 she founded the first 100% community-funded library in her home district which now attracts more than 1200 youth every month. Denyse is affable with a contagious forward-thinking spirit. She has presented more than 60 radio shows, produced magazine content, and has published two books.

Emma Verges will graduate from Macalester College with a bachelor’s degree in Russian and International Studies. Emma speaks English, French, Spanish, Chinese, and Russian, all of which she uses while working with the immigrant and refugee population in the Twin Cities. She is employed at Wilson Law Group, assisting clients and attorneys in navigating immigration regulation. At Macalester, Emma tutors Russian, serves as a Student Athlete Mentor, is developing a conference for student-athlete community engagement on social justice issues, and is captain of the women's cross country team, using her platform to empower women in athletics and academics. Emma is from the United States of America.

Milan Vivanco is a senior at Yale University studying Ethics, Politics & Economics. On campus, Milan served as President of the Yale Political Union, one of the oldest debate societies in the United States, and as a research assistant analyzing great power conflict in the 21st century, democracy promotion, and international development. He has cultivated his interest in geopolitics through internships at the World Bank, the U.S. Congress, and The Economist Intelligence Unit. He is keen to learn more about US-China cooperation regarding climate change and humanitarian development efforts.

Turan Vural is a cybersecurity consultant at Accenture, where he secures the cyber infrastructure of Fortune 500 companies. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering, a Bachelor of Arts in German, and a minor in Business from The University of Texas at Austin and completed graduate coursework Optics and Neuroscience at the Technical University of Munich. He produces technical radio networks to promote communication skills in the tech community and volunteered teaching elementary school students in America and Germany. He founded a startup pioneering millimeter wave radar technology to assist first responders and the visually impaired. Turan is from the United States of America and Turkey.

Ava Waitz will graduate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Science in Materials Science and Engineering and minor in Energy Studies. Ava intends to spend her life addressing climate change. At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she has worked on transparent solar cell development, systems-level analysis of various green-house gas emitting industries, and local climate activism. In the future, she plans to improve the sustainability of global manufacturing systems through the development of a circular materials economy.

Yixi (Cecilia) Wang is a senior from the Roy and Diana Vagelos Life Sciences and Management Program at the University of Pennsylvania, pursuing Health Care Management, Statistics, and Computational Biology degrees. Cecilia is passionate about preventative health care and aspires to improve global health policies in the long term. She currently leads two research projects and an outreach effort related to COVID-19 policy responses. Cecilia interned at U.S. National Institutes of Health with a focus on prevention research and maternal-child health, and initiated a hospital management project in Nairobi, Kenya. She also co-founded and led a disease prevention NGO in Chengdu to help promote awareness of preventable genetic diseases. At college, Cecilia was the president of the Wharton China Association and a member of the Penn Equestrian Team. Cecilia is from China.

Ziqi (Will) Wang will graduate in May 2021 from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor with a bachelor's degree in Mathematics and Economics. He is a loyal believer of logic and his interests in reallocation of capital led him to finance. Ziqi currently serves as the Chief Investment Officer of Michigan's school fund - Maize and Blue Endowment Fund - managing over $570,000. This past summer, Ziqi joined Morgan Stanley as a Private Equity Summer Analyst. Outside of school and the office, Ziqi has a passion for flag football and has won numerous Best Quarterback awards. As a Schwarzman Scholar, Ziqi hopes to gain a deeper understanding of China’s rising market presence and how the world could further the process of globalization. His goal is to establish a fund that bridges entrepreneurs and corporations globally.

Jenna Wichterman studied Foreign Affairs as an Echols Scholar at the University of Virginia. At the University of Virginia, Jenna was President of Sustained Dialogue, an organization bridging divides through dialogue. After graduation, Jenna interned at the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee and subsequently with the US Executive Director to the World Bank. She was selected as a Rosenthal Fellow in International Relations and is studying Conflict Management at Johns Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies. As a Schwarzman Scholar, Jenna hopes to better understand China’s role as a partner in global security and conflict management. Jenna is from the United States of America.

Raven Witherspoon attends Virginia Commonwealth University’s Honors College, majoring in Physics with minors in Political Science and International Social Justice. She has cultivated these passions through her work at Surry Nuclear Power Station and the Virginia General Assembly. A Virginia Commonwealth University Diversity Ambassador, Raven leads dialogues about intersectional justice and recently completed the national Poor People’s Campaign Student Organizing Fellowship. Raven is also a Confucius Institute Honoree and delegate for the 2020 China-America Student Conference. She currently conducts nonproliferation research at Brookhaven National Laboratory and aspires to a career promoting international nuclear disarmament.

Wai Kai (Richard) Wong graduated from Brown University in 2020 with a double degree in International Relations and Economics. At Brown, he was a member and co-captain of the men’s volleyball team, a political economy contributor to the Intercollegiate Financial Journal, and a participant in the U.S.-China Summit. He is a sensitive observer of politics, passionate about education and technology, and is highly interested in the execution of foreign relations. He is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Shanghai Yinweishen Education Technology Ltd., and Shanghai Yinweishen Communications Ltd., focused on facilitating and reforming the educational system through technology. Richard was born in Hong Kong and completed primary and secondary school at the Western Academy of Beijing. He is a native speaker of English and Mandarin Chinese, and is proficient in Cantonese, Italian, and Spanish. He divides his time between Beijing, Hong Kong, Italy, and the United States. Wai Kai (Richard) Wong is from Hong Kong SAR, China.

Kefei (Fisher) Wu graduated cum laude from New York University Abu Dhabi with a degree in Psychology. After graduation, Kefei worked for the Abu Dhabi government and delivered several strategic projects across higher education, food security, and entrepreneurship. She now works as a consultant at Roland Berger, Dubai. In 2019, she was elected member of the UAE Youth Advisory Council on SDGs. As one of the two foreign members, she helped shape UAE's youth SDGs agenda from the perspective of a young professional ex-pat. Kefei is also an endurance equestrian athlete, spending most of her spare time on horseback.