Each year, up to 200 young leaders are accepted into Schwarzman Scholars, one of the world’s most prestigious fellowships.
The fully immersive master’s programme in global affairs provides participants with a deep and invaluable understanding of China, as well as skills and contacts to open international doors across all sectors for the rest of their lives.
It was founded by American financier Stephen A Schwarzman, chairman and co-founder of alternative asset management firm Blackstone, and is the first scholarship created to respond to the geopolitical landscape of the 21st century.
Noting the rise in China’s global importance in the years ahead, Schwarzman called out the need to develop “a far richer and more nuanced understanding of China’s social, political and economic context”.
He believes the success of future leaders around the world will depend on their understanding of China’s role in global trends. Given the geopolitical environment, this is more important than ever.
Schwarzman Scholars undertake the one-year master’s degree at Beijing’s Tsinghua University, one of China’s most prestigious institutions. Tsinghua is the alma mater of some of China’s most influential leaders – including current and former presidents, Xi Jinping and Hu Jintao.
Schwarzman Scholars’ international advisory board also features political heavy weights, including, respectively, former Australian, Canadian and UK prime ministers, respectively Kevin Rudd, Brian Mulroney and Tony Blair; as well as China’s Nobel Prize winning theoretical physicist, Chen Ning Yang.
The highly competitive programme is designed to seek out and support the world’s brightest young minds and attracts around 4,000 applications a year. Its alumni network is 1200-strong and hails from over 420 universities across 100 countries.
Who can apply?
“We purposefully do not have onerous or complicated eligibility requirements,” explains Sarah Fischer, Global Outreach Associate at Schwarzman Scholars.
“Age is one requirement: You have to be under 28 years old. English language proficiency is another. Finally a scholar must have an undergraduate degree, and that’s it. Schwarzman Scholars is broadly inviting and very exciting because we see such a huge variety of applicants, all with the united cause of shaping the future with positive change.”
The application process includes a resume, essays, transcripts, and letters of recommendation. Those who make it to the final round are invited for a panel interview. Throughout the process, the selection team is looking for evidence of demonstrated leadership, exemplary character and integrity, academic aptitude and intellectual ability.
“It’s about leadership, character and intellect. We know that these manifest themselves in a variety of ways depending on your background, culture and education,” she says.
Far from elitist, it’s about identifying and supporting some of the world’s brightest young minds and future leaders.
“Of course our scholars must be academically prepared for a master’s programme, but as leaders, they also need soft skills such as determination, resilience and persistence in the face of adversity,” she explains.
The application for the next Schwarzman Scholars cohort opens in April. Fischer’s advice to those applying is to find your “why”, as she puts it, and then articulate it. “It’s not about what job you want, or what position you want to hold in 30 years, but what you want to accomplish, the challenges you want to take on,” she says.
Don’t be intimidated by the high number of applicants, she says. “Don’t look at the numbers and think, ‘not me’. Look at them and think, ‘why not me?‘” she advises.
“You won’t know until you throw your hat into the ring, and we have a lot of resources, including webinars, to help.”
Cultural immersion
Schwarzman Scholars, who receive a generous stipend, live in Beijing for their year of study and cultural immersion, attending lectures, travelling in the region, and developing a better understanding of China. This includes what the organisation calls Deep Dives, initiatives that bring them to places of cultural and industrial interest around the country.
Peer learning is a huge part of it. Living with a cohort of international students is designed to encourage mutual understanding and respect.
“Since the programme was established, the world has become increasingly polarised. Instead of leaning into polarisation, why not lean into understanding, into conversation,” Fischer asks.
In so doing participants accumulate skills and experiences that will assist them in leadership roles in the future, whether in public life or the commercial sector.
It’s also great fun. “It’s a once in a lifetime experience,” she says.
Irish success
Eoin O’Doherty has just been appointed a Schwarzman Scholar and will travel to Beijing in August. The 22-year-old, who is from Donegal, went to his local community college in Moville and is currently a final-year business and economics student at Trinity College Dublin.
He heard about Schwarzman Scholars from a friend and, having spent time in Paris on Erasmus, was keen to expand his horizons.
He grew up playing GAA, soccer and golf, in what he describes as a wonderful childhood. But he has faced adversity too. When his father passed away in 2021, O’Doherty stepped in to run the family’s cyber security start-up.
While he ultimately wound that business down to concentrate on his academic career, he plans to follow in his father’s footsteps and create a start-up of his own after graduation, in health tech.
It’s part of the reason he is excited to study at Tsinghua. “It is the top technical university in China, and I believe we have the opportunity to take classes from other schools within the university. There is a pharmaceutical innovation institute at the university and I hope to engage with some of the cutting-edge projects that are happening there. I think it is a huge benefit to have access to the brilliant minds that will be working and studying within the wider university,” says O’Doherty.
The immersive experience will benefit him enormously, and while lectures take place in English, he is keen to learn Mandarin.
“If I want to have a truly global impact in whatever business I go into, I need to understand China. It’s a global powerhouse. You can’t conduct global business without it. Schwarzman Scholars is the best route I could take to understanding China, both in terms of building a fantastic network and overcoming language barriers.”
To secure his place he had to submit an essay on leadership, and a statement of purpose. He also needed three letters of referral, only one of which was academic. “They are not looking for referees with fancy titles, but people who really know you, your character, and the type of person you are,” he explains.
Once shortlisted, he was invited to a panel interview, followed by lunch with interviewers and other prospective scholars. In O’Doherty’s case, he also was at a table that included Stephen Schwarzman himself. “It was quite daunting in advance but they couldn’t have been nicer. It was actually the most enjoyable interview I’ve ever did,” he smiles.
It’s definitely not about old school networks, he affirms. “They look for such a diverse range of candidates that there is no right or wrong discipline. What they are looking for is interesting people with global ambition,” he explains.
“It is an incredible opportunity to explore one of the richest and most ancient cultures in the world,” he adds. “Now more than ever in the world, people need to resolve issues through diplomatic negotiations and the only way to bridge gaps is through understanding and empathy.”
Find out more about Schwarzman Scholars here