Five Georgetown University students across three campuses won the 2026 Schwarzman Scholarship, a prestigious award that funds one year of postgraduate study in China, the organization announced Jan. 15.

The scholarship includes a one-year fully funded master’s degree program in global affairs at Tsinghua University in Beijing. The five Georgetown students, who will join a cohort of 150 scholars, are Zarrish Ahmed (SFS-Q ’26), Natalie Delille (GRD ’26), Kingwell Ma (SFS-Q ’26), Evie Steele (SFS ’26) and James Wang (GRD ’26).

Ma, who spent a gap year in China and is currently majoring in international politics, said he reflected on his undergraduate education when he won the scholarship.

“What surprised me most was that my immediate reaction wasn’t a sense of completion or triumph, but rather a feeling of incompleteness — and I mean that in a positive way,” Ma wrote to The Hoya. “That feeling resonated deeply with the Catholic and Jesuit values I’ve learned at Georgetown. Instead of seeing the scholarship as an endpoint, I experienced it as an invitation: to reflect on what my four years at Georgetown have shaped me to contribute, and what I might bring to a new institution and a new community of peers.”

Ahmed, who is studying international politics with a certificate in South Asian studies, said she was most drawn to the scholarship’s global and real-world application.

“For me, Schwarzman sits at the intersection of leadership, global affairs and lived experience,” Ahmed wrote to The Hoya. “Growing up in Pakistan and later studying international politics and South Asian studies at Georgetown, I have consistently seen how major global decisions shape local realities, especially in contexts of development, governance and crisis response.”

“Schwarzman’s emphasis on China, leadership development and cross-cultural exchange felt uniquely aligned with the kind of bridge-building work I hope to do between the Global South and major global institutions,” Ahmed added.

Safwan Masri, dean of Georgetown University in Qatar, said Ahmed and Ma, who both studied at the Qatar campus, are well-deserving of Schwarzman.

“Kingwell and Zarrish represent the best of a Georgetown education, combining academic rigor with a clear sense of responsibility to the world around them,” Masri wrote to The Hoya. “Their selection to the highly competitive Schwarzman Scholars program is a natural extension of that trajectory, and I am confident it will serve them well.”

Delille — who founded DearSociety, a non-profit organization providing scholarships and resources to students in Haiti — said she hopes to use the opportunity to learn more about the ways countries, such as China, combat poverty successfully.

“I’m from Haiti — that’s where my family’s from — and Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere. China was able to lift 800 million people out of poverty,” Delille told The Hoya. “I’m very interested in their poverty alleviation strategies. I’m really interested in their vocational programs, their education programs — my non-profit is focused on education access — and how that’s a lever for poverty alleviation.” 

“I’m really, really interested in ensuring that people in countries like where my family is from have access to their basic needs, and they have the types of policy that allows them to achieve that,” Delille added.

Steele — who is studying regional and comparative studies with a focus on modern East Asian history — said she is motivated to provide more nuance to reporting and journalism on China.

Full Disclosure: Evie Steele (SFS ’26) previously served as The Hoya’s editor-in-chief in the Fall 2024 and Spring 2025 semesters and currently serves as a contributing editor.

“Going to China and being there on the ground can help me be exposed to a wider array of opinions about China, and complicate some of the narratives that are always occurring in the mainstream media that reduces China down to its threat, and its industrialization and its militarization,” Steele told The Hoya. “There’s also a lot more to it. I think that good policy and having a good understanding of China requires an understanding of the history and the ideology, as a sort of context to the policy, which we kind of lack.” 

Steele, who was editor-in-chief of The Hoya, said her experience in student journalism made her want to cover underreported stories in China.

“That made me think that there is still hope for people doing journalism, to have that kind of an impact when presented with a larger platform, and a topic of coverage, with China, that’s very newsworthy and impactful,” Steele said.

Christine Kim, teaching professor in the Asian studies program at Georgetown who mentored Steele during a university-sponsored academic trip to Korea and Japan, said Steele is a clear choice for the award based on her unique perceptions and insights.

“She really was quite extraordinary in terms of just observing everything,” Kim told The Hoya. “Translating things that she may have just observed on the street or mundane things like product packaging, or street signs or museum wall texts, and making connections that perhaps are not obvious.” 

“She just has a wonderful ability to make links and see a bigger picture, even when it wasn’t at all obvious or spelled out in any way,” Kim added. 

Wang, a Chinese national interested in comparing China’s artificial intelligence policy with Europe and the United States, said he is most excited about a trip offered each semester as part of the scholarship.

“One of the greatest attractions for the scholarship is they offer what’s called a ‘deep dive tour,’ once per semester, which is a fully funded trip all around Greater China and, to some extent, other parts of Asia,” Wang told The Hoya. “It’s usually led by alumni and faculties, and sometimes it’s also led by students, where you get to go on to the field of any countries, counties or factories, and actually learn the hands-on information on the data.” 

Delille said she is most looking forward to collaborating with the other scholars in the 2026 Schwarzman cohort.

“The biggest thing for me is the cohort,” Delille said. “I’m really excited to be doing this journey with a group of people. When you look at the bios of the different scholars I’ll be participating with, everyone is super impressive. They’ve done amazing things, and the work that I want to do is going to require very motivated, ambitious and kind people.” 

“That’s definitely reflected across this group, the people that I met at interviews, the people I’ve talked to since then make me really excited to go on this journey,” Delille added.