Alumna and Thayer Student Receive Schwarzman Scholarships

Adaeze Nduaguba '17 and Michelle Wang '21, Thayer '22, '23, have been selected as Schwarzman Scholars. They are among 151 top students from around the world who will receive a one-year, fully funded graduate fellowship to a master's degree program in global affairs at Schwarzman College at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

"Adaeze and Michelle embody the best of the ideal of understanding the world's problems as their own, and I am confident that they will confront our most pressing global problems through their inspired public service, scholarship, and leadership," says Provost David Kotz '86.

Founded by Stephen Schwarzman, chairman, CEO, and co-founder of the global investment firm Blackstone, the program seeks to prepare a new generation of international leaders "to respond to the geopolitical landscape of the 21st century," and to foster cross-cultural ties with China, according to the program's website.

The scholars, who were selected from 36 countries and 121 universities around the world, will enroll in August.

Adaeze Nduaguba '17

Nduaguba graduated with a double major in government and in women's, gender, and sexuality studies and is currently completing a master's degree in politics at Oxford University. She went to work for Google while also doing some consulting as a political strategist advocating for wage transparency in Massachusetts.

Her study of global affairs will focus on Chinese media in the emerging world order. "I would like to explore a deeper dive in the main themes in Chinese political history and philosophy, and how they continue to shape China's present-day politics and will likely shape its political future."

As an undergraduate Nduaguba, who was born in southeastern Nigeria and grew up in Boston, was a member of the Student and Presidential Committee on Sexual Assault, conducted research in the Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies program as a Presidential Scholar, and completed a policy-based internship through the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy in the Office of First Lady Michelle Obama.

Nduaguba thanked the Office of Fellowship Advising for its help in applying for the Schwarzman fellowship, adding, "I still have the best mentors in some of my undergraduate professors and am appreciative of their unwavering support."

She says she is grateful for the opportunity the program provides.

"I am absolutely elated to be named a Schwarzman Scholar. It's a very exciting and transformative program that presents an opportunity to mix with some of the brightest minds of my generation in an incredibly stimulating setting," she says.

Michelle Wang '21, Thayer '22, '23

As an undergraduate, Wang majored in engineering sciences modified with earth sciences; she earned her bachelor's degree in engineering and expects to graduate from Thayer School of Engineering with a master's degree in the spring. Her studies in engineering have focused on energy and the environment.

As a first-generation American whose parents immigrated to California from China, Wang says she jumped at the opportunity the Schwarzman scholarship offered.

"Since I was a kid, I've always wanted to live in China for a year so I can finally get the language down," she says. "And I can travel in the country where my parents came from. So this is such an amazing opportunity."

As an undergraduate, Wang participated in the international Marine Energy Collegiate Competition through the Arthur L. Irving Institute for Energy and Society; worked in the Dartmouth Sustainability Office, including working on the Organic Farm, managing the annual maple sugaring operation, and managing the first-year program. In addition, her Marine Energy Collegiate Competition team, consisting of students from Dartmouth and the University of Mexico, won the Moonshot Award from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory for their proposal to build an ocean thermal plant off the coast of Cozumel.

Wang plans to study global affairs at Tsinghua University and use her engineering and science background in a possible career in public policy related to "science policy and energy policy on a global scale to effect positive progress against climate change," she said.

For information about applying for Schwarzman scholarships and other programs, and to see a list of past recipients, visit the Office of Fellowship Advising.