Four Hoyas are recipients of this year’s Voyager Scholarship, a new program that prepares students to be future leaders and public servants.
Created in 2022 by former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama along with Airbnb Co-Founder and CEO Brian Chesky, the Voyager Scholarship shapes young leaders to become global citizens and public servants. The scholarship provides rising college juniors with two years of opportunities for scholarship and leadership development.
Recipients of the scholarship receive financial aid, a fully funded summer work-travel experience — known as the Summer Voyage — and access to a network of mentors. Following their graduation, the scholars also receive a 10-year travel stipend to continue traveling, experiencing new cultures and creating new connections in their public service careers.
The four Hoyas — Ranee Brady (SFS’26), Aria Nimmagadda (C’26), Matlock Grossman (SFS’26) and Lela Tolajian (SFS’26) — are part of a Voyager cohort of 100 students from 44 states and territories and 88 colleges and universities across the U.S. Last year, Isabella Stratta (SFS’25), received the scholarship and spent her summer interning at the World Bank on sustainable development issues and volunteering in Panama.
Learn more about this year’s recipients of the Voyager Scholarship, why they’re drawn to public service and what they are hoping to achieve through the program.
Encountering New Cultures Through Public Service
Ranee Brady (SFS’26) was at her internship at the U.S. Agency for International Development when she found out she was a Voyager Scholarship recipient. She was excited to not only get to travel but to get to meet locals and better understand their community along the way.
“Something I’d like to come away with 10 years from now with this experience is to be able to talk to other [Voyager] scholars and learn from them and say, ‘If all these 100 people are putting their minds to public service, then I can, too,’” she said.
Brady has always had an inclination for public service. Her mother is an attorney for a federal court and works on prisoner cases in Alabama, and her father is a civil engineer for her hometown’s local government.
The Voyager Scholarship’s emphasis on public service resonated with her, along with its focus on traveling and experiencing other cultures. Brady has only been overseas once in her life. But growing up around her extended family from India made her crave more cultural experiences.
“I grew up in a household where you’d celebrate Diwali and the Festival of Lights from Hinduism but also Easter and Christmas,” she said. “Most people would see that as a conflict or oxymoron in a way, but for me, it was always just part of life and being able to see those not just coexist, but also feel like it made me more of an enriched person.”
Now as a Voyager, she’s eager to experience new ways to interact with different cultures. For her Summer Voyage, she hopes to put what she’s learned in her Portuguese classes at Georgetown to work in Brazil and intern with an organization dedicated to government transparency and the expansion of a free press.
Exploring the Intersection of Agriculture and Justice
Aria Nimmagadda (C’26), a double major in English and justice and peace studies, is the first student in the College of Arts & Sciences to receive the Voyager Scholarship.
“To say it’s a dream come true is an understatement,” said Nimmagadda. “The Voyager Scholarship will broaden my horizons by allowing me to meet new people, explore my intellectual curiosities and travel to new destinations. I’m really looking forward to it all!”
Nimmagadda, who is also minoring in sociology, is excited at the prospect of enriching the final two years of her undergraduate education through additional travel and research. Through the Voyager Scholarship, she hopes to pursue internships that complement the research she’s already conducting on the Hilltop.
On campus, Nimmagadda works as a research assistant in the lab of Yuki Kato, an associate professor in the Department of Sociology, on urban agriculture and ancestry research. She conducts oral interviews and archival research to learn more about historical food provisioning practices among communities of color.
“There is a pervasive public misconception that urban agriculture is ‘new,’ but there has actually been a history of people of color and immigrants growing and sharing food in American cities. However, these practices have not been systematically documented,” Nimmagadda said. “The research involves speaking with contemporary growers to understand how they view their practices in connection with ancestral land, identities and knowledge.”
After graduating, Nimmagadda hopes to attend law school, combining her passion for food, agriculture and justice.
“I believe environmental law and policy is more important now than ever before given our current climate crisis,” she said. “I am particularly interested in environmental law because of all the issue areas it encompasses — food law, water policy, agricultural law, conservation policy, public health, the economy — and how all of those areas have major impacts on human life.”
Gaining New Perspectives for a Public Sector Career
Matlock Grossman (SFS’26) already got a taste of what a career in public service looks like when he was in high school.
Growing up in the Los Angeles area, Grossman advocated for bicycle safety. In high school, he served on a volunteer-run local neighborhood council and managed the council’s work on transportation and environmental policy. In this role, he helped guide the placement of speed bumps and traffic signs around his neighborhood.
“Not only being able to make change but live in the world where that change exists and being able to see it and use it, I think that’s something super special and unique,” he said. “There’s not really any other sector that can give you that [besides working in the public sector].”
Grossman said he was drawn to the Voyager Scholarship because of its mission-oriented focus on public service and creating change. He’s also excited to expand his worldview by absorbing new points of view from people all over the world.
“In the public sector, it’s important to make sure you’ve experienced all the other perspectives before making a decision because those decisions are so impactful,” said Grossman, who interned at the U.S. Department of State this summer. “So having these interactions with people from widely varied backgrounds but also encouraging traveling to different places, I think that’s something I can give future policymakers, good experience and insight that a lot of other people won’t have.”
While Grossman isn’t sure what his Summer Voyage will be next year, he’s thinking of continuing his research on ideological extremism, potentially staying in the U.S. to study domestic extremism or heading to the Middle East. Most of all, he’s looking forward to meeting and learning from other Voyagers.
“It’s an incredible honor and privilege. It’s such an incredible program, and I am excited to have this as a resource to interact with other people with similar interests but also from widely varying backgrounds,” he said. “I’m excited to meet everyone and get started.”
Studying Forced Labor Around the Globe
Lela Tolajian (SFS’26) spent her summer researching labor trafficking in the U.S. through the Lisa J. Raines Fellowship in the Center for Research & Fellowships. It’s work she plans to continue as a Voyager.
“I was overjoyed to learn [that I won the Voyager], as the financial aid and opportunities provided by the scholarship are life-changing,” she said.
As an aspiring public servant, Tolajian wants to study and advocate for the victims of structural and economic violence.
While her work so far has concentrated on the U.S., she’s always wanted to explore other cultures and places around the world. She said the Voyager Scholarship will make her dream a reality, and she’s looking forward to connecting with other Voyagers in the months ahead.
“I was interested in taking part in a cohort of young people committed to public service and making a positive impact on the world,” she said. “Above all, I look forward to learning from other Voyagers and developing my understanding of the world around me.”
