A senior and 2020 alumnus have received the 2025 Schwarzman Scholarship, a one-year master’s degree program in China for promising leaders from around the world.
Shaun Ho (SFS’20), a due diligence consultant, and Harry Yang (SFS’25), a transfer student who studies culture and international relations, are among 150 Schwarzman Scholars from 38 countries who were chosen from a record pool of nearly 5,000 applicants. They join a class of fellow Georgetown Schwarzman Scholars, including Rhodes Scholar Zhicheng Wang (SFS’22), François Valentin (SFS’18) and recent graduate Nicole Weinrauch (SFS’24).
The scholars will study at Tsinghua University in Beijing this fall, where they will be immersed in Chinese culture, leadership and global affairs to better understand China’s role in the world and network with scholars from around the world.
Meet Georgetown’s two newest Schwarzman Scholars.
A Chinese Student With One Foot in Europe
Shaun Ho (SFS’20) came to Georgetown as an international student from Macau, China. But he always considered himself a “multinational person.”
He spent three years at a boarding high school in Pennsylvania. At Georgetown, he spent semesters abroad in Israel and the United Kingdom, as well as a summer in France studying at Sciences Po. As a resident of Macau, a former Portuguese colony, Ho also has dual citizenship between China and Portugal.
His upbringing in Macau and mainland China and international experiences drew him to the Schwarzman program, he said.
“The program seeks to connect China with the West and other countries,” he said. “I think I can play an important role in that because of my experience living both in China and the U.S. and other countries.”
At Georgetown, Ho deepened his interest in international relations in the School of Foreign Service and as an active member in organizations like Georgetown Model United Nations and the Georgetown European Club.
“Georgetown is such a diverse environment, and I think it makes you curious to learn more about different subjects and different cultures, which sort of nudged me into this direction of applying to the Schwarzman,” he said.
Ho spent two years in Hong Kong working at a due diligence consulting firm after graduating from Georgetown. He then earned his master’s in European and international public policy from the London School of Economics, before returning to Hong Kong to continue his career in due diligence consulting.
As a Schwarzman Scholar, Ho is excited to gain a better understanding of China, a country he said is vastly different from his home in Macau, which is a special administrative region that Portugal handed back to the Chinese government in 1999.
He is also eager to explore his interest in environmental protection and climate policy at Tsinghua, specifically how China can work with the international community — in particular the EU — to meet global climate goals.
“China is still sort of a foreign country to me, even though it is my own country, which is why I find it so intriguing and why I want to learn more about mainland China,” he said. “Given its increasing importance in the world, I think it’s important for me and other people to better understand China and what Chinese political leaders are thinking on the global stage.”
Blending International Politics and Culture
Before coming to Georgetown, Harry Yang (SFS’25) studied art with a concentration in ceramics at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). Yang, who grew up in Beijing, had always been interested in the world and found art as a way to critically engage and reflect on it.
At RISD, he enrolled in cross-registered classes at Brown University to explore his interest in the humanities and social sciences. After a few classes, Yang looked for ways to merge all his interests together and transferred to Georgetown in 2023.
At Georgetown, Yang has combined his passion for international affairs and the arts as a culture and politics major in the School of Foreign Service. Through SFS’s Centennial Lab, he traveled to Cairo during spring break and explored how different state and non-state actors engage with Egypt’s rich cultural heritage.
This past summer, Yang interned at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome. Yang wants to pursue a career with an agency like the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and be on the frontline of protecting culture during conflict and crisis.
“To not only be an artist but also be an advocate for the arts in some capacity is really important to me,” he said. “The culture and politics major in SFS allows me to focus on where my future is, and I found it interesting to see how cultural narratives and material artifacts intersect with global politics.”
On the Hilltop, he is an active member of Georgetown Model United Nations and is a section editor for the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs. Yang is also involved with the SFS Academic Council and and the ESCAPE retreat.
After studying in the US for years, Yang is excited to be back in his home country. Yang looks forward to Schwarzman College’s “deep dive” field trips across China, which he said will broaden his understanding beyond class lectures, family conversations and news about China.
“We often talk about [China] on a grand scale and talk about its politics, its foreign policy and all these development projects,” he said. “But I think it’s also important for me to visit these places firsthand, to go into the countryside and factories, … because it allows me to gain insight and engage with the people who made [China’s] astonishing transformation possible.
Yang hopes to continue developing his interest in global affairs, culture and the arts at Tsinghua. He ultimately wants to be on the frontlines of international affairs, fostering greater understanding between China and the world.
“I want to be a part of that process to help the world understand China better and to help China understand the world better,” he said. “U.S.-China relations have been through crises, a lot of competitions, a lot of unfriendliness, but I’m sure it will come back. It will be important for the world for the two countries to work together on a lot of important issues.”
