On Jan. 15, Laxman Bist ’23, Bryanna Entwistle ’23 and Josué Godeme ’26 were named Dartmouth’s 13th, 14th and 15th Schwarzman Scholars. They will receive full scholarships to participate in a one-year master’s program in global affairs at Tsinghua University’s Schwarzman College in Beijing, China.
This application cycle — which saw the highest number of applications in the program’s history, according to the program website — marks the second time three Dartmouth students were selected in one year.
Godeme, a computer science major, said that he hopes to study technology, policy and education at Tsinghua.
“I am heavily interested in artificial intelligence and education and the intersection of them, especially in low-resource contexts,” Godeme said.
Originally from Cotonou, Benin, Godeme said that Asian societies, cultures and language classes at Dartmouth sparked his interest in studying China. For example, learning about how China addressed its “rural-urban divide” using technology and education pushed him to think about “the context of [his] home country.”
He added that his experiences in the ASCL department, including Chinese language classes and the Beijing language study abroad program, prepared him to study in China. After Tsinghua, Godeme said he hopes to pursue a Ph.D. in machine learning.
Bist, who studied physics and neuroscience at Dartmouth, said that he hopes to study China to “bridge the gap” between India and China, both of which border his home country of Nepal.
“I want to use that geopolitical possibility and translate it into the development of my own nation,” Bist said.
Following the completion of the program, Bist plans to pursue “another master’s degree but more focused on education” before continuing his nonprofit and government work in Nepal. In the meantime, he looks forward to “engaging with people as much as possible” and “developing [his] leadership abilities.”
Entwistle, who majored in history and minored in government and ASCL at Dartmouth, said she will study Chinese involvement in contemporary Southeast Asia and how scholars can understand the region “out of the context of great power competition.”
Entwistle wrote her honors thesis on how Cold War strategy undermined the United States’ ability to prioritize human rights in its response to the Cambodian genocide.
“I fear we’re seeing that [strategy] again today with China and the United States, and there’s a lot of pressure on Southeast Asian states to choose between China and the United States,” Entwistle said. “I want to be a part of the next generation of people … who really understand the region and help take it out of that binary context.”
Currently working as a press and policy officer at the Asia Society Policy Institute, Entwistle added that she wants to continue her work in Southeast Asian foreign policy after the Schwarzman Scholarship.
“I want to keep doing exactly what I’m doing at the ASPI right now, but at a higher level,” Entwistle said.
Fellowships and scholars programs director Christie Harner said that the Fellowships Office supported all three recipients in their applications to the program. Bist said the office helped him review his application and prepare for the interview with mock interviews.
“They have always been very supportive people,” Bist said.
Bist added that having adjusted to Dartmouth as a first-year student “built a resilience and sense of acceptance” that has made him “more excited than anxious” for studying in China.
Harner recommended that prospective applicants think deeply about why they want to study in China and what being a leader means to them. Harner added that a Schwarzman representative will be on campus for an information session in April.
“Think early about how you articulate leadership and what that means to you,” Harner said. “What can you learn from being [in China] that you couldn’t learn from being somewhere else?”
