Yale-NUS students awarded Rhodes and Schwarzman Scholarships

Four Yale-NUS College students and alumni have received prestigious global scholarships to pursue graduate studies at the University of Oxford, the United Kingdom, and Tsinghua University, the People’s Republic of China, in 2024.

Rhodes Scholar – Max Han

Max Han (Class of 2024) has been named a Rhodes Scholar this year. The Rhodes Scholarship, identifies young leaders from around the world and offers them a chance to study together at Oxford. Each year, over 100 Rhodes Scholarships are awarded internationally. Max is currently reading a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Environmental Studies at Yale-NUS, with a focus on environmental justice. He hopes to pursue a MSc in Environment Change and Management and Master of Public Policy at Oxford next year.

Max’s commitment to environmental action started early as a teenager, from teaching children about climate change to volunteering with conservationists and coastal communities. At age 19, Max co-founded Youths United for Earth (YUFE), Malaysia’s leading grassroots non-profit mobilising youths for action through local storytelling, campaigns, and advocacy. YUFE now hosts Malaysia’s largest annual environmental mentorship programme and routinely engages UN agencies, NGOs, and influential stakeholders. Recognised for his work, Max has been honored with the Diana Award and EE 30 Under 30 of the North American Association for Environmental Education.

Schwarzman Scholars – Rachel Juay, Lucy Zhu, and Htet Myet Min Tun

Two Yale-NUS alumni – Rachel Juay (Class of 2020) and Lucy Zhu Xinyu (Class of 2022) – and one current student, Htet Myet Min Tun (Class of 2024), have been selected as 2024 Schwarzman Scholars. The Schwarzman Scholarship is a highly selective programme, which supports up to 200 Scholars annually from the United States, China, and around the world to pursue a one-year, fully-funded Master’s degree in Global Affairs at Tsinghua.

Rachel graduated from the Concurrent Degree Programme offered by Yale-NUS College and the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP) in 2021. She has a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Politics, Philosophy and Economics (PPE) from Yale-NUS and a Masters in Public Policy (MPP) from LKYSPP. Since graduating, she has worked in research roles in both the private and NGO sectors. She is now a project manager for the upcoming United Nations Global Risk Report, a publication that focuses on the world’s most pressing risks and how multilateral institutions can better mitigate them. Outside of work, Rachel has also participated in voluntary research work in Singapore, such as the Merpati Resettlement Project to study the effects of relocation on lower-income residents. Through the Schwarzman programme, she hopes to learn about how China is contending with the effects of high costs of living, and to draw on these learnings to inform her community engagement efforts in Singapore.

Lucy graduated from Yale-NUS in 2022 with a Bachelor of Science with Honours in Mathematical, Computational, and Statistical Sciences (MCS). Since then, she has been working at Morgan Stanley as an investment banking analyst, focusing on Southeast Asia capital markets, and Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) transactions. While at Yale-NUS, she was part of the team which won the case study challenge in the 2020 Morgan Stanley Singapore Mentorship Program (Investment Banking Division). She also received support from the J Y Pillay Global-Asia Programme to do an internship at a local boutique investment firm. Having spent the past five years studying and working in Singapore, she is interested to dive into China’s thinking about its role in the world.

Htet Myet majors in Global Affairs at Yale-NUS and is a recipient of the ASEAN Undergraduate Scholarship awarded by the Ministry of Education, Singapore. He has participated in several research projects, covering topics such as Myanmar’s Rohingya crisis, socio-economic conditions of Burmese domestic workers in Singapore, and Myanmar’s military regime. Htet Myet plans to work in the policy sector back in his home country after graduating, and believes the Schwarzman programme, which provides the opportunity for him to live and learn in China for a year, can help him gain useful insights into the factors that shape decision-making in China, and how these decisions will affect the region and the world.

Rachel, Lucy and Htet Myet will be heading to Tsinghua in 2024 for the Schwarzman programme, where they will live in Beijing, China, for a year of study and cultural immersion.

Professor Joanne Roberts, President of Yale-NUS College said, “We are very proud of our students and alumni who have been selected to join these two very prestigious global fellowship programmes. I am excited that they will be embarking on remarkable learning journeys at Oxford and Tsinghua, and furthering their research in the areas they care about. Beyond the academics, our students and graduates care deeply about critical issues facing the world today, and I am sure the new knowledge and connections they will gain at Oxford and Tsinghua will help them further their passions to seek solutions that create positive impact.”

With this newest batch of Scholars, Yale-NUS College now has three Rhodes Scholars, and six Schwarzman Scholars across its alumni and graduating classes.

See ANNEX for our 2024 Scholars’ bios, and the full list of Rhodes and Schwarzman Scholarship receipients from Yale-NUS.

For media enquiries, please contact publicaffairs@yale-nus.edu.sg.

Note: This article was updated on 12 December 2023.