After graduation this year, three Brown seniors — Hpone Thit Htoo ’26, Elliot Smith ’26 and Rishika Kartik ’26 — will attend Tsinghua University in Beijing as a part of Schwarzman Scholars’ 11th cohort of admitted students.
Schwarzman Scholars is a fully-funded one-year master’s program in global affairs that aims to “address the complex geopolitical landscape of the 21st century” and “prepare the next generation of global leaders,” according to the program’s press release. The program selected 150 scholars from just over 5,800 candidates worldwide this year, the release added.
“We are looking for people of impact who have already shown evidence of what we call ‘demonstrated leadership’ in their life,” said Schwarzman Scholars Director of Global Admissions Wyatt Bruton. “Brown University has been an incredible place for us to identify really, really talented leaders who have made an impact.”
The Herald spoke with Brown’s three 2026 Schwarzman Scholars about their passions and what they plan to pursue as Schwarzman Scholars.
‘I wanted to venture out and complete the narrative’: Hpone Thit Htoo ’26
Htoo learned he was going to be a Schwarzman Scholar through a phone call on his way to class.
Coming from Myanmar, Htoo was intrigued by developments in international relations around Southeast Asia. “Growing up in Southeast Asia,” Htoo said, “you feel a lot of the geopolitical tension that comes with the U.S.-China rivalry.” By engaging with students from various countries, he hopes to learn a “non-U.S.-centric approach” to global governance.
“I realized that I've had such a privilege and honor to be studying here at Brown,” Htoo added. “I wanted to venture out and complete the narrative by going back home to Asia.”
Htoo “has big ambitions, but he really wants to combine that with purpose,” said Thomas Tomezsko ’17, a selection and outreach officer for the program. “He wants to lift up Myanmar to a place of more prominence in international affairs, and he wants to bring more prosperity for its people.”
Initially, Htoo saw himself entering “tech, consulting (or) banking,” but after interning at the professional services firm Deloitte sophomore year, he realized that he wanted to branch out. In his junior summer, Htoo interned at the Center for Strategic International Studies, a nonprofit policy research think tank, where he found his passion for foreign policy and geo-economics.
At Brown, Htoo is a Career Development Co-Chair for the Economics Departmental Undergraduate Group. He also co-founded BatAware, a public health platform that won Brown's 2024 Hack for Humanity.
J. Brian Atwood, a senior fellow at the Watson School of International and Public Affairs, who wrote Htoo’s letter of recommendation for the program, recalled meeting Htoo in two of his classes, IAPA 1701N: “Diplomacy, an Art That Isn't Lost” and IAPA 1702A: “Diplomacy and Development: Related but Different Missions.”
“He was a natural leader in the classroom,” Atwood added. “He deserves it. I think he is going to be a global leader.”
‘Bringing people together’: Elliot Smith ’26
A double concentrator in international and public affairs and computer science, Smith hopes to combine his interests as a Schwarzman Scholar.
“China is such a big player with many emerging technologies, so I wanted to really get an understanding of how they’re thinking about regulating those technologies and the impact they’re going to have on the world in the coming years,” Smith said.
Last year, he was the Editor-in-Chief of the Brown Political Review, where he sought to create a platform where people of different backgrounds and views could “engage with current events respectfully and intelligently.” As a Schwarzman Scholar, he hopes to continue his passion for “bringing people together.”
Smith “came across as really mature and thoughtful and inclusive throughout his entire interview and application process,” Tomezsko said. “He really wants to make sure that (artificial intelligence) and other emerging technologies are approached with ethics and also are mutually beneficial across borders and cultures.”
Smith has also interned for the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Defense, according to Tomezsko.
“I'm really excited about the chance to be immersed in China,” Smith said. “My goal coming into the program is really to meet as many people as possible, to engage with different perspectives and to contribute my perspective, so we can come towards that interdisciplinary understanding of how we drive global change.”
‘Disability doesn’t discriminate’: Rishika Kartik ’26
Kartik studies biology and accessible design, an independent concentration she created to focus on “product design for people with disabilities.”
In high school, Kartik volunteered at the Colorado Center for the Blind, where interactions across cultural lines exposed her to “many people who thought about their disability differently,” she said.
As a Schwarzman Scholar, Kartik hopes to continue gaining “global exposure” to different perspectives on disability. China has large aging and blind populations, Kartik noted, which made it an “obvious choice” to meet this goal.
“Disability doesn’t discriminate,” Kartik said. “It’s one of the only issues that most people can agree on in an era that’s increasingly divided and polarized.”
Kartik was a 2023 Royce Fellow at the Swearer Center for Public Service, where she pursued a project combining her passions for accessibility and art. Kartik also delivered a TEDxBrownU talk titled “Creativity is More Accessible than Meets the Eye” that has garnered over 1.4 million views on YouTube.
Professionally, Kartik is interested in rehabilitation ophthalmology, which she described as a field that aims to develop interventions to prevent blindness, “optimize the vision that people have” and create "accessible design solutions for people that have gone blind.”
“Our interviewers and our application readers thought that she was one of the most exciting applicants that we’ve seen,” Tomezsko said. “She just comes across as someone who is incredibly talented in the space of disability advocacy.”
When reflecting on an essay she submitted in her application, Kartik said she wrote about the leadership approach of Maurice Peret, a leader with the World Access Board for the Blind.
“He emphasizes being both a forger and a steward,” Kartik said. “The most enduring forms of leadership not only carve new paths, but they also strengthen those already laid.”
Ivy Huang is a university news and science & research editor from New York City Concentrating in English, she has a passion for literature and American history. Outside of writing, she enjoys playing basketball, watching documentaries, and beating her high score on Subway Surfers.
