Alum Weijing Liu ’22 is a Schwarzman Scholar
Mount Holyoke College alum Weijing Liu ’22 is the College’s second Schwarzman Scholar and looks forward to exploring her questions about global affairs.
Weijing Liu ’22 was recently accepted as a Schwarzman Scholar, earning her spot as a scholar in global affairs at Tsinghua University. The program fully funds her year-long master’s program at the university.
Liu is eager to get to work, and she feels the program perfectly matches her interests.
“I’ve always been drawn to questions about global affairs, especially at the intersection of education, technology and policy,” Liu said. “As I learned more about the program’s mission, I began to see how closely it aligned with my own questions about the future.”
Liu learned about the program while working at the Lab for Lifelong Learning at Tsinghua University. The lab supports creative learning across the Chinese education system. Liu is deeply passionate about her work in education and loves seeing how students grow when they are properly supported in a learning environment.
“There’s a specific moment I love witnessing: when a student pauses and says, almost surprised, ‘I didn’t know I could do that,’” Liu said. “I believe every student deserves that moment.”
While working at the lab, she has seen how students and staff integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into classrooms.
“I see how AI reshapes participation, creativity and even classroom power structures in subtle ways,” Liu shared.
Liu became interested in seeing this change happen more broadly. She is passionate about designing education systems that can shape a better future and wants to understand how technological advancements are impacting global education systems. The Schwarzman program will allow her to explore this.
Liu has also noted in her work how important human-centered skills are, including collaboration, ethics and leadership. She believes these skills will become increasingly important as technology’s capabilities continue to expand, and she wants to investigate how they interact with technology in global affairs and across wider society.
After these realizations, Liu decided to apply her best efforts in the application process. She wrote several essays, got recommendation letters and attended an interview. Finalists were invited to visit the Tsinghua University campus for a day to interact with other candidates before their individual interviews.
Liu shared that she was most nervous about the interview part of the process, but she is grateful for the growth that it led to.
“The process itself was transformative,” Liu said. “It required me to articulate clearly who I am, what I value and the kind of impact I hope to make.”
Throughout the application process, Liu’s mentors stood by her. She was grateful for her academic advisor, Jennifer Wallace Jacoby, associate professor of psychology and education, who supported her and wrote her a letter of recommendation.
She is also grateful to her past professors at Mount Holyoke College who helped her grow and prepare for this kind of competitive program. The dedication of her French professor, Nancy Holden-Avard, continues to inspire her to this day. She also feels she was influenced by Kevin Surprise’s interdisciplinary approach to environmental studies. This approach helped Liu realise how complex and interconnected environmental issues are and shaped her current interdisciplinary approach to education, technology and public policy.
Liu hopes to use the scholarship program to reach her goal of working in technology, education and public policy. She hopes to work on integrating technology into education to support students and allow them to be thoughtful and active participants in their learning. Understanding technology and the contexts that shape it will help her achieve this goal. She believes the Schwarzman Scholars program is the perfect opportunity to move toward her goal.
