Alton's 2024 End of Year + Beijing/Schwarzman Updates

These past several months of 2024 have been some of the most formative of my life. Since August 2024, I have been in China reading for my Master's of Global Affairs at Tsinghua University as part of the Schwarzman Scholars program, a program designed to increase global collaboration and understanding of China’s role in the world. I’ve always believed that traveling provides one the optimal opportunity to unleash themselves from the shackles of encumbered and ordinary thinking; instead, it compels one to dream bigger, bolder, and more imaginatively. That said, my past few months in China as part of this program has helped me do just that. Here’s what I’ve been up to:

The goal is not to simply be in the echo chambers of prestige and power, but to make these complex, dense geopolitical issues more tangible and something that people back home can grasp. These are just a few lessons that I’ve learned halfway through the program. Let’s see what other lessons I gain during the other half.