Slowly, however, things started coming together. We built an advisory board of some of the world’s most influential political leaders; we organized an academic advisory council of 22 professors from the world’s top universities to help create a challenging curriculum and recruit dynamic professors; and, most importantly, we set out to design a selection process that would identify young leaders around the world with the academic ability, intellectual curiosity and leadership potential to emerge as the futures of their countries and communities.
Our ultimate vision for the impact of the program is equally as ambitious as our initial dream to get the program off the ground. We want to see a future U.S. Secretary of State sitting across from a foreign diplomat, who each share a common bond as Schwarzman Scholars. We want to see groups of young entrepreneurs, who previously forged a relationship in Beijing at Schwarzman College at Tsinghua University, discussing best practices across oceans to help their local communities. We want to see Fortune 500 CEOs from Shanghai and Seattle, who once studied together as Scholars, partnering to strengthen global economies.
Over the next 50 years, we are going to create a cohort of more than 10,000 Schwarzman Scholars. This is a network of relationships that can be activated over a lifetime in the service of reducing the antagonism, partisanship, and rancor that could threaten global peace.
Last August, I first visited the finished building that I had previously only seen in sketched renderings and as a construction site. I spoke with professors who had spent the last year turning ideas into lesson plans. I watched students from every part of the globe move into the college with people they may have never encountered. They were brimming with enthusiasm, optimism and energy.
As we near the end of the inaugural year, my excitement and dedication to the larger goal of Schwarzman Scholars continues to grow. I look forward to the next chapter of the program, as our inaugural class walks across the stage at graduation on July 1 and to welcoming the second cohort to Beijing in August. I am more confident than ever – if we give the next generation of future leaders the tools, knowledge, and networks they need to break down cultural barriers, we can help build a more peaceful and prosperous world.
Commentary by Steve Schwarzman, chairman and CEO of the Blackstone Group. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Chairman of the President’s Strategic and Policy Forum. He is the founder of the Schwarzman Scholars program at Tsinghua University in Beijing aimed at educating future leaders about China. Follow Schwarzman Scholars on Twitter @SchwarzmanOrg.
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