Two current Yale students and a recent graduate of Yale College are among 150 scholars from around the world who have been selected as 2026-27 Schwarzman Scholars, which supports graduate study in China.
Aleena Gul, a Yale College senior; Pranav Pattatathunaduvil '25, who is now a second-year student in the Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs' BA/MPP program; and Jordan Van Doren '25 were selected from a pool of more than 5,800 candidates for the prestigious fellowship.
Each will receive funding for a one-year master's degree program at Schwarzman College, Tsinghua University in Beijing, China.
The scholarship program, which was established in 2013, aspires to create a global network of leaders who will shape the future.
The 2026-27 cohort includes scholars representing 40 countries and 83 different universities. They join a network of past fellows that now includes more than 1,500 members from 107 countries and 490 institutions worldwide.
Brief profiles of the three newest Schwarzman Scholars from Yale follow:
Aleena Gul
Aleena Gul, a senior in Yale College, is originally from northwest Pakistan and grew up near Washington, D.C. Conflict, poverty, and geopolitical rivalries in her home region have shaped her focus in global affairs with a focus on international development, global migration, and the energy sector. At Yale, she co-founded the Ivy Future of Pakistan Conference, the largest student-led Pakistan conference in North America. She also leads the Salus Populi Foundation, the student affiliate of Yale's Economic Growth Center, as well as the Refugee Immigrant Student Education. She aims to pursue a career in U.S. foreign policy and international relations. She is from the United States.
Pranav Pattatathunaduvil
Pranav Pattatathunaduvil '25 is a second-year Master's in Public Policy (M.P.P.) student in the Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs' BA/MPP program. He is interested in Indo-Pacific geopolitics, particularly U.S.-India-China relations and the region's tech competition and aspires to work in foreign policy. Pattatathunaduvil is the co-founder of the GeoTech Initiative, which aims to get students involved at the intersection of tech and international relations, and he spearheaded the first and second GeoTech Forums, which convened over 200 STEM and policy students from around the U.S. in Washington, D.C. He has previously interned at the State Department and U.S. Indo-Pacific Command. He is from the United States.
Jordan Van Doren
Jordan Van Doren '25 studied Global Affairs at Yale, where she directed an eight-member capstone team that briefed senior leaders at U.S. Indo-Pacific Command on Sino-U.S. economic policy. She has led pro bono legal aid work supporting domestic violence survivors and mentors Ukrainian refugees through the university admissions process. At the Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies and the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, she is developing educational initiatives on Sino-Caribbean development finance. Van Doren aspires to build a career bridging Caribbean infrastructure development with China's expanding role in foreign lending. She holds citizenship from the United States, Jamaica, and Switzerland.
