Laxman Bist ’23, Bryanna Entwistle ’23, and Josué Godeme ’26 have been selected as Schwarzman Scholars. They are among 150 top students from around the world who will receive a one-year, fully funded graduate fellowship to a master’s degree program in global affairs at Schwarzman College at Tsinghua University in Beijing. 

Founded by Stephen Schwarzman, chairman, CEO, and co-founder of the global investment firm Blackstone, the Schwarzman Scholars program brings together future leaders to study China’s role in global affairs, fostering cross-cultural understanding and preparing participants to navigate complex international challenges.

The eleventh cohort of Schwarzman Scholars was selected from a pool of just over 5,800 candidates from 40 countries and 83 universities and was announced on Jan. 15. The scholars pursue their graduate degrees during the 2026–2027 academic year.

“We’re incredibly proud to have three Schwarzman Scholars this year—a tie with Dartmouth’s previous record. Laxman, Bryanna, and Josué represent a range of disciplines, campus communities, and leadership styles, and together they showcase the strengths of Dartmouth’s liberal arts education, undergraduate research, and commitment to social impact,” says Christie Harner, associate dean of undergraduate education for fellowships and scholars programs.

Laxman Bist ’23

Bist, who grew up in Bardiya, Nepal, graduated from Dartmouth in 2023 with a major in physics and a minor in neuroscience. He is the founder and CEO of the Institute for Rural Development, a nonprofit focused on youth leadership development, education, and policy engagement in Nepal.

For Bist, leadership emerged as a response to address the public frustration in the society. Growing up, he witnessed what he describes as systemic leadership failure in rural Nepal, conditions that limited opportunity and discouraged civic engagement.

“I realized that individual effort could only go so far,” he says. “Long-term reform required a collective and generational approach.”

That realization led him to build the Institute for Rural Development and later to found the Global Youth Alliance for Nepal, which he says is the largest network of Nepali youth worldwide. 

Bist’s work has included collaboration with Nepal’s Office of the Prime Minister, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Ministry of Commerce and Industry on youth-centered dialogues and startup initiatives.

Coming to Dartmouth in 2019 sharpened his vision, Bist says.

“Leadership here was not discouraged, it was expected,” he says.

As a King Scholar, Bist found mentors who reinforced his belief that leadership can be taught, cultivated, and practiced. “My work since then has focused on rebuilding those ecosystems back home.”

As a Schwarzman Scholar, Bist plans to study global affairs with a focus on entrepreneurship, development policy, political economy, and China’s role in regional governance. For Nepal, located between China and India, this understanding is essential, he says.

“Leadership without geopolitical literacy is incomplete,” he says.

The scholarship, Bist adds, is both an affirmation and a responsibility.

“It’s about equipping myself honestly—with knowledge, networks, and lived experience—so I can return better prepared to serve and mentor the next generation of leaders.”

Bryanna Entwistle ’23

Entwistle, who grew up in Singapore, Mumbai, and Hong Kong, graduated from Dartmouth cum laude in 2023 with honors in history and minors in government and Asian societies, cultures, and languages. She works as a press and program officer at the Asia Society Policy Institute, where she analyzes security issues in Southeast Asia and U.S. strategy in the Indo-Pacific.

For Entwistle, effective leadership is less about prominence than about perspective.

“The best examples of leadership aren’t always big-name accomplishments, but often the times where one lets others step into the spotlight instead of themselves,” she says.

Entwistle’s interest in Southeast Asia began early, influenced by her father’s work with the United Nations during Cambodia’s first free elections following the genocide by the Khmer Rouge.

As a sixth-grader in Singapore, Entwistle co-founded the Walk for Water, a 28-kilometer annual trek that raised funds for wells in Cambodia. By the time she graduated high school, more than 200 students participated each year, raising more than $150,000 since its inception.

At Dartmouth, Entwistle deepened her engagement with the region’s history and politics. She worked with the Dartmouth Digital History Initiative to encode oral histories of the Vietnam War, studied postwar economic development during a term at Fulbright University in Ho Chi Minh City, and wrote her senior thesis on how Cold War strategy undermined U.S. responses to the Cambodian genocide, for which she won the 2023 Chase Peace Prize.

As a Schwarzman Scholar, Entwistle plans to study Chinese history, politics, and language to better understand Beijing’s role in Southeast Asia.

At Dartmouth she was a War and Peace Fellow, director of Sugarplum Dance Group, and a chapter officer of Kappa Kappa Gamma. 

“It feels full circle to return to Asia for graduate study,” says Entwistle, who has had several op-eds she wrote about the region published in news outlets. “I’m incredibly grateful for the Dartmouth community that made this possible.”

Josué Godeme ’26

Godeme, a computer science major with a minor in Chinese, will graduate from Dartmouth in June. He grew up in Cotonou, Benin, and is a King Scholar and Stamps Scholar. Godeme has served as co-president of the National Society of Black Engineers and co-executive of CoderDojo, teaching computer science to underserved high school students in the Upper Valley.

Godeme traces his understanding of leadership to his parents, who lacked access to formal education but made daily sacrifices to ensure their children could learn.

“Leadership begins long before authority,” he says. “It begins with responsibility and service.”

After graduating as the top student in Benin on the national exam, Godeme became acutely aware of the gap between talent and opportunity. That awareness now drives his interest in education technology and artificial intelligence.

At Tsinghua, Godeme plans to study artificial intelligence policy, educational innovation, and governance, with the goal of scaling personalized learning tools across Africa. He sees parallels between China’s rural-urban education divide and challenges faced in Benin and across the continent.

“China has pioneered solutions I want to understand deeply—technically, ethically, and culturally,” he says.

Fluent in four languages, Godeme hopes to build partnerships with Chinese technologists and educators to develop AI-powered tools that can adapt to Africa’s linguistic and cultural diversity.

“Education changed my life,” he says. “This scholarship is about learning how to make that change possible at scale.”

His other leadership roles while at Dartmouth include serving as co-president of the National Society of Black Engineers, and executive board member of the Dartmouth African Students Association.

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For information about applying for scholarship programs, visit the Fellowships Office.