Jennelle Ohene-Agyei dances across cultures.
A student in Hunter’s Chinese Flagship program, Ohene-Agyei MHC ’24 just won a prestigious Schwarzman Scholarship, a one-year, fully funded master’s program at Tsinghua University in Beijing.
The Political Science major, who comes from a family of Ghanaian and Jamaican immigrants, also dances professionally in New York City’s Continuum Contemporary Ballet Company. She also works with the Negus Ballerina Project to encourage more black and brown dancers to continue with their classical ballet training.
“I feel fortunate to have both a Western and non-western cultural upbringing,” she said in her video application to the Schwarzman Scholars. “Growing up in this multicultural environment made me appreciate the confluence of different customs from people in various parts of the world. There my interest in China began.”
Ohene-Agyei, Hunter’s sixth Schwarzman Scholar, has studied Mandarin for three years, is studying abroad this year in Taiwan, and teaches English to Chinese immigrants. Her education at Hunter, she said, has enabled her to integrate her Political Science major with her Chinese language studies in order to learn more about Chinese politics.
That’s the sweet spot for the Schwarzman Scholarship which, according to its promotional materials, is “designed to build a global community of future leaders who will serve to deepen understanding between China and the rest of the world.”
Ohene-Agyei was helped in her application by Hunter’s Office of Prestigious Scholarships and Fellowships, which has a stellar track record in preparing students for many different kinds of competitive scholarships and fellowships. In recent years, the college has produced two Rhodes, two Marshall, six Schwarzman, five Luce, seven Goldwater, and 39 Fulbright Scholars among many other prestigious awardees.
