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The ESURC office was abuzz Monday morning with the news that Binghamton University
had their first recipient of the Schwarzman Scholars award. Program officials publicly
announced that Micah Jumpp, a 4+1 student studying Geography who worked with our office
during the application process, was selected for the highly competitive scholarship
for the 2022-2023 year. I was able to meet and speak with Micah about the award shortly
after the announcement, and her excitement for the program was infectious. By the
end of my conversation with her, I found myself matching her excited grin.
“I’m just extremely, extremely grateful.” She said about the news, “there are
so many doors I know this opportunity is opening for me. And like, just even meeting
the people who were in my interview—one of them was from the World Bank, like the
vice president of the World Bank. Talking to these people was crazy and that’s just
a little snippet of what’s coming when I get to start the program.”
Next year, Micah will be spending a full year studying global affairs in Tsinghua
University, a widely respected, Ivy-League bracket school in Beijing China. I asked
her what courses she was most excited for and her eyes lit up as she replied, “Chinese
social innovation. I didn't know what social innovation was. But it's kind of like
inventing new poverty-alleviation methods, which is so exciting because you don't
really hear about innovation like that.” The Schwarzman program will be dropping her
in a social innovation hot spot and, in addition to her classes, she’s also especially
excited to learn from her peers: “There’s a whole cohort doing this together, so I’m
going to China, but I’m also meeting people from all around the world who share my
passion.” She explained, “All these people come with their own interests and knowledge
of their home country’s policy—it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet people
like that.”
In addition to classes, Micah's passions for justice and equity have propelled
her long-term goal of building an international organization; Schwarzman Scholars
will act as her launchpad. “I want to talk about these things like this—like global
change, founding an international organization and getting it off the ground. I’m
so excited to share that energy and learn from the lived experiences of global leaders.”
Micah's goal for her future organization is to create solidarity and collaboration
between social justice lawyers around the world who fight for poverty-alleviation
and justice for the disenfranchised.
Micah also made sure to open the doors for future Binghamton Schwarzman Scholars
behind her, “I would love people to really look at this program as something they
could do—to have more Binghamton students thinking of themselves as global leaders.
And really get out there and just apply and try it because even just doing the application
process is a big growth step. And having more Binghamton Schwarzman Scholars, I think
would be a very big deal, especially as this program is building up prestige.” She
left me with her contact information, and the message for interested students everywhere
to look into this program.
Micah also wants to encourage those thinking about Schwarzman to reach out to
her with any questions they may have, she left us her email and her application supplementary video for prospective applicants.
We have the resources here. I was able to come to the ESURC as well as Fleishman for
mock interviews to have multiple people look over my papers, and that was a big part
of why I feel like I got this far. Even just if it's not for Schwarzman scholars,
just going for internships and scholarships and not worrying about name recognition
for the program is a huge part of getting out there.
For More Info:
Door to China: Binghamton has its first Schwarzman Scholar | Binghamton News
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