Guan Hongyu received his Bachelor’s degree from Peking University, majoring in Finance. There, he was honored as an Outstanding Student of Peking University. Hongyu participated in many communication activities during undergraduate years. As the president of Global View Initiative, the biggest Sino-US communication program on campus, he led team visits to six cities and numerous well-known universities and companies in the United States. He and his team also improved communications between PKU and PKU alumni in North America. Hongyu worked as a core member of the PKU International Culture Festival preparation group for two years, cooperating with over 100 international students. He has been a class monitor for 16 years and served as General Secretary of Youth League at PKU’s Yuanpei College. Hongyu has completed internships at China International Capital Corporation Investment Banking Division, China Media Capital Partners, and the Boston Consulting Group. These inspired him to start his career in finance. At the Yenching Academy, Hongyu will study Economics and Management. He hopes to further analyze Chinese economic issues, especially ways to link the Chinese and international capital markets. Hongyu is 22 years old, and was born and raised in Tianjin, China. 

At Zhejiang University, Guo Youzi pursued her BA in English Language and Culture while also studying politics and economics. She was also a member of Cultural China, a training plan that helped her further understand Chinese Studies. Youzi has published two articles in Guangming Daily, and has received academic and program-specific scholarships from the Chinese government, the Australian government and other enterprises. Meanwhile, Youzi has served as Vice President of the Student Union, and as a voluntary interpreter in Liangzhu for three years to introduce Liangzhu Culture to foreign visitors. She also ranked top 4 in British Parliamentary Debate competition and top 3 in Dramatic Competition.  Youzi has participated in two exchange programs at UC Berkeley and University of Sydney, through which she discovered her passion for international relations. She conducted a research project concerning Germany’s participation in peace-keeping action. After the volunteering experience in Nepal, Youzi realized the importance of communication between different cultures, so at the Yenching Academy, Youzi would like to focus on Chinese diplomatic policy and Sino-American relations. She hopes to be a good story-teller and to present China to the world. 

Yohannes Hailemicael was born and raised in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He is a diligent graduate from Addis Ababa University with a Bachelor’s of Animal Science. Yohannes has been actively involved in student initiatives on campus as well as voluntary community services at different non-governmental organizations. He is currently living in Turkey and is fluent in Turkish. At the Yenching Academy, he will pursue Politics and International Relations where he will be focusing on Sino-African relations. His key research interest is China's development policies in Ethiopia and its future. He also hopes to learn and have a better understanding of Chinese language, culture and life style. After completing his Master’s, Yohannes plans to pursue a PhD in his concentration and start a career.

Carl Hooks is a senior and Annika Rodriguez Scholar at Washington University in St. Louis, where he studies International Development, Political Science, and Chinese. He became fascinated by China during an initial visit in 2010, and has since spent a summer in Dalian as a Critical Language Scholar, and another in Beijing as an intern for a groundbreaking legal NGO. This experience formed the basis for his honors thesis, which explores legal aid services for Chinese migrant workers. Carl published his research in the Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies in 2016. Also interested in South Asia, he has presented a study of India’s urban development policy at national conferences. Carl is passionate about social and environmental justice. While in college, he helped an immigration agency secure affordable housing for refugees, founded a service partnership between students and a poverty relief nonprofit, and served on Washington University’s Diversity Affairs Council. As a Yenching Scholar with Law and Society as his research area, Carl aims to deepen his understanding of China’s rapid urbanization and of its effects on property rights, inequality, and sustainability. Outside of the classroom, he hopes to explore Chinese calligraphy and visual arts with fellow scholars.

Alexander Hornung received his Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) with honors in the field of Banking and Capital Markets Law, and a Master’s in Business for Legal Professionals. He received his qualification to practice law in 2017 after graduating from the EBS University of Business and Law. He attended American, Canadian, French, and Chinese schools, and spent a semester abroad at Peking University Graduate School of Transnational Law. He is fluent in several European languages and in Mandarin. He is interested in international relations, global business and transnational law, which he practiced during his internship with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP. In 2016 he co-founded a start-up aiming to combat ticket scalping at European stadiums and its resultant security loopholes. At the Yenching Academy, Alexander will focus on China’s approach to international affairs and how these may relate to business strategies and legal regulations between China and Western countries.

Daniel Huang grew up in Athens, Ohio, and graduated from New York University, where he studied economics and journalism. After college he worked as a staff reporter with The Wall Street Journal, where he covered finance and technology, and wrote about issues facing U.S. veterans. Daniel’s extended family lives in China, and he has enjoyed spending more time with them in recent years. Daniel is interested in economic development, global affairs, and creative writing. He is excited to study Philosophy and Religion at Yenching Academy.

Huang Fangyuan is from Beijing, China. She completed her undergraduate degree in the Department of Chinese Language and Literature, with a focus on Chinese literature. She was named Merit Student Pacesetter of PKU for her excellent academic performance, and was awarded the Tang Lixin Scholarship for three consecutive years. Fangyuan has been actively engaged in cross-cultural communication, and has attended exchange programs in Australia, the United States and Japan. She was deputy editor for the PKU Student Press Corps and has interviewed many people, including Iqbal Riza, Special Adviser to Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and Meric Gertler, President of the University of Toronto. Fangyuan’s academic interests include comparative literature and culture. During her sophomore year, she received a research grant to study images of women in late Qing fiction (1849-1911). Later, she closely examined the treatment of foreign countries in Chinese novels. As a Yenching Scholar, Fangyuan hopes to study the interaction between Chinese literature and world literature in order to gain a comprehensive understanding of how China and the West perceive each other.

Huang Sizhuo studied Business Journalism and minored in Marketing at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing. She also researched linguistics, communication, and economics. In her graduate thesis, she conducted a comparative analysis of doctors’ identity construction in China and the U.S. Sizhuo interned at a magazine and an e-commerce company, where she witnessed the emergence and collapse of the peer-to-peer lending. While interning at an export-import bank, she felt the financing troubles of middle and small businesses. She has also volunteered in hospitals and participated in various competitions and clubs. These experiences helped her determine her mission: to mediate misunderstandings among different people and promote health care and safety. She plans to engage in more social work and increase her knowledge and skills at the Yenching Academy.

Montijn Huisman is from Assen, a small town in the north of the Netherlands. He is currently studying for a graduate degree in International Political Economy at the London School of Economics (LSE), where he focusses on the political economy of finance, trade and business. Before coming to London, he received his B.A. in International Relations from the University of Groningen. As part of this undergraduate degree, he spent a year studying as an Erasmus Mundus scholar at Peking University. Montijn subsequently conducted research on agricultural policy in Tanzania and worked as a trainee at the Delegation of the European Union to Indonesia, Brunei, and ASEAN. He subsequently returned to Beijing to pursue an internship at the economic section of the Dutch Embassy to China, where he conducted research on China’s rising debt. In London, he works part-time for a Member of the House of Commons. He is also an active member of the Dutch Labour Party. Montijn is particularly interested in the effects of international economic dynamics on China’s development and plans to study this subject further at the Yenching Academy. His other interests include Chinese cinema, literature, writing, skiing, motorcycles, and traveling.

Maria Agnieszka Jarosz, born and raised in Poland, studied at Bart?omiej Nowodworski High School nr 1 in Krakow in the years 2011-2014, where she majored in Polish, History, Latin and Ancient Greek. In 2014 she won a laureate title at XXXII Polish Latin Language and Ancient Culture Contest. She is to graduate from Jagiellonian University in Krakow in July 2017, majoring in Sinology, with her undergraduate dissertation focusing on Zhao Shuli, a rural Chinese fiction writer. Maria was granted the Jagiellonian University President’s Scholarship for Best Students in 2015. Since 2015 she has held the position of vice-president of the Jagiellonian University Sinology Students Research Circle, where she organized a number of academic and social events. During her studies at Jagiellonian University she was able to pass HSK 4 in 2016. Maria is most interested in the twentieth century Chinese literature, especially the literature after The Yan’an Forum on Literature and Art, so at the Yenching Academy she intends to study Literature and Culture. In the future she hopes to focus on the specifics of literary translation, due to her love of both the Polish and Chinese language, as well as literature itself.