Congratulations to Rebecca Singer, a senior in the Department of Music, who is one of two current Princeton University students to have just been named a Schwarzman Scholar. The Schwarzman Scholarship covers the cost of graduate study and living toward a one-year master’s program at Tsinghua University in Beijing.
Excerpts from the announcement on Princeton University’s homepage:
“For its third class, 142 scholars were selected from around the world from more than 4,000 applicants. The scholars will study economics and business, international studies, and public policy. Courses will be taught in English by professors from Tsinghua, as well as visiting scholars, beginning in August. The program was founded by Blackstone investment firm co-founder Stephen Schwarzman.
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Rebecca Singer, a senior concentrator in music from Toronto, plans to develop her leadership skills and her understanding of Asia’s role in the rise of impact investing.
“This is a special individual — fiercely intellectual, exceptionally kind-hearted and astonishingly diligent,” said Simon Morrison, professor of music. “Rebecca will give much to the world, and the world, frankly, needs more like her. She exemplifies the highest academic, creative, humanitarian and global ideals of the University.”
A member of the Princeton Roaring 20, a student-led a cappella group, as well as the Princeton University Glee Club and Chamber Choir, Singer also rowed with the women’s lightweight rowing team during her first two years at the University. Following her freshman year, she volunteered at Grand Challenges Canada, a funding agency that supports global health innovation, where she researched and evaluated menstrual hygiene innovations and recommended the top concepts for investment to support economic opportunity for women in the developing world.
The following summer, she interned at Villgro Innovations Foundation in Bangalore, India, an incubator for early-stage social enterprises. The summer after her third year, she joined the New York office of Temasek Holdings, a Singapore-based investment firm, to learn finance skills she could use in the future to evaluate social innovation investments.
‘Now that I have begun to develop experiences and skills that enable me to contribute to social finance, I need to hone my leadership skills and deepen my Asian perspective,’ she wrote. ‘The Schwarzman Scholars curriculum, outstanding peer group and expert teachers offer a valuable opportunity to do so.'”