A Bengali American former Undergraduate Student Government president is Hunter’s latest Schwarzman Scholar.
Ariana Ahmed ’23, a political-science major and public-policy and Asian American studies minor, will be spending next year abroad on the highly competitive scholarship, a fully funded master’s program at Tsinghua University in Beijing. Schwarzman, in its 10th year, admitted only 150 scholars of more than 5,000 applicants.
Ahmed’s interest in China began in childhood when, thanks to China’s help of other countries’ agriculture, her uncle’s farms in rural Bangladesh were among the first in the country to produce blueberries. The early experience showed her how global influences could shape industries and lives.
“My life has been continuously molded by cross-border exchanges,” she wrote in her Schwarzman application.
Ahmed, who now works at McKinsey.org supporting McKinsey & Company’s nonprofit initiatives, had an illustrious career at Hunter. A Thomas Hunter Scholar, APIA Scholar, Mellon Humanities Fellow, and Jewish Foundation for the Education of Women Eleanor Roosevelt Scholar, she served as the president of the Mock Trial Society. She was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, the national honors society.
Even as a student, Ahmed involved herself in city, state, and national policy issues.
As a junior USG senator, she strategized about how to keep Hunter’s many low-income, first-generation students fed after the pandemic, when the campus cafeteria remained closed and many affordable neighborhood dining options had shuttered for lack of business. The initiative emerged as a USG partnership with local businesses to provide low-cost or free food, bolstering students’ morale and the businesses’ viability.
As a Mellon Humanities Fellow, she published research connecting historical anti-immigration laws to the legal codification of discrimination against LGBTQ+ individuals in the United States. As an intern to then-Councilmember Vanessa Gibson, she provided research that helped end an anti-loitering law that discriminated against transwomen, commonly called the Walking While Trans law.
She earned an Albert Shanker Scholarship for Public Service and an Edward T. Rogowsky Women’s Public Service Scholarship — working with the City Council and State Assembly to address CUNY issues. She also established an internship pipeline between Hunter College and the League of Women Voters NYC, connecting students with advocacy opportunities. As a Ford Foundation intern, she worked on post-hurricane recovery efforts in Puerto Rico.
Now Ahmed wants to strengthen economic ties between the United States and China.
“My South Asian heritage and American upbringing have taught me the value of bridging worlds — culturally, socially, and economically. From rural Bangladesh to urban America, I’ve seen how global connections can transform lives, fostering my desire to encourage further collaboration between the United States and China.”
Hunter’s Office of Prestigious Scholarships and Fellowships has a stellar record of accomplishment in preparing students for competitive scholarships and fellowships. In recent years, the college has produced two Rhodes, three Marshall, seven Schwarzman, five Luce, eight Goldwater, and 39 Fulbright Scholars among many other prestigious awardees.
