Two Recent Hunter Grads Receive Prestigious International Schwarzman Prize

“Pursuing a year of studies in Beijing with such a diverse and talented group of students from around the world is a huge privilege,” said Labkovich. “I am most excited about the business aspect of the program, which will help me develop leadership skills to better address global health care challenges with emerging technologies. And as a future physician, learning Chinese and understanding the culture will help me better advocate for my Chinese-speaking patients, as well as supporting a number of my business goals.”

In 2017, Hunter College opened the Ruth and Harold Newman Office of Prestigious Scholarships and Fellowships with the support of a $1 million endowment, hiring Dr. Stephen Lassonde as its inaugural Director. It is modeled on similar programs at elite private universities, offering support and guidance—including interview training—to enable deserving Hunter students to succeed in the competitive application process for America’s most prestigious scholarships. Among the prestigious scholarships and fellowships awarded to Hunter students in recent years are the Luce, Fulbright, Marshall, Rhodes, Truman, Goldwater, Ford, Boren, and National Science Foundation, as well as the Schwarzman.

About Schwarzman Scholarship Recipients:

Hasani Arnold graduated cum laude from Hunter College in 2019, double majoring in English and Chinese. He studied in Taipei, Nanjing, and Shanghai as a member of Hunter’s Chinese Flagship Honors Program. While in Shanghai in 2018, he was an intern at the Shanghai Daily, contributing both articles and photography to the newspaper. At Hunter, Hasani was involved in the Undergraduate Student Government, serving on the Faculty Student Disciplinary Committee. Hasani is passionate about LGBT and racial equality. He previously served as a board member at ShanghaiPRIDE, where he organized pride marches. He has researched and published articles about LGBT and human rights issues in China and currently works in immigration law as a Chinese interpreter at Hemrick PLLC. Hasani also owns a photography company and enjoys classical music and coin collecting. He is fluent in Mandarin and studied Korean and Russian to the intermediate level at Hunter. Hasani was born in Brooklyn and completed high school in Flushing, Queens, at the East-West School of International Study. After completing his year in Beijing at Tsinghua University’s Schwarzman College, Hasani hopes to attend law school to study public policy.

Margarita Labkovich graduated summa cum laude from Hunter College in 2017 and is a current medical student at the Icahn School of Medicine. At Hunter, she was awarded the prestigious Jonas E. Salk Award, a CUNY scholarship presented to outstanding undergraduate students attending medical schools or graduate programs in biomedical sciences following graduation. Margo is interested in innovating affordable technological solutions to improve health care globally. She is a co-founder of Retina Technologies Inc., a company created to adapt virtual reality headsets to diagnose eye disease in remote parts of the world. Margo and her co-founders have raised more than $250,000 from the NIH, NYC Angels, Air Force Innovation (AFWERX), the Harvard Business School Angels, and the NYC Media Labs. She is the owner of two patents and first author on two publications. Margo was a senior fellow at Humanity in Action, during which she organized a health education project in her country of birth, Belarus. Her interest in global health care was inspired by her experiences at Peer Health Exchange, Small World Initiative, and Project Healthcare. Margo graduated from the Susan E. Wagner High School on Staten Island. She speaks Russian, Belarusian, Spanish, and English. She will spend a year as a Schwarzman Scholar at Beijing’s Tsinghua University before returning to New York to finish her medical school training.

About the Schwarzman Scholarship:

Only four years old, the Schwarzman Scholars Program has quickly become one of the world’s leading programs for graduate study abroad. With full funding for coursework, research, internships, living expenses, and intensive travel, Schwarzman Scholars earn a master’s degree at Tsinghua University, one of China’s elite academic institutions. As each student pursues a concentration in either public policy, economics and business, or international studies, all collectively explore the economic, political, and cultural factors behind China’s emergence as a global power. Most important, as part of an international community of accomplished leaders and thinkers, they learn from one another and build valuable networks.