Williams Senior Named Schwarzman Scholar

Print Story | Email Story

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Williams College senior Teddy Cohan has been named a Schwarzman Scholar and member of the inaugural cohort of the new scholarship program. The program was started by Stephen A. Schwarzman, co-founder of the Blackstone Group.

The scholarship will fund a one-year master’s degree program at Tsinghua University in Beijing. Cohan was among the more than 3,000 applicants from 135 countries to apply for the first class. He is among the 100 students from around the world who will make up the first cohort of the Schwarzman program.

Cohan is pursuing a political science major at Williams. Hoping to run for elective office in the future, he says he is interested in the Schwarzman Scholars program because “looking ahead to the 21st century, it is imperative that anyone in politics or business have a deeper understanding of China.”

Cohan plans to use his Schwarzman Scholarship to study public policy in China to develop a more informed view of the country.

“I’m most excited about the cohort,” Cohan said. “We come from a wide variety of places, and I’m looking forward to the interaction between my fellow students and the professors and lecturers.” He says he also plans to use the opportunity to travel in China and throughout Asia to learn more about different cultures.



The Schwarzman Scholars will live and study together on the campus of Schwarzman College, a new residential and academic facility built for the program. Scholars can pursue degrees in public policy, economics and business, or international studies.

Cohan expressed gratitude for the team that helped him through the process of applying and interviewing for the program, especially his parents, William Cohan and Deb Futter of New York and his younger brother Quentin, who is a junior at Williams.

“This isn’t just about me,” he said. “My parents, friends, faculty, and the fellowship office … so many people helped me along the way.”

While at Williams, Cohan co-founded Kinetic, an action-oriented think tank focused on large-scale issues such as food insecurity, teacher recruitment, and sustainable energy. He also served as treasurer of College Council. He spent his junior year in London, where he studied British politics, the European Union, international security, and political philosophy.

 


Tags: Williams College,   

If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

Williamstown Select Board Awards ARPA Funds to Remedy Hall

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Select Board on Monday allocated $20,000 in COVID-19-era relief funds to help a non-profit born of the pandemic era that seeks to provide relief to residents in need.
 
On a unanimous vote, the board voted to grant the American Rescue Plan Act money to support Remedy Hall, a resource center that provides "basic life necessities" and emotional support to "individuals and families experiencing great hardship."
 
The board of the non-profit approached the Select Board with a request for $12,000 in ARPA Funds to help cover some of the relief agency's startup costs, including the purchase of a vehicle to pick up donations and deliver items to clients, storage rental space and insurance.
 
The board estimates that the cost of operating Remedy Hall in its second year — including some one-time expenses — at just north of $31,500. But as board members explained on Monday night, some sources of funding are not available to Remedy Hall now but will be in the future.
 
"With the [Williamstown] Community Chest, you have to be in existence four or five years before you can qualify for funding," Carolyn Greene told the Select Board. "The same goes for state agencies that would typically be the ones to fund social service agencies.
 
"ARPA made sense because [Remedy Hall] is very much post-COVID in terms of the needs of the town becoming more evident."
 
In a seven-page letter to the town requesting the funds, the Remedy Hall board wrote that, "need is ubiquitous and we are unveiling that truth daily."
 
View Full Story

More Williamstown Stories