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Program Associate, Pivotal Ventures

Jessica Yan doesn’t aspire to be the smartest person in the room—which is why she recently surrounded herself with 151 of some of the smartest people in the world, who were chosen for the prestigious program. Through this program at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, she completed a master’s in Global Affairs. 

The program is committed to preparing the next generation of global leaders. Yan lived and worked with other scholars who shared a similar passion for collaborating and solving problems across borders. She described it as a transformative experience—they ate meals together, cried together and traveled together. 

“There really isn’t one mold for Schwarzman Scholars—we come from all around the world and from all different kinds of fields,” Yan said. “But what is common among us is our zeal for the mission that we're on and our desire to be a part of a global community.”

Yan has traveled across the world and done amazing things with her career in the past few years—which she says is partly because of a ���񱦵� scholarship she received her junior year. The Tang Family Foundation Scholarship allowed Yan to travel to China for four weeks and helped inspire an interest in international issues. 

“This is one of the reasons that sparked my interest and going abroad to do Schwarzman Scholars—it also really inspired my interest in international issues and how those intersect with the kinds of domestic issues that I’ve already been working on as related to gender and race,” she said.

“Women are so incredible—how much better could the world be if women and women of color could actually reach their full potential?”

Jessica Yan (InfoAn‘19)

Despite her aversion to being singled out, Yan graduated from the program first in her class. Now, she wants to use that momentum and what she’s learned to make a greater impact in gender and racial justice work. 

“The question is, how can I carry that work onwards from what I learned, and I think it starts with the kind of social impact work that I'm doing now and ultimately being able to give those opportunities to other people as well,” she said.

A Calling to Justice

She knew she wanted to pursue a career in social justice since she was young. As an Asian-American in a lower-income family, her personal experiences with oppression shed light on inequalities and inspired her to help be a part of the change. 

Upon graduating from Leeds in 2019 with an emphasis in Information Analytics and Leadership, Yan got a job at Redstone Strategy Group as a philanthropic strategy consultant for large foundations, where she worked for gender and racial justice. She now works for Pivotal Ventures, a company founded by Melinda French Gates on a mission to bring more opportunity and equality to people in the U.S.

Her journey into these positions hasn’t been easy—there have always been challenges that come with being the “first and only” in many spaces, where feelings of intimidation made her question if she actually belonged at the companies she was with. Over the years, she’s learned the value her life experiences can add to the equity-focused work she’s pursuing.

“The reason I do this work is because I want to rewrite a previous narrative and show that strong women are right,” she said. “Women are so incredible—how much better could the world be if women and women of color could actually reach their full potential?”

“As I continue to progress in my career and take the baton from many leaders who are ahead of me, I only hope that future generations continue to advance this work as well,” she said.

As for more personal goals, Yan wants to be a role model for her younger self.

“When I was younger, I never knew of many women and Asian women that were leaders,” she said. “In the future, I hope I can be somebody who embodies confidence. Someone with integrity who makes decisions that make the world a better place.”