Piero Guerra is U-M’s latest Yenching Scholar! The Yenching Academy is a college integrated within Peking University in Beijing. It offers a 2-year Masters program in China Studies. Piero will join the 9th cohort, a group consisting of 116 Scholars. The program prepares students with the knowledge of China that they need to fulfill their potential as global citizens and leaders.
Piero majored in International Studies with a minor in Asian Studies. During his time at U-M, Piero was a research fellow at the Nam Center for Korean Studies and an alum of the Program in International and Comparative Studies. Piero applied for the Politics & International Relations track to research relations between China and Latin America. He intends to focus on BRICS and individual cases of Chinese diplomacy in countries like Argentina, Mexico, and Nicaragua. He hopes to be able to intern at the Peruvian Embassy in Beijing during his time with the Yenching Program.
When asked what he took away from the application process, Piero noted, “The application process was brutal to be completely honest. Despite the struggle, I can’t put into words how grateful I am for my nomination into the program. If it wasn’t for the circle of support I had around me at the time to push me through the application process, I don’t know what would’ve been the outcome.”
Piero encourages anyone interested in applying to ignore the acceptance rate and just apply, “I had no idea where I would be a year from now if you asked me in January. Now I can confidently say I'll be continuing my studies in China.”
